Inventory and value management in demanufacturing facilities.

摘要

Environmental issues are a growing concern for corporations, consumers, and governments. A particularly pressing issue is the proper management of the post-use stage of manufactured products, motivated by such factors as diminishing landfill space, take-back legislation, and an increase in lease programs. Currently, end-of-use products (EOUPs) that are not landfilled are destructively disassembled in order to recycle the material content in the products. However, focus is shifting from material recycling to value recovery as a post-use option.;The goal of value recovery is to retrieve parts, assemblies, or modules from EOUPs with the intent of reusing them in a new use cycle. Value recovery consists of demanufacturing and remanufacturing. Demanufacturing can be defined as the collection and disassembly of EOUPs for the purpose of recovering parts for reuse/remanufacture, and recycling the balance of the components, while remanufacturing consists of repackaging, repairing, and reassembly.;In Europe, legislated take-back, landfill bans, and taxation of waste have motivated material and value recovery efforts, and a highly-developed infrastructure for collection and recycling exists. In the U.S., very little has been done to institutionalize EOUP management, with efforts and infrastructure left to develop via a free enterprise approach. Currently, only products which have large savings in production costs compared to the drop in value between new and recovered products are remanufactured. Therefore, a great number of consumer goods have the potential for product recovery and remanufacturing, but do not currently represent a profitable business venture. It is envisioned that an opportunity exists for companies to enter the EOUP recovery arena by establishing stand-alone demanufacturing facilities. Assuming that companies may move to establish such facilities, it is desired to establish methods and technologies that will make these entities profitable. Such actions will ensure the economic survival of the companies and provide a benefit to the environment by reducing EOUP disposal levels.;One of the most important challenges faced by demanufacturing facilities is the management of inventory. For an independent demanufacturing facility to be economically viable, methods for determining EOUP value and an effective inventory management strategy are imperative. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)