Remanufactured Products Research Articles

Review on remanufacturability evaluation of retired products

The uncertainty of recycling waste products affects the remanufacturing of products. Therefore, whether waste products can be remanufactured has become a key issue. Remanufacturability evaluation is an important part of the remanufacturing process of waste products, which directly determines the service safety and reliability of remanufactured products. Based on the research and review of a large number of literatures, this paper studies the current research hotspots and main research achievements of remanufacturing evaluation, and summarizes the existing achievements from the aspects of evaluation objects, evaluation directions and evaluation methods. Through research, it is found that most of the remanufacturability currently selects economic, technical, environmental and other evaluation grades, constructs corresponding evaluation index system, assigns weight to each index, and finally obtains evaluation conclusions through hierarchical analysis and entropy method.

Is it wise to compete or to collaborate? Remanufacturing business models under collective extended producer responsibility legislation

Collective extended producer responsibility (CPR) legislation aims to accomplish manufacturers’ extended producer responsibility (EPR) through a common channel of product recovery activities. This work intends to study the impact of the CPR legislation system on competitive and collaborative business models of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and independent remanufacturers (IRs). Therein, we developed a two-period competitive and collaborative model considering an oligopoly market scenario for analysing optimal remanufacturing and pricing strategies of OEMs and IRs. Government subsidies promote the remanufacturing activities, and their effects are examined on optimal remanufacturing and pricing decisions for competitive and collaborative models under CPR legislation. The result highlights that competition with IRs under the CPR legislation system within oligopoly market scenarios is profitable for OEMs. Furthermore, the result indicates that a competitive business model increases consumer surplus, increasing used products collection and remanufacturing. The findings benefit OEMs of identical products from implementing a profitable business model under CPR legislation to restrict the availability of low-quality remanufactured products of IRs, thereby protecting the brand image and controlling the cannibalization effect on new products selling.

Dynamic lot-sizing for remanufacturing systems with multi-level structured products and components commonality

This study addresses dynamic lot-sizing for remanufacturing systems in which end-of-use/life products are disassembled into their components on a disassembly workstation, each recoverable part is reprocessed on one of parallel reprocessing workstations and the reprocessed and newly purchased ones, if required, are reassembled into remanufactured products on a reassembly workstation. The problem is to determine disassembly, reprocessing, reassembly lot-sizes as well as the reprocessing workstation to reprocess each recoverable part while satisfying dynamic remanufactured product demands and workstation capacities in each period of a planning horizon. As an extension of the previous studies, multi-level structured products with components commonality are considered for the objective of minimizing the sum of setup, operation and inventory costs. A mixed integer programming model is developed, and due to the problem complexity, two types of heuristics are proposed that obtain an initial solution using a greedy-type heuristic and improve it by two types of bi-directional moves with various priority rules for forward and backward moves, i.e. individual-moves and cluster-moves. Computational results show that the cluster-move based approach that considers components commonality explicitly outperforms the individual-move based one significantly and gave fast near optimal solutions for small sized test instances. Finally, a sensitivity analysis on different multi-level product structures were done and the results are reported.

Is carbon asset pledge financing contributing to the operation of emission-dependent engineering machinery remanufacturing with emission abatement?

As a new financing strategy in the carbon trade market, carbon asset pledge financing (CAPF) provides a new financing channel for capital-constraint firms. For the carbon emission-dependent engineering machinery remanufacturer, how to formulate an optimal production plan under CAPF is still an unsolved problem. In this study, we suppose the emission-dependent remanufacturer adopts the pure carbon asset pledge financing (PCAPF) to solve capital shortage problem, and then study the optimal production and carbon emission reduction (CER) decisions of remanufacturers under PCAPF. The results show that: i) Only when the remanufacturer's initial capital is below a certain threshold can it benefit from PCAPF, and the threshold is different under all remanufacturing strategies. ii) Compared with no CER, the yield of new products increases when CER is implemented. However, whether remanufactured products increase depends on different remanufacturing strategies. iii) Under PCAPF, a high carbon asset pledge rate is not conducive to the production and profit of remanufacturers regardless of CER, and the increase of carbon price fluctuation coefficient negatively affects the production and environment without CER. However, the correlation among them is related to the threshold of the CER rate. iv) With/without CER, the yield of new/remanufactured products, environmental impact, and profit decrease sequentially with the choice of complete remanufacturing, partial remanufacturing, and non-remanufacturing under PCAPF. Meanwhile, although the increase of the CER rate increases environmental impact, whether it can improve the profit of remanufacturers is related to the threshold of unit emission of remanufactured products. Thus, the remanufacturer should balance the trade-off when implementing CER.

Digital advertising spillover, online-exclusive product launches, and manufacturer-remanufacturer competition

Manufacturers launch and advertise new generations of products through e-retailers. However, this advertising effort also benefits independent remanufacturers selling the previous generation of the same product online because of product recommendation algorithms and consumer category search. Through a stylized game-theoretic model, we investigate how independent, arm’s-length, and cooperative digital advertising strategies by a manufacturer and e-retailer unintentionally displace the sales of a new product to the benefit of an independently remanufactured alternative due to digital advertising spillover. We consider the manufacturer’s and remanufacturer’s relative production costs, the degree of substitutability between the two products, and the degree to which advertising spillover from the new product to the remanufactured product occurs. Further investigating the latter issue, we also consider that the remanufacturer’s advertising may spill over to the new product’s benefit, although at a comparatively weak level. Our results explore the optimal digital advertising strategy and effort in different conditions. We give recommendations to the manufacturer to maximize profits, which sometimes, unintuitively, involves sacrificing sales quantity and wholesale price under a cooperative advertising strategy to reduce advertising expenditures that would otherwise significantly benefit the remanufacturer’s product. A numerical analysis shows our findings to be robust and in an extension we explore the scenario that the manufacturer possesses its own direct channel.

Pricing and Coordinating the Lease-Oriented Closed-Loop Supply Chain for Construction Machinery in the Era of Carbon Tax

Promoting sustainable production and consumption practices in the construction machinery industry is crucial for achieving energy savings and reducing carbon emissions. However, there is a lack of targeted studies addressing the challenge of scaling up leasing and recycling while maximizing economic benefits for enterprises. To fill this gap, this paper presents a lease-oriented closed-loop supply chain model that incorporates a carbon tax policy to investigate the impact of the carbon tax rate and consumer preferences for remanufactured products on the supply chain and introduces a leasing compensation–cost apportioning combined contract to achieve supply chain coordination in the construction machinery sector. The model considers differential selling and leasing prices for new and remanufactured products, as well as the recovery rate, under both centralized and decentralized decision-making approaches. The study explores the interrelationships between various parameters through sensitivity analysis and numerical simulation. The results demonstrate that within a certain range of the cost apportioning proportional coefficient and leasing compensation proportional coefficient, the combined contract can lead the supply chain to achieve Pareto optimality. As the carbon tax rate increases, it was observed that the profits for all parties in the supply chain tend to decrease. However, due to the increased demand for remanufactured products, the product recovery rate improves, resulting in a reduction in total carbon emissions in the closed-loop supply chain of construction machinery. Moreover, the profits of all parties and the total supply chain profits initially decrease and then increase with an increasing preference coefficient for remanufactured products among consumers. By leveraging these factors and adopting effective strategies, such as enhancing consumer recognition of remanufactured products and optimizing pricing and cost allocation, it is indeed possible for the profits of all parties and the total profits in the supply chain to surpass the initial values, even in the face of increasing carbon tax rates. This demonstrates the potential for aligning sustainability objectives with economic benefits in the construction machinery industry.

A remanufacturing supply chain network with differentiated new and remanufactured products considering consumer preference, production capacity constraint and government regulation.

Remanufacturing is a sustainable product reutilization strategy to realize responsible consumption and production. However, remanufacturing practice can be subject to deficient consumer perception, production capacity constraint, uncertain demand and government intervention. This paper considers outsourced remanufacturing mode to establish and investigate a remanufacturing supply chain (RSC) network consisting of multiple manufacturers, retailers and remanufacturers. Optimality conditions with RSC network members are derived utilizing variation inequality. Numerical examples based on data accumulated from a remanufacturing enterprise and questionnaire survey on consumer perception for remanufactured products, are presented to put the proposed model into practice. Influences of product heterogeneity (new and remanufactured products), consumer preference, production capacity constraint, product price competitiveness, market demand fluctuation, and government financial measures on RSC network production and pricing strategies are investigated through numerical analyses. Analytical results indicate that pricing for the remanufactured product would be equivalent to that of the new product when consumers value the remanufactured product at a relatively high level, however an excessive penchant for the remanufactured product is less profitable especially from the perspective of the remanufacturer. In general, an upper-middle level of consumer preference for the remanufactured product is the most favourable scenario. When remanufacturing industry is just emerging, a high tax will be imposed on the manufacturer to accumulate remanufacturing subsidy for the government to achieve its balanced budget. As the remanufacturing industry develops and consumer environmental awareness enhances, it is especially essential for the government to establish a levy-subsidy mechanism to maintain sustainable progress of the industry. Combining main conclusions with the background of Chinese remanufacturing industry, managerial implications are provided from respective perspectives of enterprises' remanufacturing operation, government financial regulation, and consumer awareness enhancement. The analyses and results are especially relevant as a reference for remanufacturing decision-makings as well as government financial regulations, thus enhancing production sustainability as well as environmental benefits.

Collection cooperation breakdown and repair in a closed-loop supply chain during supply disruption and price shock

This paper studies a collection channel selection issue in a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) consisting of a manufacturer, an e-commerce platform and a third-party collector. Three collection modes are available to the manufacturer who lacks collection capability, that is, platform collection (mode P), collector collection (mode C) and dual-channel collection (mode D). After collection, the manufacturer remanufactures and sells remanufactured products through the platform. We formulate a two-echelon Stackelberg game in which the manufacturer is the leader, the platform and collector are both the followers. We analytically drive the optimal collection price of manufacturer and the optimal collection prices of the platform and collector. Then, we characterize the equilibrium evolution of channel selection under supply disruption and remanufactured product price shock. Notably, during the high price stage, the manufacturer may terminate cooperation with the collector if the manufacturer’s disassembling cost is low. Therefore, we propose two re-entry strategies to assist the collector to rejoin the CLSC, namely, side payment and vertical shareholding. Our results show that, although the two re-entry strategies can both enable the collector return to CLSC, the vertical shareholding is superior to the side payment when the competition intensity is weak enough.

Sustainable Green Economy for a Supply Chain with Remanufacturing by Both the Supplier and Manufacturer in a Varying Market

Background: In a typical multiechelon supply chain, the supplier makes semifinished items, from which the manufacturer produces finished products to eventually get sold at retailers. However, the majority of existing supply chain models consider the remanufacturing of defective products by solely one organization, despite the fact that both the supplier and manufacturer can produce defective products. This study considers the remanufacturing of defective products with fresh materials and additional expenses by both the supplier and manufacturer. Contrary to well-established articles that hold major partners to be accountable for reducing carbon emissions under a carbon cap-and-trade policy, the proposed model presumes an initial green technological investment by each chain partner. Methods: This study represents a varying market with fuzzy cost components that are then defuzzified with λ-integral method. This study determines the critical values of three discrete and four other continuous decision variables that globally maximize the profitability of the proposed model. Results: Slower production with a longer cycle boosts profitability in a developing market. To increase profit, a case study on the oil and natural gas business suggested to reduce the production of defective items and cutting emission through green investments. Conclusions: Managers can sustainably boost profit via careful production, modern machinery, and slightly longer cycles.

Government interventions in closed-loop supply chains with modularity design

With the increasing importance of environmental issues, governments have implemented regulations to monitor companies’ recycling of end-of-life products. This study focuses on a closed-loop supply chain of manufacturers investing in modular design. The manufacturer produces new and remanufactured products that have a modular structure and outsources collection activities to a third-party collector. To encourage recycling, different government regulations are introduced under a financial responsibility-sharing mechanism. Our study examines the interaction of governments, manufacturers, and collectors in the Stackelberg game. The impact of changes in the manufacturing and remanufacturing costs of modularity, as well as subsidy and penalty policies on equilibrium outcomes is then investigated. Additionally, different regulations are compared from economic, environmental, and social perspectives. Theoretical and numerical analyses reveal the following important conclusions. Firstly, changes in the manufacturing and remanufacturing costs of modularity have a positive impact on the modularity decision, with the former having a greater effect than the latter. Increased modularity affects product selling, transfer, and acquisition prices accordingly. Secondly, the sharing of government subsidies has no effect on equilibrium outcomes, except for the transfer-price decision. In contrast, the allocation of financial responsibility is a key factor in the performance of the penalty policy. Thirdly, the hazardous cost per unit of unrecovered product is an important factor in regulators’ optimal decisions. Penalty policies perform better in improving social welfare by reducing environmental strain when products heavily pollute the environment; otherwise, subsidy policies that effectively increase economic benefit are superior.

How to attract newness-conscious consumers to a circular electric vehicle economy

Despite improved energy efficiency and reduced tailpipe air pollutants, electric vehicles (EVs) often encounter skepticism about whether EVs are a sustainable choice because of their waste management issues. The increased adoption of EVs worldwide will keep pushing the industry to adopt circular economy (CE) strategies such as remanufacturing. The study clarifies our understanding of the newness-conscious consumer (NCC) behavior in purchasing remanufactured EV parts. The NCC, which values newness and regards it as a proxy for product quality, is unlikely to be attracted to remanufactured products (RMPs) and constitutes a potentially unpredictable market segment for circular economy practitioners. We examine whether and how improving consumer awareness via green information provision can be pivotal in NCCs' purchasing behavior regarding RMPs in the EV industry. More specifically, we present a model to explain the NCC's purchase intention for remanufactured EV parts with various factors (green certification, perceived trust, perceived value, perceived knowledge of environmental benefits associated with remanufactured EV parts, and price consciousness) that may relate to providing green information. Based on an online survey of 600 participants characterized as NCCs living in Japan, the results of structural equation modeling showed that green certification influenced the NCCs' perception of trust and value regarding RMPs, which could, in turn, explain their purchase intention for remanufactured EV parts. NCCs' price consciousness appears to affect their perception of green certification. Mediation analysis results suggest that NCCs' perceptions of trust, value, and green certification mediate the relationship between their perception of remanufactured EV-related environmental benefits and purchase intention. In addition, we identify whether NCCs are reluctant to buy RMPs due to a lack of reliable green information that shows the value and functionality of remanufacturing. We showed half of the NCC respondents an informational video on RMPs and compared their responses to the remaining half of the group who did not watch it. Independent samples t-test results of the two groups (those with and without information) represented that providing NCCs with information on the functionality of RMPs might promote green purchasing behavior among NCCs. The findings of this study will provide CE practitioners, especially in the EVs industry, with a rich portfolio to cover previously unexplored market segments for remanufacturing.

Recycling/Production and Incentive-Penalty Strategies in Closed-Loop Supply Chains under Remanufacturing Policies

In light of resource scarcity and environmental challenges, remanufacturing bolsters resource efficiency and fosters a circular economy, with policy support being pivotal for its development. Although previous studies have predominantly concentrated on the economic benefits of remanufacturing, comparatively less emphasis has been placed on its carbon emissions and the differentiated incentive-penalty policies for various recycled products. Our objective is to evaluate the impact of remanufacturing policies, such as carbon taxes and incentive-penalty schemes, on multi-period hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing closed-loop systems, considering different carbon emissions for new and remanufactured products. We investigate optimal recycling and production strategies for enterprises under two distinct quality distributions (exponential and normal) and analyze the government’s incentive and penalty amounts for recycled products at various quality levels. In order to ensure the robustness of the variable quality distribution, we employ a genetic algorithm and a particle swarm optimization algorithm for comparative verification and problem solving. The study’s findings reveal that: (1) irrespective of the quality distribution, enterprises consistently exhibit a preference for recycling products of the same quality level, and the range of quality for which the government offers incentives or imposes penalties remains fundamentally constant; (2) subsidies may be granted for recycled products with a quality level ranging from 0.2 to 0.4, whereas recycled products with a quality level exceeding 0.4 are subject to penalties.

A bilevel optimisation model for the joint configuration of new and remanufactured products considering specification upgrading of used products

A bilevel optimisation model for the joint configuration of new and remanufactured products considering specification upgrading of used products

Reliability-informed end-of-use decision making for product sustainability using two-stage stochastic optimization

The concept of circular economy has been diffused in recent decades to promote economic growth that does not add to the burden on natural resource extraction. Re-X options (e.g., reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, recycle) have been gradually adopted in the product development process and optimized to reduce or eliminate waste and pollution. Although manufacturing incorporating Re-X options can be more environmentally friendly, it involves more sources of uncertainty than traditional manufacturing since the end-of-use products can be collected from multiple origins with various quantities and qualities, and the market demand for both new and remanufactured products cannot be forecasted perfectly. Thus, there is a need to optimize the Re-X policy to alleviate the negative impacts of the higher uncertainty. One option is using the reliability information of new products to estimate the end-of-use conditions and applying multi-stage stochastic optimization to capture multiple demand scenarios. This paper develops a two-stage stochastic optimization model to optimize the quality thresholds for reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing options. Our objective is to minimize the total cost, energy consumption, and environmental impact of producing and providing warranty service for a product family. The model employs reliability information of product components to estimate the warranty service cost and the end-of-use conditions of the returned resources. A case study on a general product family is implemented to illustrate the efficacy of the optimization model. Results show that the two-stage optimization can achieve cost and environmental impact reduction for a hybrid manufacturing and remanufacturing process.

Show, don't tell: Education and physical exposure effects in remanufactured product markets

AbstractWe study the effectiveness of two theoretically and practically relevant interventions designed to increase familiarity with and thereby stimulate the appeal of and willingness to pay (WTP) for remanufactured (refurbished) consumer products that are often found repulsive by consumers: (1) educating consumers about the remanufacturing process, (2) providing physical exposure to remanufactured products. We find that education does not cause an increase in the appeal of and WTP for remanufactured consumer products. Providing physical exposure to remanufactured products, relative to text and text‐plus picture or video modalities, significantly increases both the appeal and WTP as a result of increasing perceived quality and decreasing disgust. Sellers can benefit from marketing remanufactured consumer products through physical channels (i.e., brick‐and‐mortar, outlet, showroom stores) as opposed to solely through online channels, which is the common practice among many sellers.

A customized design method for upgrade remanufacturing of used products driven by individual demands and failure characteristics

Design for upgrade remanufacturing (DfURem) of used products is the generation of the optimal scheme in remanufacturing, with the purpose of improving function and performance to overcome functional obsolescence. However, the demands for upgraded remanufactured products are often characterized by individuation and diversification. Moreover, due to the wide variety of used parts, failure forms and failure degree, the failure characteristic presents DfURem with a unique challenge. As a result the generation of DfURem schemes for used products is currently prohibitively individual and inefficient. To address this, this paper develops a customized method to implement DfURem task based on individual demands and failure characteristics of used products. Firstly, the Quality Function Deployment for Life (QFDL) model is constructed to transform the multi-attribute life and performance demands into engineering characteristics through data analysis theory, aiming to satisfy customer demands more accurately. Secondly, a hybrid approach integrating Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) and Constraint-Function-Behavior-Structure-Upgradation (CFBSU) is proposed to generate the DfURem scheme. Engineering characteristics and failure characteristics are used to drive the CBR-CFBSU hybrid approach together, and compatibility constraints are identified and addressed. The DfURem scheme is retrieved in CBR by the nearest neighbor algorithm to calculate similarity, and the knowledge representation model of CFBSU model is constructed complementary to CBR, which transforms the engineering characteristics into implementable DfURem schemes by layer mapping. Finally, a case study of a used lathe part is illustrated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Remanufactured products: A systematic review from the consumer perspective.

Remanufactured products (RPs) have received more attention from consumers, academics, and practitioners in recent years. The current study presents a comprehensive systematic review of the literature on consumer behavior toward RPs while adopting the theory, context, characteristics, and methodology (TCCM) framework. We followed the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol. In total, retrieved from Web of Science, Scopus, and ScienceDirect, we reached and analyzed 53 articles that directly address the purchase behavior of RPs. Studies mostly considered electronic RPs and used the theory of planned behavior to explain consumers' intention to purchase RPs. Moreover, the reviewed studies are primarily quantitative. Our review categorized the characteristics of the articles, such as consumer-related constructs, marketing mix-related constructs, and external environment-related constructs. Finally, we offer directions for future research based on the components of the TCCM framework to contribute to the development of the field.

Remanufacturing vs. greening: Competitiveness and harmony of sustainable strategies of supply chain under uncertain yield

This paper explores the interaction between a risk-neutral supplier and a risk-averse manufacturer in a supply chain considering the remanufacturing of green defective products under scarce yield information. The minimax-regret criterion is adopted by the manufacturer in response to the risk of scarce the information. In order to overcome the conservatism of minimax-regret criterion, we improve the model by integrating ideal profit and minimax regret. Based on the Stackelberg game framework, it is revealed that there is competitiveness between the sustainable strategies. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the evolutionary equilibrium between the competitive strategies based on the evolutionary game theory. Different from the conclusions in existing research that some sustainable strategies can cause free-riding behavior, this paper finds that the supplier’s greening raw materials may lead to a negative effect on the manufacturer by increasing her minimax regret, while the manufacturer’s remanufacturing defective products may reduce the supplier’s profit. The evolutionary stable strategy of the improved model indicates that the supplier will always prefer to the greening strategy. However, it is interesting to find that higher remanufacturing production cost, lower actual yield, and production cost can motivate the manufacturer to implement the remanufacturing strategy. The numerical results illustrate the impact of some factors, such as greening difficulty, consumer preference, as well as the upper and lower bounds of yield on the evolution speed and direction. Moreover, the improved model has a higher possibility of achieving better performance. The results can promote the harmonious transformation of supply chain to sustainable development.

Impact of Government Environmental Regulations on Remanufacturing Supply Chain with Multi-Subject Responsibility for Recycling and Disposal

With the emergence of a large number of waste electronic products and the enhancement of social awareness of environmental protection, the recycling of waste electronic products has become one of the pressing issues of social concern. Government environmental regulation is an important policy to promote the development of the remanufacturing industry. In this paper, we study the government levies recycling and disposal fees on original products for environmental governance and establish two game models based on the perspective of maximizing social welfare with no government regulation and a tripartite liability system. The optimal decisions on wholesale, retail prices and quantity of original and remanufactured products, as well as the recycling and disposal fee are analyzed under both models. Based on the numerical results, the impact of the main parameter (such as the responsibility sharing ratio) on the decisions and profits of the parties is discussed. The results show that (1) the wholesale and retail prices of remanufactured products are not affected by government regulation; (2) the tripartite liability system can increase the output of remanufactured products and reduce the output of original products while cutting the profits of remanufacturing supply chain members, and increasing social welfare; (3) government’s optimal recycling and disposal fee is not related to the sharing ratio. The study can provide practitioners with suggestions for ways to develop environmental regulation.

Pricing and Sales Effort Decisions in a Closed-Loop Supply Chain Considering the Network Externality of Remanufactured Product

Considering the network externality of remanufactured product, this paper develops the Stackelberg game models in a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) consisting of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and a retailer with dual sales channel under three scenarios, i.e., no sales effort (Model N), the retailer exerting sales effort (Model R) and the OEM exerting sales effort (Model M). The study investigates the pricing and sales effort decisions for CLSC members. The results show that: (1) Compared with no sales effort, the sales effort behavior can always improve the profits of the OEM and entire CLSC. The retailer’s profit can be improved in Model R, so OEM exerting sales effort could cause a loss for the retailer and the sales effort behavior can promote the sales of remanufactured products and further cannibalize the new product market. (2) Model M is more favorable to improve the profits of the OEM and entire CLSC, while the retailer prefers Model R. Model M is more beneficial for boosting the sales of remanufactured products. (3) As the network externality/consumer’s sensitivity of sales effort becomes more obvious, CLSC members exert more sales effort, and the OEM exerts more sales effort compared to the retailer. (4) Only when the retailer’s sales effort cost is much lower than the OEM sales effort cost is it that OEM could obtain more profit when the retailer exerts sales effort; then, the win-win situation between OEM and the retailer is achieved.