Production planning and control of closed-loop supply chains

More and more supply chains emerge that include a return flow of materials. Many original equipment manufacturers are nowadays engaged in the remanufacturing business. In many process industries, production defectives and by-products are reworked. These closed-loop supply chains deserve special attention. Production planning and control in such hybrid systems is a real challenge, especially due to increased uncertainties. Even companies that are engaged in remanufacturing operations only, face more complicated planning situations than traditional manufacturing companies.We point out the main complicating characteristics in closed-loop systems with both remanufacturing and rework, and indicated the need for new or modified/extended production planning and control approaches. An overview of the existing scientific contributions is given. It appears that we only stand at the beginning of this line of research, and that many more contributions are needed and expected in the future.closed-loop supply chains;Production planning and control

The Value of RFID Technology Enabled Information to Manage Perishables

We address the value of RFID technology enabled information to manage perishables in the context of a supplier that sells a random lifetime product subject to stochastic demand and lost sales. The product's lifetime is largely determined by the time and temperature history in the supply chain. We compare two information cases to a Base case in which the product's time and temperature history is unknown and therefore its shelf life is uncertain. In the first information case, the time and temperature history is known and therefore the remaining shelf life is also known at the time of receipt. The second information case builds on the first case such that the supplier now has visibility up the supply chain to know the remaining shelf life of inventory available for replenishment. We formulate these three different cases as Markov decision processes, introduce well performing heuristics of more practical relevance, and evaluate the value of information through an extensive simulation using representative, real world supply chain parameters.simulation;value of information;RFID;perishable inventory

Raw Material Inventory Control Analysis: A Case Study for a Manufacturing Firm in Norway

Master's Thesis in System DynamicsGEO-SD351INTL-JUSINTL-PSYKINTL-SVINTL-MEDINTL-HFMASV-SYSDYINTL-KMDINTL-M

Closed Loop Supply Chain (CLSC): economics, modelling, management and control

This article summarizes the papers published in the special issue entitled “Closed Loop Supply Chain (CLSC): Economics, Modelling, Management and Control” in the International Journal of Production Economics. A total of 24 papers, covering an extensive range of topics in the Closed Loop Supply Chain research area, have been included in this special issue. This special issue received a wide and diverse geographical contribution with authors from 16 countries located in 4 continents including America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Initially, the special issue received 71 research paper submissions and the final selection of 24 papers, which were recommended by at least two reviewers, provide a basis for new research directions in the domain of reverse logistics and Closed Loop Supply Chain management

Facility Location for a Closed-Loop Distribution Network: a Hybrid Approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find a sustainable facility location solution for a closed-loop distribution network in the uncertain environment created by of high levels of product returns from online retailing coupled with growing pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach attempts to optimize the distribution centre (DC) location decision for single and double hub scenarios. A hybrid approach combining centre of gravity and mixed integer programming is established for the un-capacitated multiple allocation facility location problem. Empirical data from a major national UK retail distributor network is used to validate the model. Findings The paper develops a contemporary model that can take into account multiple factors (e.g. operational and transportation costs and supply chain (SC) risks) while improving performance on environmental sustainability. Practical implications Based on varying product return rates, SC managers can decide whether to choose a single or a double hub solution to meet their needs. The study recommends a two hub facility location approach to mitigate emergent SC risks and disruptions. Originality/value A two-stage hybrid approach outlines a unique technique to generate candidate locations under twenty-first century conditions for new DCs. </jats:sec

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

Last Time Buy and Control Policies With Phase-Out Returns: A Case Study in Plant Control Systems

This research involves the combination of spare parts management and reverse logistics. At the end of the product life cycle, products in the field (so called installed base) can usually be serviced by either new parts, obtained from a Last Time Buy, or by repaired failed parts. This paper, however, introduces a third source: the phase-out returns obtained from customers that replace systems. These returned parts may serve other customers that do not replace the systems yet. Phase-out return flows represent higher volumes and higher repair yields than failed parts and are cheaper to get than new ones. This new phenomenon has been ignored in the literature thus far, but due to increased product replacements rates its relevance will grow. We present a generic model, applied in a case study with real-life data from ConRepair, a third-party service provider in plant control systems (mainframes). Volumes of demand for spares, defects returns and phase-out returns are interrelated, because the same installed base is involved. In contrast with the existing literature, this paper explicitly models the operational control of both failed- and phase-out returns, which proves far from trivial given the nonstationary nature of the problem. We have to consider subintervals within the total planning interval to optimize both Last Time Buy and control policies well. Given the novelty of the problem, we limit ourselves to a single customer, single-item approach. Our heuristic solution methods prove efficient and close to optimal when validated. The resulting control policies in the case-study are also counter-intuitive. Contrary to (management) expectations, exogenous variables prove to be more important to the repair firm (which we show by sensitivity analysis) and optimizing the endogenous control policy benefits the customers. Last Time Buy volume does not make the decisive difference; far more important is the disposal versus repair policy. PUSH control policy is outperformed by PULL, which exploits demand information and waits longer to decide between repair and disposal. The paper concludes by mapping a number of extensions for future research, as it represents a larger class of problems.spare parts;reverse logistics;phase-out;PUSH-PULL repair;non stationary;Last Time Buy;business case