Closed-loop Manufacturing System Research Articles

Design of closed-loop manufacturing-remanufacturing system network considering uncertain defect and waste rate: Scenario-based chance-constrained programming

To facilitate sustainability by extending the life-cycle and residual value of production materials, a collaborate scheduling scheme for closed-loop manufacturing system with disturbance uncertainty is studied. Based on the features of the closed-loop manufacturing system under multi-product and multi-period scenarios, a mixed-integer linear optimization model is developed, where manufacturing and remanufacturing units are coordinated by recycling the production materials from work-in-process and final products. Based on this, a novel closed-loop manufacturing-remanufacturing scheduling framework is proposed. Additionally, in response to variations in product quality and processing capabilities, a scenario-based chance-constrained programming is introduced to address potential sources of uncertainty. Subsequently, a sequential optimization method is devised to reduce computational complexity. Finally, an industrial case from the electronic factory is investigated to demonstrate its applicability by implementing the proposed approach with comparison to several other strategies.

Kinematic Compensation Algorithm for Reducing Errors in a Closed-Loop Manufacturing System

Kinematic Compensation Algorithm for Reducing Errors in a Closed-Loop Manufacturing System

Appropriately limiting quantities of remanufacturing products considering virtual inventory for stabilization of production resources

As environmental problems become more apparent, manufacturers need to balance environmental considerations with economic activities. This is where closed-loop supply chains are gaining attention. However, in addition to demand fluctuations, which are a problem in conventional supply chains, a circular supply chain is unstable in terms of supply, where end-of-life products are collected and reused. This destabilizes not only excess inventory and shortages but also production resources, such as manpower, facilities, and raw materials. This study focuses on the stabilization of the manufacturing system in a closed-loop supply chain. To confirm the dynamic changes in the manufacturing system, we designed a simulation model of a closed-loop manufacturing system and conducted numerical experiments under several scenarios, taking the variation of manufacturing quantity per unit period as an evaluation measure of stability. After showing that unplanned remanufacturing destabilizes the recovery of reusable end-of-life products, we demonstrate that the manufacturing system can be stabilized by appropriately limiting the amount of remanufacturing. However, excessive limits reduce opportunities for remanufacturing end-of-life products and generate adverse economic and environmental impacts. To determine appropriate restrictions, it is necessary to consider the product currently in use by the customer as a virtual inventory and to consider factors such as the quality of the products in the virtual inventory. In the future, we plan to study a system that can dynamically manage remanufacturing quantities based on the status of virtual inventories.

Coordinated scheduling of production and logistics for large-scale closed-loop manufacturing using Benders decomposition optimization

This paper studies coordinated scheduling of production and logistics for a large-scale closed-loop manufacturing system by integrating its manufacturing and recycling process. In addition to the forward manufacturing process, different recycling units in reverse recycling process are also studied. A decentralized network is designed to formulate the coordinated scheduling problem as a mixed integer programming model with both binary and integer variables. As the problem for closed-loop manufacturing is large-scale and computational-consuming in nature, the model is divided into integer variable sub-models and complex binary variable sub-models for preprocessing and reprocessing respectively. An iterative solution approach by Benders decomposition is developed to accelerate the solving efficiency in large-scale case by updating custom constraints. A case study is conducted to investigate the managerial implications of the decentralized network for the closed-loop manufacturing system. Computational experiments demonstrate the validity and efficiency of the proposed iterative solution approach for the large-scale scenarios.

Changeable closed-loop manufacturing systems: challenges in product take-back and evaluation of reconfigurable solutions

ABSTRACT Due to continuous focus on sustainability and circular economy, product take-back programs are becoming increasingly relevant and attractive. Thus, closed-loop manufacturing systems have to be designed and developed for disassembly, reprocessing of materials, re-assembly, and remanufacturing in a cost-efficient way. Compared to traditional manufacturing, this involves a higher need for changeability due to higher uncertainty, e.g. in terms of timing and quantity that the system needs to handle, uncertainty in quality and materials of received items, and in particular significant variety in returned items, the system should be designed to process. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate how reconfigurability, as the enabler of changeability at manufacturing system level, can be utilised to aid challenges in closed-loop manufacturing systems for product take-back. Initially, insights from an industrial case are presented regarding challenges in establishing and operating closed-loop manufacturing systems for product take-back programs. Secondly, different closed-loop manufacturing concepts applying the principles of reconfigurability are proposed and evaluated in terms of cost and robustness towards the inherent uncertainties in supplied end-of-use items. The results show significant potential of utilising a modular and platform-based approach towards meeting supply uncertainties through reconfiguration, which allows for a more efficient setup for product take-back.

Study on a Decision Support Model in Closed-Loop Manufacturing System Considering Multi-Objective Optimization

Study on a Decision Support Model in Closed-Loop Manufacturing System Considering Multi-Objective Optimization

Study on a Decision Support Model for Implementing a Closed-Loop Manufacturing System Considering Operating Costs

Study on a Decision Support Model for Implementing a Closed-Loop Manufacturing System Considering Operating Costs

Throughput Sensitivity Analysis in Closed Loop Manufacturing Systems for Hairpin Stator Production

With the development of the electrical vehicle (EV) field, multiple closed loop manufacturing systems (CLMS) handling will have a predominant role in near future industry, since they are used to produce key elements of EVs. Nevertheless, literature for multiple CLMS is not wide and developed. This work is developed from an industrial case of multiple CLMS in EV industry. Through the system analysis, a phenomenon called near flatness (NF) arouse our interest. It identifies the capability of a CLMS to keep a nearly constant throughput when the number of items circulating in the CLMS varies. Further analysis about the relationship between NF and system parameters is carried out. Numerical results, obtained through discrete event simulation, show that NF phenomenon is related to the efficiency in isolation of the machines and the balancing in terms of system processing time. Finally, practical guidelines for multiple CLMS handling, related to NF, are provided.

Scale-up and Sustainability Evaluation of Biopolymer Production from Citrus Waste Offering Carbon Capture and Utilisation Pathway.

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr Miao Guo from Department of Chemical Engineering at the Imperial College London (UK). The cover picture shows modelling research on the co-polymerisation of waste-sourced limonene oxide with CO2 to produce poly(limonene carbonate), which offers a sustainable pathway to achieve carbon capture and utilisation. A computational approach to process design was integrated with sustainability evaluation to model this synthetic pathway and identify the environmental-damaging and performance-limiting steps for further improvement. Our research highlights the potential of closed-loop manufacturing systems with waste recovery, which is instrumental in building a sustainable circular economy. Read the full text of their Full Paper at 10.1002/open.201900015.

An Optimization Problem in a Closed-Loop Manufacturing System with Stochastic Variability

This paper develops a decision-making model in a Closed-Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) consisting of two-recyclers and one remanufacturer. The remanufacturer purchases the repaired parts from the recyclers and produces the products to sell them on the market. The sold products are collected and recovered by the recyclers at the end of product life cycle. Each recycler has the different lead time and costs, as well as supply risk. The market demand and parts supply from recyclers are assumed to be random. We model the CLSC as a Markov decision problem to obtain the optimal production and procurement policy. that minimizes the expected average cost period. We discuss the properties of the optimal policy and show the sensitivity analysis under various scenarios. Moreover, the computation results give us that the minimum expected average cost decreases as the reliability and/or the recovery rates of the CLSC increase. Finally, we provide the decision rules for selecting the recyclers.

An optimisation approach for finding an optimal pricing in a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system

Hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing in closed loop manufacturing system (CLMS) has gained considerable attention in industry over past few years due to environmental concern. Remanufacturing of used products basically includes activities like acquisition of used product, reverse logistics, cleaning, inspection, reassembly, disposal of unused material, and remarketing. Determination of selling prices of remanufactured product is also complex and an important decision making area as the profitability of remanufacturing business is significantly dependent on it. Under the above circumstances in this research paper, a profit-maximisation model is developed to optimise selling price of new products and used products using genetic algorithm. OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sells remanufactured products in place of brand new products as there is no quality difference between them and also sells refurbished products and spare parts into secondary market. In this paper a numerical example and sensitivity analysis has been performed.

An optimisation approach for finding an optimal pricing in a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system

Hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing in closed loop manufacturing system (CLMS) has gained considerable attention in industry over past few years due to environmental concern. Remanufacturing of used products basically includes activities like acquisition of used product, reverse logistics, cleaning, inspection, reassembly, disposal of unused material, and remarketing. Determination of selling prices of remanufactured product is also complex and an important decision making area as the profitability of remanufacturing business is significantly dependent on it. Under the above circumstances in this research paper, a profit-maximisation model is developed to optimise selling price of new products and used products using genetic algorithm. OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sells remanufactured products in place of brand new products as there is no quality difference between them and also sells refurbished products and spare parts into secondary market. In this paper a numerical example and sensitivity analysis has been performed.

Ecological Principles and Metrics for Improving Material Cycling Structures in Manufacturing Networks

A key element for achieving sustainable manufacturing systems is efficient and effective resource use. This potentially can be achieved by encouraging symbiotic thinking among multiple manufacturers and industrial actors and establish resource flow structures that are analogous to material flows in natural ecosystems. In this paper, ecological principles used by ecologists for understanding food web (FW) structures are discussed which can provide new insight for improving closed-loop manufacturing networks. Quantitative ecological metrics for measuring the performance of natural ecosystems are employed. Specifically, cyclicity, which is used by ecologists to measure the presence and strength of the internal cycling of materials and energy in a system, is discussed. To test applicability, groupings of symbiotic eco-industrial parks (EIP) were made in terms of the level of internal cycling in the network structure (high, medium, basic, and none) based on the metric cyclicity. None of the industrial systems analyzed matched the average values and amounts of cycling seen in biological ecosystems. Having detritus actors, i.e., active recyclers, is a key element for achieving more complex cycling behavior. Higher cyclicity values also correspond to higher amounts of indirect cycling and pathway proliferation rate, i.e., the rate that the number of paths increases as path length increases. In FWs, when significant cycling is present, indirect flows dominate direct flows. The application of these principles has the potential for novel insights in the context of closed-loop manufacturing systems and sustainable manufacturing.

Analysis of the Lead Time Distribution in Closed Loop Manufacturing Systems

In several manufacturing systems found in the automotive, food and semiconductor industries, product quality or value deterioration due to excessive residence time in the system are observed. This phenomenon generates defective or low value products, thus undermining the performance of these systems. In this paper, we develop an exact analytical method for calculating the lead time distribution of closed loop systems and present an heuristic to predict the peaks of this distribution. Numerical results show previously uninvestigated behavior of closed loop manufacturing systems under lead time constraints and provide insights on the design of these complex systems.

Structuring areas economic relations as precondition systematization economic legislation

Problem setting. Dynamics of structural changes in the real economy is a basic factor in the dynamics of structural change in the subject of economic law and primarily - law. Hence, the structural development of the Ukrainian economy, including its manufacturing sector requires a thorough analysis in the context of the structural balance of proportions and involvement of the legislative regulation of mechanisms for sustainable development, the opposition of destabilizing external negative influences, increased competitive industrial complex in the world market. Recent research and publications analysis. An important achievement in the analysis of the nature of economic relations, the need for legal support for the implementation of these relations and the role system, globalization and integration processes on sources of economic law did Russian scientists, namely V. Bezbakh, M. Kuznetsov, M. Masevich, V. Ulyanischev more. Regarding the analysis of research on the territory of Ukraine is involved in this issues outstanding scientists, business executives such as: V. Mamutov, O. Vinnyk, D. Zadyhaylo, G. Znamenskii. Also involved in the analysis of science P. Skrypnyck, V. Volodya and more. But these scientists have not paid sufficient attention is systemic view on forming nature of economic relations and developing strategies to ensure the formation of modern legal relations of the economic system according to the specific nature of the system is economic relations. Paper objective. The article is an analysis on the contents system elements of economic relations and legislative activity in each segment in the field of economic law and different approaches to regulation at both the national economy and in the globalization context. Paper main body. The scope of management, which are purely market mechanisms combined with the requirement of social direction of the economy requires structural analysis and installation of the latest legal regulation of economic relations that can ensure a harmonized development of the national economy and regulate private and public interests. Thus, the structuring of the national economy based on major theoretical and methodological principles of economics, namely the sectoral structure theory, initiated K. Clark [14], which interpreted the division into three sectors - primary (agriculture), secondary (industry), tertiary (Service Industries); and later in the dynamic evolutionary changes in the economy has five or more sectors. Indeed, the structure of the national economy, which reflects the macroeconomic proportions in economic development, and evolve dynamically modified. Second, Ukraine has made replacing one system to another, and from some in some structural subdivisions and destroyed at the national level closed-loop manufacturing system - development or mining, processing or manufacturing, to final product; and, consequently, traffic from one technological way to another, and with it the movement of national economic system to a postindustrial society. Consequently, there are a number of problems related to the structuring of the economy and legislative support to its legal function. Thus, the dynamic structural changes in the real economy is a basic factor in the dynamics of structural change in the subject of economic law and primarily – law. Hence, the current structural development of the Ukrainian economy, including its manufacturing sector requires a thorough analysis in the context of the structural balance of proportions and involvement of the legislative regulation of mechanisms for sustainable development, the opposition of destabilizing external negative influences, increased competitive industrial complex in the world market. Conclusions. Problems structuring of the economy, the formation of a market economy and the movement towards a post-industrial society in Ukraine should develop a strategy for the development, special prudent economic concept in law given theoretical and practical achievements that have passed the test of time, history and experience. Ignoring basic principles and laws of structuring national economy leads to deep structural deformities that hinder economic development and causing considerable social losses. In summary, it should be emphasized that the dynamics of structural changes in the real economy is a factor in structural changes in the subject of business law and legislation.

Optimal acquisition, inventory and production decisions for a closed-loop manufacturing system with legislation constraint

In order to improve the utilization efficiency of resources, more and more countries have required manufacturing firms to remanufacture or reuse used products through legislation. For many firms, the profit from reusing used products may be less than the profit from producing new products, so how to make decisions under such legislation constraint is a major concern by these firms. In this paper, we study the optimal acquisition, inventory and production decision problem for such firms under a two-period setting, where firms have two different production ways: (i) production with new raw materials, and (ii) production with used products. The return quantity of used products at the second period depends on the demand of the first period and the acquisition effort. The problem is formulated as a stochastic dynamic programming model. We give the optimal production rule and the optimal inventory decision at the second period, and prove the existence of an optimal policy with a simple structure at the first period. Moreover, based on our theoretical analysis, we calculate the optimal decisions under different parameter settings, and discuss how the firm does react when facing with specific market and production conditions.

Modeling and analysis of closed loop manufacturing systems using parameter coupling

Closed loop manufacturing systems (CLMSs) with recirculating material handling devices are extensively used in various industrial environments. The performance of such systems is impacted by many factors such as the total capacity of pallets, the actual number of pallets in the system, the machine reliability and processing time, the pallet index speed, and the positions of loading/unloading points. These factors make the accurate analysis and optimization of complex CLMSs very difficult and challenging. This paper presents a new parameter coupling technique to model and analyze a wide range of CLMSs. It is an enhancement based on the existing open production line analysis with unreliable assembly machines and finite buffers. Virtual assembly machines are introduced to represent the specific phenomena of CLMSs such as the recirculation of empty pallets and the sharing of conveyor space. Two types of parameter coupling patterns, the machine parameter coupling, and the buffer capacity coupling, are introduced to reflect the characteristics of the CLMSs. The parameter coupling technique is simple and effective for analyzing a broad range of CLMSs. Comparisons between this analytic method and simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed parameter coupling technique is fast, accurate and robust.

A STEP-NC Compatible on-Machine Measurement System with Automated Correlation of Inspection Data

On-machine measurement (OMM) is an important part of closed-loop manufacturing (CLM) system. How to achieve real-time measurement operation and measurement result integration claimed by CLM is a major issue that concerns software and hardware vendors. This paper proposed a STEP-NC compatible on-machine measurement system that was compatible with interoperable data model. In the beginning, information model of the system was proposed referring to current data model standards supporting closed-loop manufacturing. After that, a hierarchical process planning approach was present to plan the OMM process. Object-oriented macro programs were utilized to post process the planned inspection information and ensure the correct measuring result correlation. Besides, inspection items and measurement points were uniformly and uniquely identified to ensure the accurate and reliable associations of measurement results with the design model. At last, a STEP-NC compatible on-machine measurement prototype system was developed based on CATIA, and the validity and practicality of the proposed on-machine measurement system was demonstrated with an aeronautic test part.

Modelling and Design of Closed-Loop Manufacturing Systems

This paper introduces an analytical method for evaluating the performance of closed loop manufacturing systems with unreliable machines and finite buffers. The method involves transforming an arbitrary loop into one without thresholds and then evaluating the transformed loop using a new set of decomposition equations. It is more accurate than existing methods and is effective for a wider range of cases. The convergence reliability, and speed of the method are also discussed. In addition, observations are made on the behavior of closed loop production systems under various conditions. Finally, the method is used in a case study to design a flexible manufacturing system for production of aerospace parts.

Strategic decision making method for sharing resources among multiple manufacturing/remanufacturing systems

Purpose To reduce products' environmental impact over their entire life cycle, adequate reuse and recycling of products and their components are indispensable. In this context, it is important to establish efficient closed-loop manufacturing systems (CMS), where products are made from post-use as well as new materials. However, the establishment of economically and environmentally efficient CMS is difficult due to the uncertainty associated with the return flows of post-use products. Since product usage conditions and lifetimes differ from user to user, there are significant fluctuations in product flows' quantity and quality. This results in insufficient utilization of manufacturing/remanufacturing resources (e.g., labor and equipment) and high investment costs for CMSs, which hinder proper reuse and recycling of post-use products. The objective of this study is to propose a strategic decision-making method for sharing resources among multiple CMSs to reduce the cost of product reuse and recycling.