Bi-objective optimisation of remanufacturing decisions with component commonality under different reworking scenarios

ABSTRACT

Decision-making for remanufacturing is more complicated than that of traditional manufacturing because used or new components can be selected to remanufacture products. It becomes difficult to determine the various options of the components and their subsequent effect on the options at the same time. In fact, all decisions made in one remanufacturing activity will have a direct impact on the decisions taken in subsequent activities and this will affect profitability. Therefore, a decision-making model is proposed to support businesses in each remanufacturing activity by using mixed-integer linear programming to maximise profit and minimise operational time. It remains unknown whether component commonality always benefits remanufacturing. Therefore, this research contributes to the literature by quantifying and controlling the impact of component commonality on the objectives under different reworking scenarios characterised by the percentage of reworked components, reworking time, and reworking cost. When reworking costs and the percentage of reworked components are higher, the effect of component commonality on profit fluctuation increases. The remanufacturer can control these situations by reducing reworking costs, selecting specific patterns of component commonality that generate high profits or choosing the appropriate percentage of reworked components depending on various scenarios.

KEYWORDS:

• Remanufacturing
• decision
• component commonality
• optimisation
• mixed-integer linear programming

Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank the companies for their time in providing data and suggestions used in this research. Also, the authors also thank Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon and the University of Strathclyde for supporting the facilities using in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).