While the net present value (NPV) approach is widely accepted as the right framework for studying production and inventory control systems, average cost (AC) models are more widely used. For the well known EOQ model it can be veri_ed that (under certain conditions) the AC approach gives near...

In this paper, we consider a newly-designed automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). The system consists of an automated crane taking care of movements in the horizontal and vertical direction. A gravity conveying mechanism takes care of the depth movement. The aim of the research was to...

We study the disposition decision for product returns in a closed-loop supply chain. Motivated by the asset recovery process at IBM, we consider two disposition alternatives. Returns may be either refurbished for reselling or dismantled for spare parts. Reselling a refurbished unit typically...

Sustainability has become a major issue in most economies, causing many leading companies to focus on product recovery and reverse logistics. This research is focused on product recovery, and in particular on production control and inventory management in the remanufacturing context. We study a...

We describe an algorithmic approach to determine an efficient railway rolling stock circulation on a single line or on a set of interacting lines. Given the timetable and the passengers? seat demand, we develop a branch-and-price algorithm that results in an allocation of rolling stock material...

We describe hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing systems with a long lead time for manufacturing and a short lead time for remanufacturing. We review the classes of inventory strategies for hybrid systems in the literature. These are all based on equal lead times. For systems with slow...

This paper deals with a practical application of an integrated approach to vehicle and crew scheduling, that we have developed previously. Computational results have shown that our approach can be applied to problems of practical size. However, application of the approach to the actual problems...

Sequencing unit load retrieval requests has been studied extensively in literature for conventional single-deep automated warehousing systems. A proper sequence can greatly reduce the makespan when carrying out a group of such requests. Although the sequencing problem is NP-hard some very good...

We explore the value of information in the context of a remanufacturer that faces uncertainty with respect to demand, product return, and product recovery (yield loss). We assume a single period model in which the operational decision of interest is the quantity of new product to order. Our...

Remanufacturing has long been perceived as an environmentally-friendly initiative. The question of how remanufacturing moderates the relation between environmental impact and economic returns is still unanswered, however. In this paper, we focus our attention on the electronics industry. In...