Analyzing the effects of inventory cost setting rules in a disassembly and recovery environment

In this study we consider a disassembly and recovery facility receiving end-of-life products and facing demand for a specific part that is disassembled from the product and then recovered. The disassembly and recovery operations can be either performed before hand, or upon customer arrival. In the latter case, a discount on the selling price is applied to compensate the customer for waiting for the completion of the disassembly and recovery operations. One of the difficulties faced in planning for such a system is the determination of the opportunity cost associated with carrying recovered parts inventory. The difficulty arises in seeking the value added to the part given the costs incurred for maintaining the product return, disassembly and recovery costs and revenue earned from the hulk, that is the remaining product after the disassembly of the part. The main objective of the study is to investigate the effect of different rules to determine this opportunity cost on the performance of the system.