Optimal production and maintenance strategies for manufacturing/remanufacturing leasing system considering uncertain quality and carbon emission

In a manufacturing/remanufacturing leasing system, quality of collected end-of-life leased products is uncertain due to lessees-differentiated demands. Quality affects remanufacturing cost and degradation level of remanufacturing equipment, which in turn affects production and maintenance decisions of equipment and carbon emissions during manufacturing/remanufacturing. A production and maintenance decision-making model is proposed to maximise lessor's profit by considering production, maintenance, carbon emission costs of manufacturing/remanufacturing equipment, inventory and maintenance costs of leased products. The optimal production quantity and preventive maintenance (PM) period for manufacturing/remanufacturing equipment, and remanufacturing cost threshold of leased products are obtained by solving the model with particle swarm optimisation algorithm. The impacts of lease period and PM period for leased products on the decision-makings, lessor's profit and carbon emissions are analysed. The results show: (1) as remanufacturing cost threshold rises, more remanufactured products shall replace new products, and PM period for remanufacturing equipment is significantly shortened; (2) lessor's profit increases first and then decreases as remanufacturing cost threshold increases, while carbon emissions during manufacturing/remanufacturing always decrease; (3) remanufacturing cost threshold shall be set within a moderate range to balance the production and maintenance costs of manufacturing/remanufacturing equipment; (4) extending the lease period and adopting the optimal PM period for the leased products can improve lessor's profit. Strengthening PM for manufacturing/remanufacturing equipment can reduce carbon emissions.