A service-oriented remanufacturing framework with recovery timing prediction based on remote condition monitoring

Abstract

Remanufacturing is generally regarded as a key technology to implement cleaner production. However, in traditional remanufacturing, scrap products are recycled and remanufactured after their performance declines sharply. This passive approach easily arises many problems such as increases of remanufacturing cost, unstable product quality, and unsatisfactory customer demand, which brought great challenges to the remanufacturing industry. To address these challenges, a novel framework, namely service-oriented remanufacturing (SORM), is proposed to improve the overall efficiency of remanufacturing. Contrast to the traditional mode, SORM actively recovers in-service products at the optimal recovery time based on their real-time performance obtained by remote monitoring. The operational logic and implementation path of SORM is firstly discussed. Then the recovery timing prediction (RTP) model, as the core issue of the SORM, is presented to figure out the optimal recovery time of in-service products. Moreover, a comprehensive method combining a two-parameter Weibull distribution (TPWD) and gene expression programming (GEP) is developed to solve the model. The example of excavator remanufacturing illustrates the feasibility of the SORM. Finally, the key findings and managerial implications from application results and discussion are summarized, which provides the theoretical guidance and technical support for better sustainable development.