9734310 Julie Ann Stuart This research focuses on the development of strategies for "product take-back centers" receiving a variety of discarded products. To improve the profitability and efficiency of product take-back centers, decision tools will be developed for the strategic production planning decisions and for the operational grouping and scheduling decisions. The goal of the strategic decisions for take-back production planning models will be to reduce staging inventory and increase frequency of outgoing shipments. Mixed integer programming models will be developed to represent the linear quantities of take-back products and the integer quantities of outbound truckload shipments. The goal for the grouping algorithms will be to assign take-back products to processing groups in an effort to improve outbound shipment value while considering additional inventory and material handling expenses. The focus of the scheduling heuristics for demanufacturing will be to decrease the cycle time for outbound shipments. The performance of these new decisions tools will initially be tested using simulation models since incoming product characteristics vary considerably. In addition, these new models will be validated with case studies in U.S. take-back centers. This research will contribute to the establishment of a methodological foundation for demanufacturing planning and operations modeling. If successful, the results of this research will improve take-back center profitability that may lead to the increase of product take-back processing. The increase of product take-back processing will divert many tons of discarded products from landfills and increase the supply of materials for reuse in new products. Grouping strategies to improve the quality and value of outbound materials may also increase the possibilities for materials reuse. Furthermore, the challenges and approaches for materials reuse, product design for demanufacturing, demanufacturing planning, and sustainability will be communicated to undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and practicing engineers through innovative learning modules for existing and new university courses, presentations, papers, and workshops.***
