Component-Oriented Reassembly in Remanufacturing Systems: Managing Uncertainty and Satisfying Customer Needs

Yue Wang, Gamini P. Mendis, Shitong Peng, John W. Sutherland

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Remanufacturing has recently received significant interest due to its environmental and economic benefits. Traditionally, the reassembly processes in remanufacturing systems are managed using a product-oriented model. When a product is returned and disassembled, the used components may be processed incorrectly, and the quality of the remanufactured products may not meet customer needs. To solve these problems, a component-oriented reassembly model is proposed. In this model, returned components are inspected and assigned scores according to their quality/function and categorized in a reassembly inventory. Based on the reassembly inventory, components are paired under the control of a reassembly strategy, and these pairs are then assembled into reassembly chains. Each chain represents a product. To evaluate the performance of different reassembly strategies under uncertain conditions, we describe the reassembly problem using an agent-environment system. The platform is modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP), and a reassembly score iteration algorithm (RSIA) is developed to identify the optimal reassembly strategy. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated via a case study using the reassembly process of diesel engines. The results of the case study show that the component-oriented reassembly model can improve the performance of the reassembly system by 40%. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to evaluate the relationship between the parameters and the performance of the reassembly system. The component-oriented model can reassemble products to meet a larger variety of customer needs, while simultaneously producing better remanufactured products.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number021005
JournalJournal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Transactions of the ASME
Volume141
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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