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With the improvement of economic level, car ownership is growing, and the number of scrapped automobiles is increasing. Therefore, evaluation research for auto parts remanufacturing is particularly important. The purpose of this paper is to construct the evaluation index system of auto parts remanufacturing and research the grey clustering theory. The grey fixed weight clustering evaluation is used to evaluate automobile engine remanufacturability.

According to the policies and regulations of China about remanufacturing, economic, technical, resources, energy and the environment, four indexes are selected to set up the evaluation standard of auto parts remanufacturing scheme. Grey fixed weight clustering method is used to evaluate remanufacturability of the auto parts. Firstly, number index and grey determine the whitenization weight function, then based on the clustering weight of each index, the clustering coefficient matrix is calculated. Finally, the class that certain object belongs to, according to the clustering coefficient matrix is determined.

Results show that constructed indexes of auto parts remanufacturing scheme can be used for effective evaluation. And the proposed fixed weight grey cluster model can aggregate all indexes information well. Therefore, the proposed indexes and model in this paper are effective and can be used for auto parts remanufacturing.

According to the requirements of the current situation in China, this paper puts forward a method based on grey clustering decision, to evaluate different auto parts remanufacturing schemes, for manufacturing enterprises to provide theoretical basis for remanufacturing production, in order to realize the reasonable configuration of resources.

This paper firstly establishes the evaluation index system of auto parts remanufacturing, the grey clustering theory is introduced into the evaluation of remanufacturing. The fixed-weight grey cluster model is proposed to aggregate indexes’ information.

In a quest to meet increasing pressure to incorporate environmental and sustainability factors due to the legislations and growing public awareness, companies are rethinking of strategizing their supply chain network to take control of the reverse flow of products as well. This growing interest has also led to tremendous growth in publications occurring in several reputed journals in the last few years. In this context, the purpose of this article is to perform a systematic literature survey of recent and state-of-the-art papers in order to draw insights and highlight the future directions.

This paper has selected and reviewed 204 papers published from the year 2002–2017. The papers were collected from the web of science and Google scholar database which have the DOI number. The selected papers were then categorized into main five core areas of RSC management namely reverse supply chain (RSC), Reverse Logistics (RL), Remanufacturing, Closed-Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) and Product Recovery Systems (PRS) and then analyzed with great detail. Finally, the research gaps that were identified from the study have been highlighted for future research opportunities.

This paper would serve as a roadmap to the managers who wish to align their forward and reverse supply chains for overall growth and development. It provides an in-depth knowledge on RSC to the researchers working in this domain. The scholars would be able to identify the areas of RSC which have been already addressed and the areas which remain unaddressed.

This paper presents a systematic literature survey of state-of-the-art papers that was published in the reputed journal in the area of RSC. Total 204 numbers of papers which were published in the reputed journals between 2002 and 2017 are reviewed, categorized and analysed to draw the opportunities and future research direction in the area of RSC.

This research aims to propose a methodology for a systematic, concurrent consideration of design for assembly (DFA) and disassembly guidelines and constraints for product remanufacturing. The methodology provides a holistic approach to design product from the remanufacturing perspective.

The proposed methodology incorporates parts’ integration assessment and evaluation of part complexity and accessibility taking into consideration both DFA and design-for-disassembly (DFD) guidelines and constraints. Metrics for accessibility and complexity in retrieving the remanufacturable cores from a product are evaluated to determine the best possible disassembly route considering the practical constraints which an operator might face during disassembly. As there could be more than one feasible disassembly route to retrieve a core during remanufacturing, a disassembly evaluation is conducted to determine the optimal path after combination of the parts of the assembly.

In remanufacturing, products need to be disassembled and re-assembled again. Conflicts exist between DFA and DFD. The proposed methodology serves to address these conflicting issues. The proposed methodology eases a designer’s effort systematically to incorporate both aspects, by incorporating practical consideration to determine an optimal disassembly sequence through integrating the handling aspect of assembly complexity assessment with the U-Rating disassembly effort indexing scheme to provide a quantitative evaluation of disassembly complexity, as disassembly still largely requires human effort.

Future research will explore methods to improve the user interface with features to determine feasible disassembly routes of a product automatically. This will relieve the effort of the product designer to a great extent.

This paper proposes a methodology for a systematic, concurrent consideration of DFA and DFD to provide a holistic approach to product design from the remanufacturing perspective to ease the designer’s task. Practical considerations will be made to determine the optimal disassembly route of the product. DFD will only be required to be applied to the selected disassembly route to minimize conflicts with DFA.

Re-use of products in the supply chain has become a significant consideration in the last decade. It has resulted in the development of several product recovery alternatives. Remanufacturing in the supply chain is one such product recovery option that yields social, economic and environmental benefits. This study aims is to identify and evaluate the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the remanufacturing supply chain (RSC).

The KPIs of RSC are classified along with the five primary management processes (plan, source, make, deliver and return) of the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model. A grey decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique is applied to investigate the complex interrelationships amongst the identified KPIs and categorize them into cause and effect group. The applicability of the proposed framework is demonstrated through a case organization involved in remanufacturing business.

The KPIs are identified based on literature analysis and subsequent discussion with decision panel experts. The present research work results reveal that “consumer awareness program”, “technological compatibility” and skilled workforce' are the most influential indicators.

This research work provides a framework to evaluate the causal relationship between the RSC KPIs. The framework proposed in this study is empirically applied to a case organization. Based on the study findings some important recommendations are presented to the decision-makers/policy planners to help them develop an action plan. This would help the case organization reduce resource consumption, increase market share and enable sustainable development.

The uncertainty of remanufacturing parts is a key factor affecting the quality of remanufactured products. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to measure the uncertainty of remanufactured parts and study the coupling mechanism of reassembly quality.

First, uncertainty of remanufactured parts is analyzed, and the uncertainty measure model for remanufacturing parts based on entropy is constructed. Second, the nonlinear mapping model between the uncertainty and reassembly quality were studied using Gauss-Newton iterative method to reveal the coupling mechanism between uncertainty of remanufacturing parts and reassembly quality. Finally, the model is verified in the reassembly process of remanufacturing cylinder head.

The method can guide reassembly operations to improve the reassembly quality with uncertainty of remanufactured parts.

This study provides practical implications by developing a multivariate nonlinear mapping model for reassembly quality based on entropy to determine the uncertainty factors that affect the reassembly quality significantly and then correct the reassembly operation to better optimize the allocation of remanufacturing production resources. The study also theoretically contributes to reveal the coupling mechanism of reassembly quality with the uncertainty of remanufactured parts.

The purpose of this paper is to use a conceptual model from literature for designing value recovery (VR) networks for three categories of post‐consumer product returns.

A bi‐level optimization model is developed to determine the disposition decision for refrigerators, washing machines and passenger cars in the Indian context using data for product returns from literature. Using standard off‐the‐shelf software, the break‐even values of returns are calculated for setting up various VR facilities under different scenarios to maximize profits for a ten‐year time‐horizon.

The VR activities are profitable for all the three categories of products beyond a certain minimum quantity of returns. Experimentation across the three product categories shows that presently remanufacturing is not a viable economic proposition in the Indian context. Further, the VR network design suggested by this approach is volume flexible.

A “push” system where the volumes and grades of returns drive the VR decisions. Optimization has been carried out for three product categories and not brands or OEMs. No free choice of facility locations.

The insights and learning under different scenarios may be utilized as inputs for decision‐making and for designing various incentive plans.

This work is a first step towards VR network design in the Indian context. Various tools from the methodological perspective are used and provide detailed network design from the topological perspective.

With the UK’s accelerating plans to transition to electric mobility, this paper aims to highlight the need for policies to prepare for appropriate management of electric vehicle (EV) lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) as they reach the end of their life.

This is a regulatory review based on projections of EV LIBs coming off the market and associated problems of waste management together with the development of a servitisation model.

Circular economy in EV LIBs is unlikely to shape itself because LIB recycling is challenging and still in development. LIB volumes are insufficient for recycling to be currently profitable, and a circular economy here will need to be driven by regulatory intervention. Ignoring the problem carries potentially high environmental and health costs. This paper offers potential solutions through new EV ownership models to facilitate a circular economy.

The authors suggest a new EV ownership model. However, despite environmental benefits, re-shaping the fundamentals of market economies can have disruptive effects on current markets. Therefore, further exploration of this topic is needed. Also, the data presented is based on future projections of EV markets, battery lifespan, etc., which are uncertain at present. These are to be taken as estimates only.

The paper proposes regulatory interventions or incentives to fundamentally change consumer ideas of property ownership for EVs, so that EV automotive batteries remain the property of the manufacturer even when the consumer owns the car.

The purpose of this paper is to design a system deployment model that integrates case-based agent technique to develop an eco-responsibility decision support tool for greening educational institutions toward environmental responsibility.

Data were collected through questionnaires distributed among a statistical population that comprised practitioners across educational institutions in Malaysia that implement green practices. The questionnaire measured the feasibility of the developed tool based on factors derived from the literature. Accordingly, descriptive, exploratory and factor analysis approach using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to test the feasibility of the developed tool.

Results from descriptive analysis confirm the tool is feasible based on mean values that range from 4.1619 to 3.6508 on a five-point scale, indicating that the tool is effective in sustaining educational institutions going green. Besides, results from exploratory analysis verify the reliability of the tool based on the acceptable Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient score higher than 0.7 and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value being above 0.5. Finally, results from factor analysis reveal that the developed tool is usable, efficient, helpful, flexible and credible and supports educational institutions in going green at 88.44 per cent of the total variance, suggesting that the respondents are satisfied with the tool.

The sample population in this study comprises only practitioners from educational institutions in Malaysia. Theoretically, this research provides feasibility factors and associated items that can be used in evaluating developed information systems.

Practically, this study develops an eco-responsibility decision support tool to facilitate green strategies and provides information on how practitioners in educational institutions can improve green growth.

This study presents how case-oriented agents aid educational institutions in going green for environmental responsibility. Socially, this research provides the strategies for green practice improvement in educational institutions toward environmental responsibility.

The eco-responsibility decision support tool provides a Web-based platform for promoting ecological protection by supporting the measuring of practitioners’ current green practices for environmental responsibility. Thus, research findings from this study are expected to help decision-makers generate useful insights into environment-friendly strategies to be implemented in educational institutions. Lastly, the statistical tests adopted in this paper can be used to gauge the feasibility of information system application in future.

Environmental crises and resource shortage have been matters of concern worldwide particularly, as the beginning of the twenty-first century. Remanufacturing can be one of the best approaches to promoting the development of circular economy and realizing the efficient use of resources. However, research studies indicate that the general public still remains unaware of the merits of remanufactured products. Hence, investigating main motivations of consumers to purchase remanufactured products is certainly worth exploring. The purpose of this paper is to find out consumers’ key motivations to purchase remanufactured products. A new multi-attributes decision-making method based on prospect theory (PT) is conducted.

Firstly, according to the prior literature, 12 main factors that influence consumers to purchase a remanufactured product are selected. Then, the single valued triangular neutrosophic numbers and triangular neutrosophic weighted geometric averaging operator are applied to rank them. Secondly, a multi-attribute decision-making method with PT is used to evaluate the utilities of new and remanufactured products, respectively. Based on the utilities, consumers’ preferred choice between the new and remanufactured products can be elicited.

The proposed method has been applied to a real survey. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is not only capable of recognizing the consumers’ key motivations for purchasing a remanufactured product but also able to deal with the ranking of the new and remanufactured products.

The contributions of this paper are threefold. Firstly, this paper attempts to explore the main motivations that encourage consumers to purchase a remanufactured product, instead of a new one. Secondly, the proposed method is established based on PT, taking consumers’ psychological behavior into consideration, which can obtain a relatively reasonable result. Thirdly, it can enrich the remanufacturing literature, serving as a guideline for consumers when purchasing a remanufactured product. In addition, this paper can help the remanufacturers make pricing and production decisions where necessary.

The generic design environment for a flexible printed‐circuit board assemblies (PCBA) remanufacturing cell contains four interrelated complex design domains. Mechanical design domains are really complex and the use of well‐proven mechanical product design methodologies does not help the designer. Hence, this paper aims to develop a generic systematic design methodology for a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell.

The study investigates the use of conventional mechanical product design techniques for the design of a flexible PCBA rework (remanufacturing) cell. It indicates problems and the weaknesses when conventional product design techniques are used for the development of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). It then provides a new systematic mechanical design methodology for designing a flexible PCBA rework (remanufacturing) cell. The design methodology is intended to be generic in order to apply successfully to any FMS design.

Conventional product design methodology cannot be used directly for the design of a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell. Hence, two design methodologies were developed: the generic FMS mechanical design methodology and a specific FMS design methodology for a PCBA rework cell. The first one was developed based on the tasks of the conventional product design process integrated with new design tools. The generic design methodology was then extended to obtain the second methodology for a PCBA rework cell design. Both of the methodologies were applied to a flexible PCBA rework cell design problem. Both design methodologies eliminated unusable design solutions at the early design stages of the conceptual design process and made the design process easier.

The generic and specific design methodologies provide a better design environment, even for less specialized FMS designers.

The design methodologies may help for the commercialization of a flexible PCBA remanufacturing cell that may be used for SM rework and assembly.