Remanufacturing Process and Its Challenges

Recently, the remanufacture of used products has become an important production activity for many companies. This is motivated primarily by strict environmental regulations, increasing customers' awareness of environmental issues, and economic benefits. Remanufacturing is an industrial process that involves four key processes: inspection/grading, disassembly, component reprocessing, and reassembly/testing. It is established that the presence and interactions of several unique characteristics within the remanufacturing systems implicate subsequent key processes. These unique characteristics present challenges to production planning and control activity in any remanufacturing system. Consequently, it is imperative that these characteristics are properly considered in any production planning and control activity.