Product acquisition management: Current industry practice and a proposed framework

Remanufacturing requires that used products (cores) be obtained from the enduser at the end of their current life cycle so that the value-added may be recovered and the products returned to functional use again. The acquisition of cores to be remanufactured in such recoverable manufacturing systems is a complex set of activities that requires careful coordination to avoid the uncontrolled accumulation of core inventory, or unacceptable levels of customer service. The authors report on current industry practice via an extensive survey of North American remanufacturing firms. The authors propose a formal framework for Product Acquisition Management (PrAM) to coordinate, monitor, and provide an interface between reverse logistics and production planning and control activities. Finally, a series of managerial guidelines for the organization of PrAM activities is proposed. We conclude that managers should take actions that consistently reduce the variance inherent in a remanufacturing environment.     

The Development Situation,Future and Counter Measures of Remanufacturing Industry in China

Currently, resource supply and demand contradiction, and over-loaded environment capacity have become a bottleneck for sustainable economic development in China. Electro-mechanical products are approaching a peak of obsolescence, and massive abandoned electro-mechanical products are causing severe environmental pollution, huge waste of resources and potential safety hazard. Remanufacturing is repairing or modifying worn mechanical products using high-tech method, which buffers the contradiction between wasting and shortage of resources, and brings industry towards a comprehensive utilization of resource and environmental protection. As a new strategic industry, remanufacturing, which is highly coherent with the development strategy of the circular economy, is still in its infancy in China. This paper analyzes the developmental trends and problems of the remanufacturing industry in China, and proposes promoting measures based on the engineering practices of remanufacturing.     

Remanufacturing in Industry 4.0

Using the theory of human blood circulation system, the authors explore the importance of remanufacturing in Industry 4.0. In this paper, they draw analogies between smart factory and human heart, between smart products and blood, and, between product function and nutrition and oxygen in the blood. Remanufacturing is analogous to the ingestion of oxygen and nutrition in lesser circulation or systemic circulation. Remanufacturing well supports recycling production, which is significant in realizing intelligent industry. Furthermore, this paper discusses the development direction of remanufacturing engineering in Industry 4.0 ages.     

Hybrid (re)manufacturing: manufacturing and operational implications

Remanufacturing presents an option to recover value from used products. However, hybrid (re)manufacturing (i.e. simultaneous manufacturing and remanufacturing) is a challenge, owing to non-uniform availability and heterogeneous quality of returns. In this paper, we examine how heterogeneous quality and non-uniform quantity of returns influence the optimal production rates and inventory levels in a hybrid (re)manufacturing system that incurs costs to readjust manufacturing and remanufacturing capacities on a temporary basis. Specifically, we propose a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) based approach to obtain the optimal production plan for a specified planning horizon. We apply the proposed model to the (representative) operational data of an office equipment manufacturer to evaluate the impacts of quality of returns, quality-based segregation of returns, and capacity readjustment costs. The study provides insights into the effects of trade-offs among different operational costs in a hybrid (re)manufacturing system.     

Status and Prospect of Remanufacturing Technology for Tubing and Sucker Rods

As the main consumables, huge amount of tubing and sucker rods are abandoned annually. The current remediation technology could only enable part of abandoned tubing and sucker rod to be reused in a degraded way, leading to a big resource waste. The production, use and remediation methods of tubing and sucker rod are analyzed here. Remanufacturing technology of abandoned tubing based on self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) is proposed. Economic, environmental and social benefits of large scale application of this technology are evaluated. And then various factors that restrict the popularization of remanufacturing technology in the petroleum industry are studied and suggestions are given in the end. The results indicate that unlike conventional remediation methods, remanufacturing technology can extend the service life of abandoned tubing to reach or even exceed that of a new one. Meanwhile it can also reduce the cost effectively, and achieve significant economic and social benefits. We should expand remanufacturing technology areas in the petroleum industry and achieve stable, healthy development in the low oil price situation. The scientific standards for remanufactured products should be enacted, and new management mode of the remanufactured products should be developed.     

Design for life-cycle profit with simultaneous consideration of initial manufacturing and end-of-life remanufacturing

Remanufacturing is emerging as a promising solution for achieving green, profitable businesses. This article considers a manufacturer that produces new products and also remanufactured versions of the new products that become available at the end of their life cycle. For such a manufacturer, design decisions at the initial design stage determine both the current profit from manufacturing and future profit from remanufacturing. To maximize the total profit, design decisions must carefully consider both ends of product life cycle, i.e. manufacturing and end-of-life stages. This article proposes a decision-support model for the life-cycle design using mixed-integer nonlinear programming. With an aim to maximize the total life-cycle profit, the proposed model searches for an (at least locally) optimal product design (i.e. design specifications and the selling price) for the new and remanufactured products. It optimizes both the initial design and design upgrades at the end-of-life stage and also provides corresponding production strategies, including production quantities and take-back rate. The model is extended to a multi-objective model that maximizes both economic profit and environmental-impact saving. To illustrate, the developed model is demonstrated with an example of a desktop computer.     

Engineering Management Problems of Remanufacturing Industry

Remanufacturing in China is still in its early stage and faces pressures from society, policy, technology and management. Considering the current state of remanufacturing in China, this paper researched several key management issues involving various aspects from the perspective of remanufacturing players. Based on a needs analysis on the trend of remanufacturing development in China, the following six key management problems were researched; risk management of remanufacturing players, remanufacturing production management, remanufacturing quality management, authentication mode of remanufacturing in China, subsidy policy of remanufacturing industry, and performance assessment of remanufacturing. The characteristics of issues were analyzed and the corresponding countermeasures were put forward.     

Research on automatic high velocity arc spraying technique and metastable coating materials

Into the 21st century, remanufacturing engineering has been accepted by more and more people in China. Remanufacturing is an industrial maintenance
technology for worn or waste electro-mechanical products using advanced technology, which means the high-level stage for the maintenance and surface engineering. In this paper, a new automotive high velocity arc spraying system was introduced. And three kinds of advanced amorphous and nanocrystalline metastable coatings were developed, including Fe, Ni and Al-based amorphous and nanocrystalline composite coatings. Their research development and
applications were introduced. And the development trends of high velocity arc spraying system and advanced metastable surface protective coating materials on the remanufacturing engineering were indicated.     

Product structure complexity and scheduling of operations in recoverable manufacturing

Recoverable manufacturing is becoming an increasingly important alternative to firms as they develop environmentally sound strategies aimed at minimizing waste and resources. Remanufacturing helps minimize costs and conserve resources through methods such as extending product life cycles via refurbishments and technical upgrades which require the use of only a fraction of the resources and energy associated with a new product. In this study the impact of product structure complexity on other managerial operating decisions is examined in a remanufacturing environment. It is shown that in the remanufacturing environment, with its greater inherent uncertainty, product structure complexity significantly affects the choice of scheduling policies used. Recommendations as to the scheduling policy to use for a dominant product structure in a given environment are made.     

再制造产业发展过程中的管理问题

再制造正处在产业发展的初期阶段,在产业化过程中面临着来自社会、政策、技术、管理等层面的压力。从再制造产业发展的实际出发,针对再制造产业化过程中的若干关键管理问题进行研究。结合企业开展再制造业务的关注点及再制造产业未来的发展趋势,重点研究企业开展再制造业务的风险管理、再制造生产管理、再制造质量管理、再制造认证认可及再制造绩效考核等内容,分析其各自特点,并提出相应的对策。     

绿色再制造工程的发展现状和未来展望

再制造工程是废旧机电产品高技术修复改造的产业化,是循环经济和节能环保产业的重要技术支撑。中国的再制造工程经历了产业萌生、科学论证和政府推进三个阶段。中国特色的再制造主要基于尺寸恢复和性能提升,并以先进的寿命评估技术、纳米表面工程和自动化表面工程技术为支撑,其重要特征是再制造产品的质量和性能不低于原型新品,成本为新品的50%、节能60%、节材70%,显著改善环保。具有中国特色的再制造模式已逐渐形成,并取得了重要成果。     

Value of information in remanufacturing complex products

Remanufacturing facilities usually face a trade-off between limited information about remanufacturing yields and potentially long supplier lead times. To improve production performance, these firms may attempt to acquire more timely and accurate information about remanufacturing yields or alternatively, to reduce the lead times of purchased parts. We develop four decision-making models to evaluate the impact of yield information and supplier lead time on manufacturing costs. We identify the operating conditions under which these capabilities are valuable, along with their relative impact on facility performance. Each model is formulated as an infinite horizon, stochastic dynamic program (Markov decision process). Our results indicate that the yield information is generally quite valuable, while investments in supplier responsiveness provide trivial returns to products with few parts. However, as product complexity increases with large number of target parts, the value of short lead times increases.     

Dynamic product acquisition in closed loop supply chains

We consider a closed-loop supply chain where demand can either be satisfied by manufacturing new products or by buying back used products from customers and upgrading their functionality by remanufacturing. A joint buy-back pricing and manufacturing–remanufacturing decision model at the operations–marketing interface is presented that allows for dynamic parameters, e.g. product life cycles and seasonal aspects. The model allows the identification of beneficial opportunities for buying back and storing used products for immediate and future recovery. We present a new deterministic, dynamic, continuous-time optimisation model, derive necessary and sufficient optimality conditions, and develop a solution algorithm to find the cost-minimising manufacturing and remanufacturing policies as well as buy-back strategies for used products based on Pontryagin's Maximum Principle. It is shown that, in general, an optimal policy will include time intervals where returns are acquired so as to synchronise demand and remanufacturing, where returns are acquired and stored for future remanufacturing, and intervals where demand is satisfied by a mix of manufactured and remanufactured products. Furthermore, we discuss several reactive and proactive acquisition and remanufacturing heuristics and show under which conditions they are optimal. The findings are illustrated by numerical examples.     

Design and realisation of an efficient environmental assessment method for 3R systems: a case study on engine remanufacturing

Recently, the manufacturing industry has been striving for sustainability because of the environmental degradation and resource depletion caused by it. Remanufacturing considerably saves material and is energy efficient, and thus, it can represent an important solution to environmental issues. However, the uncertainty of remanufacturing makes the practical management of closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) difficult. To unlock the value potential of end-of-life (EOL) products, we studied a reuse, remanufacture, and recycle (3R) processing system under quality uncertainty for returned EOL engines. In the system, the returned cores were distributed into different processing routes, depending on the results of quality grading. The proposed matrix operations could efficiently assess the environmental benefits; moreover, we designed an algorithm to calculate the quality coefficient that reflects the overall quality condition of returned EOL cores. The impacts of quality uncertainty on the environment could be efficiently quantified via our proposed method. Furthermore, using Monte Carlo simulation and the law of large numbers, we devised a model to establish direct and definite quantitative relationships between the quality coefficient and production indexes. This model provides a basis for the formulation of optimal acquisition strategies under different returning scenarios.     

A machine learning approach to optimise the usage of recycled material in a remanufacturing environment

Remanufacturing has acquired importance in recent years because of the increasing environmental concerns of manufacturing processes that deplete the Earth's resources. Some examples of remanufactured products are automobile parts, furniture, photocopiers, and computer printers. In a remanufacturing setup, raw materials are drawn from two sources: (i) ‘cores’, which are obtained from recycled products, and (ii) ‘non-recycled’ or unused materials, which are produced from minerals freshly mined from the earth. An important decision for the manager is to select material optimally from these two sources. Using cores has environmental benefits, and because they are cheap, they reduce manufacturing costs. However, their use generally increases the production time, because of the additional pre-processing usually needed, which can negatively impact service levels. When the supply of finished products is running low, to satisfy service levels, it makes sense to use unused material. This research focuses on identifying an optimal strategy of switching between the two sources of material. A reinforcement learning algorithm is used to solve the switching problem. The switching algorithm produced encouraging results, showing up to 65% cost improvements over a policy that uses only unused materials.     

Optimal pricing and core acquisition strategy for a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system

Remanufacturing is one of the product recovery options where the quality of used products (cores) is upgraded to ‘as-good-as-new’ conditions. In this article, we consider a monopolist firm selling new and remanufactured products to quality-conscious primary customers and price-sensitive secondary customers, respectively, with one-way substitution, i.e. some primary customers may substitute new products by remanufactured products while secondary customers can never afford to buy new products. We develop economic models under two scenarios – when the supply of cores is unconstrained and when manufacturers have to procure cores at an acquisition price. The major observations of the article are as follows. A firm is better off when there is no constraint on the supply of cores. Even when cores have to be acquired at an acquisition price, the profitability is higher than that when the firm does not engage in remanufacturing activities. When a larger number of primary customers replace new products with remanufactured products, there is partial cannibalization of new product sales; however, the combined market share and profitability of the firm increase. When core supply is constrained and customers are less sensitive to core prices, the limited supply of cores may render remanufacturing an infeasible option for the firm. Therefore, firms should not only generate awareness among primary customers to buy remanufactured products, but also step up efforts to ensure a steady supply of cores. We conclude the article with managerial implications and directions for future research.     

Joint hybrid repair and remanufacturing systems and supply control

The control of a stochastic manufacturing system that executes capital asset repairs and remanufacturing in an integrated system is examined. The remanufacturing resources respond to planned returns of worn-out equipment at the end of their expected life and unplanned returns triggered by major equipment failures. Remanufacturing operations for planned demand can be executed at different rates and costs corresponding to different replacement and repair modes. The replacement components inventory is provided by an upstream supply with random lead times. The objective is to determine a control policy for both the supply and remanufacturing activities that minimises the average repair/replacement, acquisition and inventory/shortage total cost over an infinite horizon. We propose a suboptimal joint remanufacturing and supply control policy, composed of a multi-hedging point policy (MHPP) for the remanufacturing stage and an (s, Q) policy for the replacement parts supply. The MHPP is based on two inventory thresholds that trigger the use of predefined remanufacturing modes. Control policy parameters are obtained combining analytical modelling, simulation experiments and response surface methodology. The effects of the distribution, mean and variability of the lead time are tested and a sensitivity analysis of cost parameters is conducted to validate the proposed control policy. We also show that our policy leads to a significant cost reduction as compared to a combination of a hedging point policy (HPP) and an (s, Q) policy.     

Dynamic disassembly planning for remanufacturing of multiple types of products

With the increased need for remanufacturing of end-of-life products, achieving economic efficiency in remanufacturing is urgently needed. The purpose of this study was to devise a cost-minimisation plan for disassembly and remanufacturing of end-of-life products returned by consumers. A returned end-of-life product is disassembled into remanufacturable parts, which are supposed to be used for new products after being remanufactured. Each end-of-life product is disassembled into parts at variable levels and through variable sequences as needed, taking into account not only disassembly but also manufacturing, remanufacturing, and holding inventory of remanufacturable parts. This study proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for derivation of the optimal disassembly plan for each returned product, under deterministically known demand and return flows. For the purposes of an illustrative example, the proposed model was applied to the formulation of an optimal disassembly and remanufacturing plan of ‘fuser assembly’ of laser printers. The solution reveals that variable-level disassembly of products saves a significant remanufacturing cost compared with full disassembly.     

制造与再制造决策的优化

产品回收再利用越来越受到重视，许多原产商都积极地进行回收再制造。再制造与制造过程通常会共用一些相同的生产资源，由此出现的问题就是如何协调这两者的作业，使之达到最优。本文假定制造与再制造产品可以互相替换，着重探讨了当制造提前时间小于或等于再制造提前时间时，制造与再制造的最优策略。     

Optimal policy in a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system with financial hedging

This paper proposes a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing model with the financial hedging in the case where the randomness in demand is correlated with the financial markets. The provided models are mainly for those risk-averse remanufacturers who faced with random demand and yield. The aim of this paper is to maximise remanufacturer utility by purchasing financial instruments and producing new and remanufactured products. A hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system production planning model is first built under mean-variance framework, and then the financial hedging is integrated into the hybrid production system. There are three main findings. First, the variance of profit with financial hedging is always less than the variance of the model without financial hedging. Second, the remanufacturer with high (low) risk aversion is more likely to produce new (remanufactured) products. Third, the model without (with) financial hedging tends to produce new (remanufactured) products unless remanufacturing cost is low (high) enough. All those findings proved that financial hedging can reduce the operational uncertainty effectively and increase the proportion of remanufacturing, which will make remanufacturing firms more economical and environmentally friendly. Therefore, remanufacturing firms can consider using financial hedging to reduce operational uncertainty.