Integrated dynamic control for production, quality sampling and maintenance in aging manufacturing-remanufacturing facilities

The present study formulates an integrated dynamic control policy that jointly optimizes production, quality sampling, and maintenance in an uncertain Hybrid Manufacturing-Remanufacturing (HMR) system facing progressive aging. We study remanufacturing strategies since they anchor modern circular economies, and so addressing their specific dynamics is essential to ensure sustainable economic viability. Specifically, we study how progressive wear in the remanufacturing unit alters defect rates and failure risk, necessitating an age-dependent switching rule to decide when to favor manufacturing over remanufacturing and vice versa. To address this, the core contribution lies in developing a novel age-dependent production switching priority rule within the HMR structure, dynamically alternating between production sources to mitigate the impacts of equipment deterioration on product quality. Through extensive numerical analyses, we found that the proposed integrated model performs substantially better than traditional decoupled models. By actively linking the dynamic production switching rule with adaptive sampling and maintenance, the system becomes much more cost-effective. In fact, the results show total cost reductions up to 33% compared to decoupled strategies. Ultimately, these savings highlight just how important an integrated control policy is for keeping circular manufacturing operations economically viable over time.