Purpose
Worldwide, facing increasing resources pressure, more and more manufacturing firms aim to circular economy (CE), which is a system characterized by the application of remanufacturing ...principles and adoption of sustainable manufacturing practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the function of remanufacturing capability in influencing supply chain resilience in supply chain networks under the moderating effects of both flexible orientation and control orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered through a survey performed online in South Africa, and 150 participants completed the survey. Participants were mainly industry professionals holding senior administrative positions.
Findings
Results indicate that market factors, management factors and technical factors positively influence dynamic remanufacturing capability (DRC). More specifically, on one hand, market factors strongly influence DRC, whereas, on the other hand, both management and technical factors influence at lower level DRC. DRC has a positive influence on supply chain resilience. Flexible orientation is found to positively moderate the effect of DRC on supply chain resilience, whereas control orientation does not exert any moderating effect on DRC and supply chain resilience.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies that explore research gaps between current vs desired remanufacturing capability requirements to achieve sustainability goals in CE.
•The roles of cost and quality advantage in third-party remanufacturers are highlighted.•In-house remanufacturing is not always in an inferior position.•Both repairing cost and customers’ perception ...of returned quality are essential for the OEM’s optimal remanufacturing strategy.•Outsourcing with the obvious quality advantage is dominant in remanufacturing.•High environmental impact or low acceptance of the remanufactured product causes a conflict between profit and environment.
Outsourcing remanufacturing is a commonly adopted business practice under which original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) outsource remanufacturing to third-party remanufacturers (TPRs) and focus on new products. Motivated by different advantages from TPRs, we develop two models to characterize the features: (1) the TPR has a cost advantage by improving remanufacturing system and device (Model C); (2) the TPR has a quality advantage from brand guarantee (Model Q). The results suggest that in-house remanufacturing seems to be in an inferior position, but actually it is better than outsourcing if TPRs’ advantages and the customers’ perception of returned quality are unobvious. Both repairing cost and customers’ perception of returned quality are essential for the OEM’s optimal remanufacturing strategy. The outsourcing is dominant in the relatively high repairing cost or customers’ perception of returned quality. Moreover, the obvious quality advantage plays the dominant role in outsourcing. Furthermore, we analyze the environmental impact and consumer surplus of remanufacturing strategies and identify the condition under which strategy benefits the environment and customers. When the environmental impact (acceptance) of the remanufactured product is relatively high (low), the optimal strategy presents a conflict between environment and customers’ benefit.
Automotive industries have attracted attention from international sectors recently. This attention to the industry results in many innovative technologies being integrated in these manufacturing ...arenas. In developing countries such as the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries, especially China who is a global leader in automotive sales and production, researchers see substantial attempts to increase economic and societal values in automotive sectors through the use of many sustainable strategies. Among these sustainable strategies, remanufacturing has witnessed much debate in recent years. In China, automotive parts remanufacturing is still in a nascent stage, but the country is striving hard to implement a strategy in industries to result in cleaner production. Additionally, remanufacturing yields high financial, societal, and environmental returns, and it provides advantages such as reducing costs (compared to virgin products), an increase in jobs, and the conservation of scare resources. Some earlier studies examined Chinese remanufacturing issues but they only focused on modeling concepts, without considering significant barriers. To bridge this gap, this paper analyzes internal barriers met by automotive parts remanufacturers and evaluates causal barriers by a proposed model framework. This objective is illustrated by employing the Grey Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach. By virtue of these findings, remanufacturers can eradicate major internal barriers and can increase the chances of practicing more productive remanufacturing in the Chinese automotive environments. This study extends the scope of this problem through varied applications of different techniques such as a fuzzy approach, matrix laboratory, and operations research tools by diversifying and including additional barriers.
Information asymmetries are the main challenge restricting the development of close-loop supply chains. As a potential solution, digital twins are expected to promote this development by integrating ...them with dynamic information. This article analyses current research on remanufacturing supply chains and digital twins, and discusses the potential usefulness, challenges and solutions of using digital twins in remanufacturing supply chains. We conduct a systematic literature review to answer two research questions: 1) whether the information asymmetry in the current remanufacturing supply chain has been resolved; and 2) whether digital twins have a positive impact in solving problems with information asymmetries in remanufacturing supply chains. By analysing 288 articles, we find that, first, this problem remains to be solved, there being two research gaps in particular. Secondly, we find that the digital-twin applications are conducive to solving this problem. In addition, this article discusses the potential challenges to this application and proposes four future research directions. The article not only summarizes the research related to remanufacturing supply chains and digital twins theoretically, it also provides support for digital-twin applications in the remanufacturing industry.
•The potentials of digital twins in remanufacturing supply chains are discussed.•The research gaps on information asymmetries in remanufacturing are analysed.•The applicability of digital twins in resolving information asymmetry is reviewed.•The paper’s analysis is based on a systematic literature review.•Further directions for digital twins in remanufacturing supply chain are identified.
Cannibalisation is still a concern for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) when they outsource remanufacturing operations to the authorised remanufacturers (ARs). In dealing with the ...cannibalisation in remanufacturing outsourcing, many OEMs (such as Sun, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Bosch Tools, and Gateway) use core collecting or remanufactured product remarketing. Motivated by examples from industry, we develop two models in which an OEM produces new products but outsources remanufacturing operations to a AR. The two potential strategies for dealing with the cannibalisation from remanufacturing outsourcing are: (1) collecting used cores from consumers, or (2) remarketing all remanufactured products to consumers. Among other results, we find that minimising cannibalisation problems does not equate with maximising profits. In particular, if the collection cost coefficient is not pronounced, the aggressive response by the OEM can effectively minimise the cannibalisation problems, but will reduce the profitability for the OEM on the other hand. Further, as the collection cost coefficient is moderate, remarketing remanufactured products can secure Pareto improvements. As such, we suggest that, practising managers should combine the cannibalisation problems of remanufacturing with the costs of collecting used cores.
Remanufacturing, the process of transforming end-of-life and end-of-use components into reusable ones, is gaining prominence as one of the essential elements for achieving resource-efficient ...industrial sectors and a circular economy. Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as an enabling technology for the automated repair and restoration of worn-out products, especially for high-value parts, to as-new conditions for the following life cycle. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the foundational principles and prospective applications of additive manufacturing technology for product restoration and repair. The primary goal of this review is to consolidate the discrete information to present a comprehensive picture of the worldwide scenario for the advancement and use of AM-based repair and restoration in remanufacturing applications. Although the focus of this review is primarily on the state-of-the-art in additive remanufacturing — principles, strategies, qualities, practices, and applications, it also includes reverse engineering applications in additive remanufacturing and decision support frameworks for additive remanufacturing. The conclusion of the review and the prospects for further research work are eventually addressed.
•A systematic review of component remanufacturing using additive manufacturing•Development and deployment of AM-based repair and restoration in remanufacturing applications•State-of-the-art in additive remanufacturing principles, strategies, qualities, practices, and applications•Decision support frameworks and reverse engineering in additive remanufacturing
When organizations introduce programs to trade in old products for remanufactured ones to promote remanufacturing, they offer two options to consumers: buying new products or trading in for ...remanufactured products, where the latter is a new practice. While most of the extant literature considers only the single reference price effect, there are quality differences in the problem of trading in for remanufactured products. Thus, the reference quality effect cannot be overlooked as before. To handle this new setting, we consider consumers’ double reference effects to examine a manufacturer selling both new and remanufactured products. We also consider the remanufacturing subsidy and the consumer rebate ratio. We analyze five models and develop equilibrium solutions thereof to understand the impacts of double reference parameters and government incentives on pricing strategies, the manufacturer’s profits, and the consumer surplus. Computational examples reveal that (i) both the manufacturer’s profits and the consumer surplus benefit from the double reference effects when the reference price parameter is relatively larger and the reference quality parameter is relatively smaller; (ii) the remanufacturing subsidy is beneficial to the manufacturer, and the consumer rebate ratio only impacts and improves the retail prices of remanufactured products, but does not change the profits of the manufacturer; (iii) when the customers only consider reference price effect, lower unit remanufacturing cost, higher remanufacturing rates, and lower consumers’ discount rates for remanufactured products benefit the manufacturer. Surprisingly, when only the reference quality effect behavior is considered, higher unit remanufacturing cost, lower remanufacturing rates, and higher customers’ discount rates can offset some of the negative impacts of reference quality effects.
•This paper introduces double reference effects into remanufacturing.•Pricing decisions with double reference effects are studied.•We examine the impacts of double reference effects and government incentives.•Results aid pricing decisions with trade-in for remanufactured products program.
•A manufacturing/remanufacturing system with recycled products is modeled.•Functions of recycling rate, buyback cost and remanufacturing cost are constructed.•Solution processes with PSO and GA are ...constructed.•Optimal strategy of recycling, manufacturing and remanufacturing is investigated.•Sensitive analysis and the validity of the model have been proved.
This paper analyzes the model of the recycled products which are considered with the minimum quality level in manufacturing/remanufacturing system. In this model, a constant demand is satisfied by manufacturing raw materials and remanufacturing recycled products which are up to the quality level. It is assumed that functions of recycling rate, buyback cost and remanufacturing cost are depend on the minimum quality level. The quality level of recycled products is set to be exponential distribution and then the model is established. The results show that when the buyback cost is low (the quality of the recycled products is low), the average total cost is low, though the remanufacturing cost is high. Namely, the companies are willing to recycle the used products with low quality level. Meanwhile, the optimal strategy of recycling, manufacturing and remanufacturing is investigated here. Through construction of a solution process on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and numerical examples with sensitive analysis, the validity of the model has been proved.
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