An economic production and remanufacturing model with learning effects

Managing inventory in reverse logistics has been receiving much attention in recent years. One inventory problem that has been of interest to researchers is the production and remanufacturing model, where used items are collected and remanufactured to satisfy customer demand. The available models in the literature do not discuss the learning effects in production and remanufacturing processes. This may not be true in industries where labour costs and learning costs are expensive. By modelling these learning effects, management may use established learning models to better utilize capacity, manage inventories, and coordinate production and distribution throughout the chain. This paper extends the production, remanufacture, and waste disposal model by assuming learning to occur in both production and remanufacturing processes. However, this paper also assumes that improvements due to learning require capital investment. Mathematical models are developed, numerical examples are provided, and results are discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.