A method for remanufacturing process planning and control using loosely coupled systems

Remanufacturing is a crucial component for our societies to move toward a circular economy. Compared to new manufacturing, the distinctive nature of remanufacturing is found to have high variability, high uncertainty and, thereby, complexity. Therefore, remanufacturers need to be able to adapt to the complexity and to flexibly adjust their processes. Especially, the ability to remanufacturing process planning and control is important. However, few practical methods supporting that are available so far. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a method for designing teams and processes in remanufacturing based on the concept of loosely coupled systems. In the proposed method, Design Structure Matrix (DSM) is applied to identify loosely coupled sub-systems that enable to localize impacts of changes within themselves. These sub-systems are also regarded as cross-functional teams that reduce coordination efforts among line departments and therefore increase the adaptability against uncertainties. As a preliminary validation, the proposed method was applied to a real case of remanufacturing, and then found to be effective for creating teams and processes for remanufacturing process planning and control depending on given uncertainties.