Production and uncertain green subcontracting control for an unreliable manufacturing system facing emissions

Abstract

Faced with environmental legislation imposed by authorities, manufacturers must review their short-and mid-long term strategies in order to integrate the environmental dimension into the decision making process. In that context, in this paper, we address the problem of an unreliable manufacturing system producing one product family type to meet a demand. We consider that the manufacturing system's operations generate harmful emissions into the environment. Hence, in addition to inventory, production and backlog costs, an environmental penalty is imposed when the emission level reaches a specific limit (cap approach). Because technology investments in production clean processes is often heavy and to improve its environmental strategy, we consider that demand can be partially satisfied by an unreliable subcontractor. The subcontractor which is characterized by a high development and innovation on sustainable technology requires a high selling cost and a random availability. This work examines this decision making problem in order to propose a new joint production and subcontracting control policy which takes into account the emission level. The objective is to optimize the total cost, which includes the inventory, backlog, production, emission and subcontracting costs, over an infinite horizon. An experimental approach combining simulation, experimental design and response surface methodology is used to solve the problem. Through numerical examples and further sensitivity analysis, the structure of the control policy is confirmed and analyzed. Thanks to the practical usefulness of the resolution approach, we provide a decision support system to help managers in deciding whether or not to subcontract, depending on green subcontractor characteristics (availability and cost).

Impact of Unreliable Subcontracting on Production and Maintenance Planning Considering Quality Decline

“…In the optimization, they included a customer satisfaction constraint. Ben-Salem et al [14] analyzed production and subcontracting plans for a manufacturing system that generated harmful emissions to the environment. In their model, items were available from a subcontractor at a higher cost.…”

A Multi-Industry Study of Sustainability, Total Quality Management, Organizational Culture, and Performance

“…Based on past research, greener manufacturing practices increase economic benefit (Ma et al, 2016) and green strategies help push forward innovation and job creations (Timm, 2014). Different branch areas of manufacturing practice efficient and eco-friendly manufacturing, including informational technologies (Kabirah et al, 2010), petroleum (Liu et al, 2014), fossil fuel and byproducts (Darapu & Darapu, 2014;Ben-Salem et al, 2016).…”

A Single-Stage Manufacturing Model with Imperfect Items, Inspections, Rework, and Planned Backorders

“…Whereas inspection rate importance is much required in environments where production processes are imperfect as the probability of non-conforming products increases. Ben-Salem et al [31,32] considered an environmental issue and sub-control issues within two alternative production maintenance systems where the production degradation is considered without stopping the demanded products for the market. Purohit et al [33] extended a basic production model with maintenance planning within an integrated approach, even though they considered production and demand in parallel.…”