This paper discusses a reverse supply chain (RSC) which consists of the process flows from procurement of used products collected from a market, through remanufacturing products from the used products, to sales of the products in a market. In general, it is conceivable for the RSC to face the uncertainty in quality of used products collected from a market. Inspection is one of efficient methods to deal with the problem regarding quality of used products. However, there is a trade-off between inspection cost and inspection accuracy. This paper focuses on the following five types of inspection: (1) 100% inspection, (2) sampling inspection, (3) sampling inspection with screening of rejected lots, (4) sampling inspection with screening of acceptable lots, and (5) no inspection, and determines the optimal operation consisting of the optimal number of procured used products and the optimal inspection policy. Numerical analysis clarifies not only how changes of conditions of the RSC affect the manufacturer’s optimal operation but also features of each inspection type. In addition, from the results of numerical analysis, this paper shows the usability to add the proposed inspection in this paper, the sampling inspection with screening of acceptable lots, to choices of inspection type.
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