Refund policies for cores with quality variation in OEM remanufacturing

Cores are essential for the remanufacturing business. The lack of cores with proper quality is reported as a highly ranked factor that limits both third party and OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) remanufacturers. To encourage the return of quality cores, in practice it is common for OEMs to charge a certain amount of deposit, and refund it fully or partially depending on the quality of cores during the return process. Furthermore, the core quality varies and leads to different remanufacturing costs. The core refund policy should reflect such differences, in order to encourage the customers to return the cores with‘correct’ quality. In this paper, we propose three refund policies and develop profit maximization model for the remanufacturer. Under the assumption of quality following a uniform distribution, we develop analytical solutions for the refund policies and principles for quality partition. Numerical examples indicate that the customers' valuation of core is an important factor influencing the return rates and the economics performance of the system as well. Multiple refund policy with a small number of quality classes already brings major advantages, even with a market where the competition for collecting cores is relatively high. The study is also extended to the cases that core quality follows an adjusted normal distribution. Credit refund policies are also studied for comparison purpose.