Optimal disposal policy in a hybrid production system with manufacturing and remanufacturing

We address a disposal issue of returned products in a product recovery system where a single product is stocked in order to meet a demand from customers who may return products after usage. Product returns occur randomly and can be accepted for remanufacturing or disposed of depending on the state of the system. We examine the structure of the optimal disposal policy for returned product that utilizes the information of the inventory of both serviceable and remanufacturable products. Numerical study indicates that it can be characterized by a monotonic threshold type of the curve. A disposal is allowed only when the remanufacturable inventory level exceeds a threshold which is the function of the inventory level of serviceable product and it is decreasing as the serviceable inventory level increases. Sensitivity analysis also indicates that the optimal disposal policy and the optimal profit have monotonic properties with respect to system parameters.