The boomerang returns? Accounting for the impact of uncertainties on the dynamics of remanufacturing systems

Recent years have witnessed companies abandon traditional open-loop supply chain structures in favour of closed-loop variants, in a bid to mitigate environmental impacts and exploit economic opportunities. Central to the closed-loop paradigm is remanufacturing: the restoration of used products to useful life. While this operational model has huge potential to extend product life-cycles, the collection and recovery processes diminish the effectiveness of existing control mechanisms for open-loop systems. We systematically review the literature in the field of closed-loop supply chain dynamics, which explores the time-varying interactions of material and information flows in the different elements of remanufacturing supply chains. We supplement this with further reviews of what we call the three ‘pillars’ of such systems, i.e. forecasting, collection, and inventory and production control. This provides us with an interdisciplinary lens to investigate how a ‘boomerang’ effect (i.e. sale, consumption, and return processes) impacts on the behaviour of the closed-loop system and to understand how it can be controlled. To facilitate this, we contrast closed-loop supply chain dynamics research to the well-developed research in each pillar; explore how different disciplines have accommodated the supply, process, demand, and control uncertainties; and provide insights for future research on the dynamics of remanufacturing systems

The design of green supply chains under carbon policies: A literature review of quantitative models

Carbon footprinting of products and services is getting increasing attention due to the growing emphasis on carbon related policies in many countries. As a result, many enterprises are focusing on the design of green supply chains (GSCs) with research on supply chains (SCs) focused not only on cost efficiency, but also on its environmental consequences. The review presented in this paper focuses on the implications of carbon policies on SCs. The concept of content analysis is used to retrieve and analyze the information regarding drivers (carbon policies), actors (for example, manufacturers and retailers), methodologies (mathematical modeling techniques), decision-making contexts (such as, facility location and order quantity), and emission reduction opportunities. The review shows a lack of emissions analysis of SCs that face carbon policies in different countries. The research also focuses on the design of carbon policies for emissions reduction in different operating situations. Some possible research directions are also discussed at the end of this review.A NPRP award NPRP No.5-1284-5-198 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation).Scopu

Investigation On The Influence Of Remanufacturing On Production Planning And Control – A Systematic Literature Review

Production planning and control (PPC) is one of the focal operational tasks of a company, and it is used to design logistics services in a target-orientated manner so that individual customer requirements can be fulfilled. However, existing PPC framework models are still based on the prevailing linear economic procedure (take - make - dispose). Due to customers' increasing interest in sustainability and growing regulatory pressure, the Circular Economy (CE) meets these changing conditions by closing material cycles, improving resource efficiency and extending product life cycles. However, for a company to guarantee a high logistics performance, the operational PPC must be adapted to this new economic model. To this end, it needs to be investigated whether and how the adaptation of circular strategies influences existing PPC processes. This paper focuses on the circular strategy of remanufacturing and its influence on different PPC-main tasks. The latter will be examined using a systematic literature review. Finally, the results of this analysis are compared with the Hanoverian Supply Chain Model as a PPC framework model. This comparison shows which PPC tasks are affected and which existing approaches have already been developed. Ultimately, these results provide the basis for developing a framework model for operational PPC regarding the CE

An EU closed loop waste management system for rare earths: tackling criticality with a disruptive circular economy policy

The EU has recently upped its efforts to ensure a stable access to raw materials and mostly finite ones, many of which are not explored domestically. The Raw Materials Initiative launched in 2008 opened the door to a European industrial policy agenda focused on sustainable access and management of raw materials. Shortly after, the EU began publishing its list of Critical Raw Materials (CRM) every 3 years. Among the most critical of materials are rare earths (REE), which are indispensable to the EU energy transition and a carbon neutral society. The EU challenge of ensuring both a stable access and a circular management of rare earths is an enduring conundrum. Despite the policy efforts to push for more circularity and recycling of the rare earths, the situation has not improved since 2011 - reliance on Chinese supply is about 100% and recycling has no expression for most rare earths. The focus of this project is to provide a policy contribution to tackling this conundrum. The rare earths situation in the EU is studied carefully by considering EU’s strategic interest, the demand from EU sectors and the state of global supply. Public policies targeted at CRM are critically assessed and its limitations are discussed. An alternative policy path is presented in which the EU would commit to co-creating a recycling system aimed at recovering rare earths from waste of electric and electronic equipment.Recentemente, a UE redobrou os seus esforços no sentido de assegurar um acesso estável, principalmente a recursos finitos, para os quais não há extração doméstica. A "Iniciativa matérias-primas" lançada em 2008, deu início a uma agenda europeia de política industrial centrada no acesso e na gestão sustentáveis de matérias-primas. De seguida, a EU dá início à publicação trienal da sua lista de matérias-primas críticas (MPC). Entre as mais essenciais destas MPC estão as terras raras (TR) que são indispensáveis para transição energética e para a neutralidade carbónica da UE. O desafio da União de garantir um acesso estável e uma gestão sustentável das TR é um dilema que se arrasta no tempo. Apesar das políticas públicas para aumentar a circularidade e reciclagem de TR, a situação não melhorou desde 2011 - a dependência do fornecimento Chinês ronda os 100% e a reciclagem não tem praticamente expressão para a maioria das terras raras. Este projeto centra-se numa contribuição de política pública para enfrentar este dilema. A situação das TR na UE é cautelosamente estudada, tendo em conta o interesse estratégico da UE nestes materiais, a procura setorial da EU bem como o estado da oferta mundial. Procede-se com uma revisão crítica das políticas que visam as MPC e as suas limitações são discutidas. Apresenta-se de seguida uma política pública alternativa, na qual a UE se compromete a co-criar um sistema de reciclagem visando a recuperação de terras raras a partir do fluxo de resíduos de equipamentos elétricos e eletrónicos

Guiding the development of a controlled ecological life support system

The workshop is reported which was held to establish guidelines for future development of ecological support systems, and to develop a group of researchers who understand the interdisciplinary requirements of the overall program

Facility location for a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system with carbon costs

This thesis addresses inventory management and facility location for a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system where remanufacturing lead-time is different from production lead-time. We also investigate the impact of potential government regulation for carbon emission generated by transportation on a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network design. A two-stage optimization procedure is proposed in two cases of the different lead-times: The first stage optimizes the decisions on production and remanufacturing levels in each period based on a specific inventory management policy; the second stage optimizes the number and locations of factory, warehouse and collection centers. In a case of larger remanufacturing lead-time, the network is configured with a single plant, warehouse and collection center in the regions which minimize each investment considering the transportation cost. In the other case of larger production lead-time, the network is designed with multiple collection centers. With the consideration of the carbon emission cost, each storage facility first is located in the region closed to a plant with the highest investment, but as the emission cost increases, all facilities are centralized in the network to reduce the transportation costs. The proposed method results in lower combined costs of facility investment, holding inventory, transportation, and carbon emissions than a method that assumes equal manufacturing and remanufacturing lead-times

Controlled Ecological Life Support System: Research and Development Guidelines

Results of a workshop designed to provide a base for initiating a program of research and development of controlled ecological life support systems (CELSS) are summarized. Included are an evaluation of a ground based manned demonstration as a milestone in CELSS development, and a discussion of development requirements for a successful ground based CELSS demonstration. Research recommendations are presented concerning the following topics: nutrition and food processing, food production, waste processing, systems engineering and modelling, and ecology-systems safety

Methodologies for performance enhancement in decentralized supply chains

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH