Optimal procurement and sampling decisions under stochastic yield of returns in reverse supply chains

We study the problem of optimizing the sampling and procurement decisions in a remanufacturing system under stochastic yield of returns in a single‐period setting. Returned products are characterized by uncertainty regarding their ability to be successfully remanufactured. This uncertainty is formulated as a variable probability of each returned unit in a batch to be remanufacturable (returns yield). We study the impact of returns yield on the optimal procurement policy and the benefits of sampling inspection of returns prior to the procurement decision. It is shown that sampling inspection improves the procurement decisions since it allows the Bayesian updating of the prior information regarding the returns yield. We derive analytical expressions for the determination of the economically optimal procurement quantity and structural properties that facilitate the optimization procedure and provide useful insights. The determination of the economically optimal sample size is also discussed and the benefits of sampling are illustrated through numerical examples.