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published_or_final_version / Statistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

Key Words: inventory systems, product returns, closed-loop supply chain, remanufacturing, optimal strategies, approximation algorithms. / Product returns have become a significant part for many manufacturing, distribution, and retail systems. These products are returned under different operational conditions that require different remanufacturing effort/costs. In this thesis, we study several inventory models with remanufacturing, in particular, remanufacturing inventory systems with multiple types of returns, with non-identical processing leadtime, with random yields and with history dependent returns. Optimal manufacturing/remanufacturing policies for such inventory systems are fully or partially characterized. We have also developed effective algorithms or easy-to-implement heuristics for controlling such systems. / Tao, Zhijie. / Adviser: Sean X. Zhou. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-01, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-140). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

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In the warehouse of a large cosmetics company, a mechanized order picker is restocked from nearby shelving, and the shelving is restocked from bulk storage, forming a three-tier inventory system. We consider such multi-tier inventory systems and determine the storage areas to which to assign items, and the quantities in which to store them, in order to minimize the total cost of picking items and restocking storage locations. With this research, we increase the number of inventory systems for which simple search algorithms find a provably near-optimal solution. The model and method were tested on data from the Avon Products distribution center outside Atlanta; the solution identified by the model reduced picking and restocking costs there by 20%. The sales forecasts of items stored in the warehouse may change, however, and new items will be introduced into the inventory system and others removed. To account for these changes, some warehouses may periodically reassign items to storage areas and recompute their storage quantities. These reassignment activities account for additional costs in the warehouse. The second focus of this research examines these costs over several time periods in a simple multi-tier inventory system. We develop heuristics to determine the storage areas to which to assign items and the quantities in which to store them in each time period, in order to minimize the total cost of picking items, restocking storage locations, and reassigning skus over multiple periods.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 126 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-108).

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy