Title: Product acquisition management in a high-end server remanufacturing environment

Authors: Chanchal Saha; Sarah S. Lam; Faisal Aqlan; Warren Boldrin

Addresses: IBM Systems, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, USA ' Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA ' The Behrend College, Pennsylvania State University, Erie, PA 16563, USA ' IBM Systems, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, USA

Abstract: Product acquisition management (PrAM) processes are considered powerful value-added product recovery activities in closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) business models. Aside from their potential manufacturing cost savings, these recovery activities are environmentally friendly and energy conservative, and the activities must abide by government regulations. Although remanufacturing of returned products is less costly than manufacturing, the variability and uncertainties in returned products' cost, quality, quantity, and timing of return remain vital issues for returned products' inventory disposition and order fulfilment. This study discusses the characteristics of PrAM processes and proposes a decision support system framework for inventory disposition and customer order fulfilment in a high-end server hybrid business model. The proposed framework incorporates clustering algorithm, multi-criteria decision-making technique, and heuristic algorithms by meeting customer requirements and budget constraints. Experimental results ensure comprehensive, efficient, and timely decision support of the proposed framework by evaluating its performance and feasibility using real-world data.

Keywords: closed-loop supply chain; CLSC; product acquisition management; PrAM; inventory disposition; customer order fulfilment; high-end server manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCIM.2018.098235

International Journal of Supply Chain and Inventory Management, 2018 Vol.3 No.1, pp.30 - 55

Accepted: 09 Apr 2018
Published online: 06 Mar 2019 *