Optimum policy in hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system

In this study, a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system for a kind of short life cycle product with stochastic demand and stochastic returned products was investigated. The objective is to minimize the total cost of the hybrid system. The impacts of the amount of products manufactured and the proportion of the remanufactured part to the returned products on the total cost of the system were analyzed. Through theoretic analyses and numerical experiments, the relationship between the total cost of the system and the two influential factors were identified. The total cost of the hybrid system could be reduced significantly by setting optimum values of the amount of products manufactured and the proportion of the remanufactured part to the returned products. The sensitivity of the optimum values of the decision variables and the minimum cost with respect: to the system parameters were also investigated. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.