Developing a Trade-off between Upgrade Action Time and Warranty Length for Second-hand Electrical Components

One way of improving the reliability and reducing the warranty servicing cost for second-hand items is through actions such as overhaul and upgrade which are carried out by the dealer or a third party. For second-hand electrical components, the improvement involves testing of items for a short time, called upgrade action time, before their release to the market. The items that fail during the test are scrapped or repaired; only items that survive the test are considered to be of good quality and released to the market. In this paper, a cost model is developed to achieve a trade-off between reducing the warranty servicing cost and increasing the upgrade action cost for a second-hand electrical component sold under various warranty policies

Design of a Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Parallel Machines Scheduling to Minimize Job Tardiness and Machine Deteriorating Costs with Deteriorating Jobs in a Batched Delivery System

This paper studies the parallel machine scheduling problem subject to machine and job deterioration in a batched delivery system. By the machine deterioration effect, we mean that each machine deteriorates over time, at a different rate. Moreover, job processing times are increasing functions of their starting times and follow a simple linear deterioration. The objective functions are minimizing total tardiness, delivery, holding and machine deteriorating costs. The problem of total tardiness on identical parallel machines is NP-hard, thus the under investigation problem, which is more complicated, is NP-hard too. In this study, a mixed-integer programming (MILP) model is presented and an efficient hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) is proposed to solve the concerned problem. A new crossover and mutation operator and a heuristic algorithm have also been proposed depending on the type of problem. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed model and solution procedure, a set of small to large test problems are generated and results are discussed. The related results show the effectiveness of the proposed model and GA for test problems

Exact Mixed Integer Programming for Integrated Scheduling and Process Planning in Flexible Environment

This paper presented a mixed integer programming for integrated scheduling and process planning. The presented process plan included some orders with precedence relations similar to Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem (MTSP), which was categorized as an NP-hard problem. These types of problems are also called advanced planning because of simultaneously determining the appropriate sequence and minimizing makespan in the process of scheduling. There are alternative machines for each operation and different sequences for each order, which create a flexible environment for production planning. In process planning ansd integrated scheduling, most mathematical models have two sets of ordered pairs with precedence or non-precedence relations between operations; therefore, these models cannot be solved using optimization software. Therefore, in this paper, this problem was modeled by a new approach and solved by GAMS software. The model was validated by the existing data in the literature

A New Approach in Job Shop Scheduling: Overlapping Operation

In this paper, a new approach to overlapping operations in job shop scheduling is presented. In many job shops, a customer demand can be met in more than one way for each job, where demand determines the quantity of each finished job ordered by a customer. In each job, embedded operations can be performed due to overlapping considerations in which each operation may be overlapped with the others because of its nature. The effects of the new approach on job shop scheduling problems are evaluated. Since the problem is well known as NP-Hard class, a simulated annealing algorithm is developed to solve large scale problems. Moreover, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) method is applied to validate the proposed algorithm. The approach is tested on a set of random data to evaluate and study the behavior of the proposed algorithm. Computational experiments confirmed superiority of the proposed approach. To evaluate the effect of overlapping considerations on the job shop scheduling problem, the results of classical job shop scheduling with the new approach (job shop scheduling problem with overlapping operations) are compared. It is concluded that the proposed approach can improve the criteria and machines utilization measures in job shop scheduling. The proposed approach can be applied easily in real factory conditions and for large size problems. It should thus be useful to both practitioners and researchers

Warranty and Sustainable Improvement of Used Products through Remanufacturing

Currently, a large number of used/second-hand products are being sold with remanufacturing. Remanufacturing is a process of bringing used products to a better functional state and can be applied as a way for (1) controlling the deterioration process, (2) reducing the likelihood of a failure over the warranty period and (3) making the used item effectively younger. Remanufacturing is relatively a new concept and has received very limited attention. In this paper, we develop an important sustainable improvement approach for used items sold with failure free warranty to determine the optimal improvement level. Our model makes a useful contribution to the reliability growth literature, as it captures the uncertainty and suggests improvement in the remanufacturing process. By using this model, the dealers can decide whether and how much to invest in remanufacturing projects

Developing a Multi-objective Mathematical Model for Dynamic Cellular Manufacturing Systems

This paper is in search of designing the cellular manufacturing systems (CMSs) under dynamic and flexible environment. CM is proper for small-to-medium lot production environment that helps the companies to produce variable kind of productions with at least scraps. The most important benefits of CM are decline in material handling, reduction in work-in-process, reduction in set-up time, increment in flexibility, improved quality, and shorter lead time. In this research A multi-objective mixed integer model is presented that considers some real-world critical conditions same as costs of multi-period cell formation and production planning , human resource assignment to cells and balancing workload of cells. This model groups the parts and machines concurrently with labor assignment This study aims to 1) minimize various costs including reassignment cost of human resource, the batch inter-cell material handling cost, constant and variable cost of machines, relocation and purchase cost of machines, 2) minimize cell load variation and 3) maximize utilization rate of human resource. The model is complicate, so it is verified with Lingo 8. 0. Soft ware. Since particle swarm optimization approach less than many other metaheuristic approaches have been applied to solve multi-objective CMS problems so far, we utilize this method to solve our model. The results are presented at the last part

A Simulated Annealing Algorithm within the Variable Neighbourhood Search Framework to Solve the Capacitated Facility Location-Allocation Problem

In this study, we discuss the capacitated facility location-allocation problem with uncertain parameters in which the uncertainty is characterized by given finite numbers of scenarios. In this model, the objective function minimizes the total expected costs of transportation and opening facilities subject to the robustness constraint. To tackle the problem efficiently and effectively, an efficient hybrid solution algorithm based on several meta-heuristics and an exact algorithm is put forward. This algorithm generates neighborhoodsby combining the main concepts of variable neighborhood search, simulated annealing, and tabu search and finds the local optima by using an algorithm that uses an exact method in its framework. Finally, to test the algorithms’ performance, we apply numerical experiments on both randomly generated and standard test problems. Computational experiments show that our algorithm is more effective and efficient in term of CPU time and solutions quality in comparison with CPLEX solver

A Benders� Decomposition Approach for Dynamic Cellular Manufacturing System in the Presence of Unreliable Machines

In order to implement the cellular manufacturing system in practice, some essential factors should be taken into account. In this paper, a new mathematical model for cellular manufacturing system considering different production factors including alternative process routings and machine reliability with stochastic arrival and service times in a dynamic environment is proposed. Also because of the complexity of the given problem, a Benders’ decomposition approach is applied to solve the problem efficiently. In order to verify the performance of proposed approach, some numerical examples are generated randomly in hypothetical limits and solved by the proposed solution approach. The comparison of the implemented solution algorithm with the conventional mixed integer linear and mixed integer non linear models verifies the efficiency of Benders’ decomposition approach especially in terms of computational time

Two-dimensional Warranty Cost Analysis for Second-hand Products

In spite of the recent steady increase of the volume of the second-hand markets, often customers remain in doubt regarding the quality and durability of the secondhand products. Aiming to reduce and share this uncertainty, dealers offer warranty on their products. Offering warranty for second-hand products is a relatively new marketing strategy employed by dealers of used electronic equipment, furniture, automobiles, etc. Usually, for used products, the dealer’s expected warranty cost is a function of product reliability, past age and usage, servicing strategy and conditions and terms of the warranty policy/contract. Sometimes the offered policy is limited by two parameters, typically the product age and usage after the sale. This type of policies is referred to as two-dimensional warranty policies. In this article, we develop statistical models for estimating the dealer’s expected warranty cost for second-hand products sold with two-dimensional free repair/replacement warranty

A parameter-tuned genetic algorithm for vendor managed inventory model for a case single-vendor single-retailer with multi-product and multi-constraint

This paper develops a single-vendor single-retailer supply chain for multi-product. The proposed model is based on Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) approach and vendor uses the retailer's data for better decision making. Number of orders and available capital are the constraints of the model. In this system, shortages are backordered; therefore, the vendor’s warehouse capacity is another limitation of the problem. After the model formulation, an Integer Nonlinear Programming problem will be provided; hence, a genetic algorithm has been used to solve the model. Consequently, order quantities, number of shipments received by a retailer and maximum backorder levels for products have been determined with regard to cost consideration. Finally, a numerical example is presented to describe the sufficiency of the proposed strategy with respect to parameter-tuned by response surface methodology (RSM).</p