Decision-making under uncertaintly in remanufacturing processes: An exploratory study

Most decisions in remanufacturing focus on a specific sub-system within the production process and neglect how the decision interacts with other decisions. This study aims to investigate decision-making within remanufacturing. The research identifies specific decisions found in remanufacturing processes and analyses their interplays with other decisions. Quite often, one decision will affect other decisions and the result is that the remanufacturing process becomes more complicated. This is not only because there are many uncertainties in remanufacturing, but also because of the effects of interactions. In particular, this research examines how a company deals with uncertainties in decision-making during the remanufacturing processes. A GRAI grid is used to map the positions of various decisions made throughout the remanufacturing process. This is used as it displays the overall remanufacturing process in a graph, so that interplays between decisions can be seen more clearly. The use of GRAI grid to present interplays between the decisions is remanufacturing is the novelty of this study. It is the first time the grid was utilised in the area of decision making remanufacturing context. The methods utilised by remanufacturing companies to overcome the complexities of decision-making are also discussed. Lastly, directions for future research are presented

Decision-making under uncertaintly in remanufacturing processes: An exploratory study

Most decisions in remanufacturing focus on a specific sub-system within the production process and neglect how the decision interacts with other decisions. This study aims to investigate decision-making within remanufacturing. The research identifies specific decisions found in remanufacturing processes and analyses their interplays with other decisions. Quite often, one decision will affect other decisions and the result is that the remanufacturing process becomes more complicated. This is not only because there are many uncertainties in remanufacturing, but also because of the effects of interactions. In particular, this research examines how a company deals with uncertainties in decision-making during the remanufacturing processes. A GRAI grid is used to map the positions of various decisions made throughout the remanufacturing process. This is used as it displays the overall remanufacturing process in a graph, so that interplays between decisions can be seen more clearly. The use of GRAI grid to present interplays between the decisions is remanufacturing is the novelty of this study. It is the first time the grid was utilised in the area of decision making remanufacturing context. The methods utilised by remanufacturing companies to overcome the complexities of decision-making are also discussed. Lastly, directions for future research are presented

An investigation of the value recovery process in the automotive remanufacturing industry : an empirical approach

Remanufacturers have been experiencing challenges when optimising the value recovery process mostly due to the uncertainties of cores regarding quality, quantity, arrival time and demand. Hence, the aim of this study is to gather relevant information from the literature and current industrial practice and then define research gaps to improve the decision-making practice for managing value recovery processes in the automotive remanufacturing industry. The case studies used in this paper are an original equipment remanufacturer and a contract remanufacturer. Both companies in the case studies use credit-based systems to take back old cores which can reduce the severity of cores’ unavailability. The ability to access the parts and specifications of the original equipment was the primary factor considered by the contract remanufacturer before deciding to remanufacture the product. In daily operations, the condition of cores was the main factors the OER and the contract remanufacturer considered to make a decision. Finally, the results of this study indicate further research areas from the intersection of industry’s needs and research gaps

Modularization in material flow simulation for managing production releases in remanufacturing

Remanufacturing is recognized as a major circular economy option to recover and upgrade functions from post-use products. However, the inefficiencies associated with operations, mainly due to the uncertainty and variability of material flows and product conditions, undermine the growth of remanufacturing. With the objective of supporting the design and management of more proficient and robust remanufacturing processes, this paper proposes a generic and reconfigurable simulation model of remanufacturing systems. The developed model relies upon a modular framework that enables the user to handle multiple process settings and production control policies, among which token-based policies. Customizable to the characteristics of the process under analysis, this model can support logistics performance evaluation of different production control policies, thus enabling the selection of the optimal policy in specific business contexts. The proposed model is applied to a real remanufacturing environment in order to validate and demonstrate its applicability and benefits in the industrial settings