Strategic response to EEE returns: Product eco-design or new recovery processes?

In this paper we study how industry should strategically respond to imposed producer responsibility by regulation such as the WEEE-directive. Product eco-design covers both Design for Disassembly and Recovery (DfX) and Product Data Management (PDM). On the process side, X-ray technologies and Post-shredder Separation Techniques (PST) can also improve the overall efficiency of recovery strategies. We revisit the Roteb case on monitors published in some of our previous work and add characteristics to make it up-to-date. We develop four scenarios with each three different information levels on the disassembly Bill Of Material (dBOM) and on return quality, namely perfect information, partial information, and a scenario with no information. For the three information scenarios, we deploy different decision support models, namely an integer program in case of perfect information, a number of decision rules in case of partial information, and a default strategy in case of no information. Within each scenario, we carry out a sensitivity analysis on those operational parameters affected by the strategic choices mentioned. We conclude with recommendations to OEMs on strategic response related to recovery and elaborate on future research using our modeling approach in the EEE and other types of industry. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.