Sustainable Production and Logistics

Modeling and Analysis

Eren Ozceylan, Surendra M. Gupta, Eren Ozceylan, Surendra M. Gupta

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000352887
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Controllo qualità in ingegneria

Sustainable Production and Logistics: Modeling and Analysis

Subject Guide: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing

This book presents issues faced by planners of production and distribution operations in terms of smart manufacturing and sustainability, using efficient quantitative techniques in a variety of decision-making situations.

Addressing the state-of-the-art of the smart and sustainable sides of production and distribution planning operations, it highlights how a current issue can be effectively approached and what particular quantitative technique can be used. The book goes on to provide a foundation in the new and fast-growing digital journey, and includes logistics 4.0 inside Industry 4.0, along with case studies.

The information in this book is useful worldwide, especially in the Americas, Europe, Turkey, and Japan. It is written for academicians, researchers, practitioners, and students.

1	Mitigating Customer-Initiated Warranty Fraud for Remanufactured Products in Reverse Supply Chain

A Study on the Effects of Fraud in the Remanufacturing Sector and an Attempt to Curtail them

Aditya Pandit and Surendra M. Gupta

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, 334 Snell Engineering Center, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA

1Introduction

A remanufactured product may perform as well as a new product; however, the consumer may not agree. This shows a level of uncertainty in the mind of the consumer regarding the quality of the remanufactured product and might lead to a decision to decide against buying it. Remanufacturers, therefore, feel the need to provide additional assurance to the consumer through product warranties. In systems that involve multiple parties, each with their own goals, motivations, and competing interests working together, it is inevitable to avoid fraud. Warranty fraud frequently occurs when a component part—not within the manufacturer’s warranty period—is placed in a product within the manufacturer’s warranty period. The product is returned to the manufacturer for replacement of the allegedly defective component to pursue a warranty. The absence of an effective means to control the fraudulent substitution of warranted parts imposes substantial costs on the manufacturers and consumers, and the products there are used (Hayes, 2005).

This type of fraud can also be seen in larger products such as automobiles, to smaller products like consumer electronics. This chapter attempts to improve existing methods of fraud prevention/detection by considering the implementation of sensors. The success or failure of sensor implementation will depend on any improvements in the proposed systems’ fraud statistics, which include the number of frauds that go unchecked, the total cost of inspection, revenue lost from fraud, and the number of falsely charged claims. Using discrete event simulation, the study was able to conclude that sensor implementation has positive benefits when it comes to fraud detection and prevention, and this work acts as a demonstration for more complex fraud scenarios (that may involve two or more parties).

2Literature Review

Over the past few decades, there has been an interest in environmentally conscious manufacturing which arose partly due to the implementation of government legislation and the dwindling of natural resources. The field of Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing and Product Recovery (ECMPRO) has produced many research papers that are of interest in setting up this study. Gungor and Gupta (1999) presented a state-of-the-art survey paper covering those published through 1998 in the field of ECMPRO. A later paper by Ilgin and Gupta (2010) presented another updated survey in the same area. These reviews showed building interest and while certain issues may not currently be prevalent (due to lack of product volume), preemptive steps should be taken to deal with problems that will acerbate with time—such as fraud.

One problem that needs to be confronted in remanufacturing operation is the high degree of variability in operation processing times. According to Ilgin and Gupta (2010), the level of uncertainty in the quantity, quality, and timing of returned products further complicates the analysis of remanufacturing systems. Therefore, it is also important for manufacturers to balance their sales strategies in response to the introduction of remanufacturing. Some large manufacturers have adopted remanufacturing marketing programs to promote recycling and selling of the remanufactured or refurbished products (Wu, 2012).

Another study by Guide and Li (2010) carried out auctio...