ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND GTA MODELLING FOR JUSTIFICATION OF REMANUFACTURING

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Remanufacturing is the process of product recovery in which old products at the end of their lives are procured from the customers and transformed into a condition and functionality, which is as good as that of a new product. Designing of a system for remanufacturing requires consideration of several factors like design for disassembly, various costs involved, quality issues etc. Developing a product recovery system and modelling a reverse logistic network are the initial steps in determining the suitability of remanufacturing for any system. To study the cost effectiveness of remanufacturing, various techniques have been used like, mixed integer programming, quantitative models and algorithms. Such kinds of studies include various costs like procurement, inventory, refurbishing, assembly/disassembly, transportation etc. However, the economy of remanufacturing not only depends upon the above, but also on the capacity of remanufacturing and also whether there is demand for remanufactured products. The main aim of this project has been to understand the various reverse logistic issues of remanufacturing, to study the market forces and decision making attributes. Based on these, different analytical tools have been applied for economic analysis of remanufacturing and to decide whether the company should go for remanufacturing or not.

This thesis comprises of seven chapters. The first chapter introduces the concept of remanufacturing, discusses the various product recovery operations and explains the basics of this technique. The next chapter gives an insight into the significant literary works on remanufacturing and the various tools used for the analysis of remanufacturing system. Chapter 3 discussed the recordings of a survey conducted to understand the customer perception about remanufactured products in order to determine the parameters on which they judge a product and to recommend improvements in the same. The observations on their preferences were analysed and certain strategies were proposed to increase the market for such products. Chapter 4 explains a decision support system (DSS) developed using C++ programming to determine the implementation of remanufacturing in a system. The DSS is also used to show the effect of various parameters on the overall cost of remanufacturing, thus helping in weighing their criticality relative to each other. Chapter 5 is dedicated to applying another mathematical tool called the graph theoretic approach (GTA) to compute the range cost effectiveness index for remanufacturing. Using this technique a highly accurate model has been developed by inclusion of both qualitative and quantitative parameters. Chapter 6 consists of a case study of an inkjet printer to show the cost advantage of remanufacturing for the product .Chapter 7 states the results and conclusions drawn from this study.

Keywords: Remanufacturing, reverse logistics, economic analysis, decision support system, graph theoretic approach, cost effectiveness index.