Designing a Cellular Manufacturing System featuring remanufacturing, recycling, and disposal options: A mathematical modeling approach

While “sustainability” in the manufacturing sector is becoming a pivotal issue, one should consequently expect a growing research interest in design problems in “Sustainable Manufacturing Systems” (SMSs). When a product ceases to be of any further use to the customer in it is current condition, it is relinquished. Accordingly, there is a need for a product recovery options in a sustainable environment. Recycling and remanufacturing are the most two advanced product recovery options. An efficient recycling and remanufacturing network leads to an efficient design of Sustainable Manufacturing enterprise. This article presents a simultaneous investigation of Reconfigurable Cellular Manufacturing Systems and Hybrid Manufacturing-Remanufacturing Systems (HMRSs), and proposes an integrated approach in design optimization, analysis, and process planning aspects as an attempt to address to a large number of design issues for Sustainable Manufacturing Systems. The options of remanufacturing, recycling, and disposing are introduced. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model, which considers a classical cell formation problem in Cellular Manufacturing Systems (CMSs), bridged with a production planning problem, in Hybrid Manufacturing-Remanufacturing Systems, while addressing to “reconfiguration” issues for the CMS for different production periods, has been developed. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed model.