Manufacturing strategies integrating production and replenishment in a closed-loop supply chain

Abstract

This study addresses the production planning and control (PPC) problem within a manufacturing-remanufacturing system, in which demand can be satisfied by either manufacturing of new products or remanufacturing of returned ones. This system can be observed in many industries sectors (e.g. aeronautic and automobile remanufacturing industries). The manufacturing system produces one type of product and is subjected to random failures and repairs. Given the high variability in decision-making of the considered supply chain, an experimental approach based on simulation modeling, experimental design and response surface methodology has been used. This approach allowed us to reproduce the dynamic behavior of the supply chain, to determine the optimal values of control parameters and carry out deep sensitivity analysis. In the first part of this thesis, we have studied the case where manufacturing and remanufacturing machines dedicated to the separate facilities, after receiving returned products manufacturer may apply different quality inspections strategies. Each delivered lot of returned products contains a fixed fraction of non conforming items. The main objective of this system is to determine the best joint integrated control quality combing manufacturing and remanufacturing and control of returned based on the quality. We compare the results related to each strategy. Our results show that a single sampling plan is the best strategy and guarantees a better performance of the supply chain. This work shows the importance of coordinating quality control decision at the reception with the production and supply activities. In the second part, that is the policy of joint supplier selection, production and replenishment control policies of an unreliable hybrid manufacturing-remanufacturing system, a common facility dedicated to manufacturing and remanufacturing activities, and instead of considering one supplier for buying returned products, we consider multiple suppliers with different characteristics. In this system we are going to determine the best control policy but at this time with consideration of multiple supplier and switching policy. To find an optimal solution, a combination of simulation and optimization techniques has been adopted. The results related to the numerical examples and sensitivity analysis show a considerable cost saving will occur in cases that we have multiple suppliers for selecting compared with the situation that a single supplier has a monopoly in providing the returned products. Our research contributes the control policy to provide a more effective interaction between manufacturing, remanufacturing, control quality and the effect of supplier selection to make more saving. Moreover, some numerical examples are conducted as illustration, and extensive sensitivity analyses are presented to confirm the robustness of the approach and effectiveness of the resulted control policies. Our approach creates the possibility of having a better viewpoint about the behavior of stochastic manufacturing-remanufacturing systems. In addition, it is straight forward to apply our approach in the operational level.

Date	31 Aug 2020
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Ali Gharbi (Supervisor)