Title: Optimisation of the control policy for a stochastic remanufacturing system with an unreliable replacement parts supply

Authors: Francois Berthaut, Robert Pellerin, Ali Gharbi

Addresses: Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, C.P. 6079, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal (Quebec) H3C 3A7, Canada. ' Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, C.P. 6079, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal (Quebec) H3C 3A7, Canada. ' Department of Automated Production Engineering, LCCSP Laboratory, University of Quebec, Ecole de Technologie Superieur, 1100, Notre Dame-Ouest, Montreal (Quebec) H3C 1K3, Canada

Abstract: We consider the control of a stochastic manufacturing system executing capital assets repair and remanufacturing in a closed-loop system. A simple suboptimal control policy in class of multi-hedging point policy is proposed. This policy consists of inventory thresholds related to different predefined repair and replacement modes, depending on the replacement parts availability. This paper focuses on estimating the optimum control policy parameters in terms of total cost by means of simulation tools. A flexible combined discrete event and continuous modelling is introduced and simulation experiments are conducted for a numerical example to achieve a close approximation of the optimal policy.

Keywords: repair; overhaul; stochastic remanufacturing; unreliable supply; control theory; hedging point policy; simulation; response surface methodology; RSM; inventory thresholds; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2009.031095

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2009 Vol.5 No.3, pp.205 - 214

Published online: 20 Jan 2010 *

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