A Model for Remanufacturing Process Planning Under Quality Loss and Emissions Constraint with Multi-graded of Incoming Cores

Remanufacturing plays an important role to contribute for circular economy by extending the life cycle of used products. Remanufacturing is a recovery process of worn-out product through multi-process remanufacturing to achieve quality, specifications, and performance “as good as new” condition. It Remanufacturing processes focuses on disassembling, cleaning, repairing, and reassembling used products or components to restore them to like-new or even better-than-new condition. The basic problem in a remanufacturing process planning is how to appropriately select the manufacturing/remanufacturing process (technology) to have in a remanufacturing company that has the capability to ensure “like new” quality of remanufactured product. This paper presents a mathematical model for optimizing remanufacturing processes planning by considering quality loss and carbon emissions. The model was formulated using integer linear programming to obtain optimal solution. We study a remanufacturing system with four stage processes under varying quality condition of incoming core. This study also considered multiple remanufacturing processes that can be selected for each stage of the processes, then the processes may lead to different process characteristics, i.e. quality tolerance and carbon emission. A numerical example was used to validate the proposed model for a case of remanufactured hydraulic cylinder process planning. The model consistently shows an optimal solution for the case.