Speaker: Xiting Gong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Time: 10:00-11:30 a.m., July 21, 2023, GMT+8

Venue: Room 217, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract:

In this paper, we study hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing inventory systems that produce a single product to satisfy random demands over a finite planning horizon. In each period, the firm receives random demand and random returns of end-of-life products. A serviceable product can be manufactured from ample raw materials or remanufactured from a returned product. The two operations possess dedicated capacities and at least one of them is random. The firm's objective is to minimize the expected total discounted cost over the planning horizon. We partially characterize the firm's optimal inventory policy for the model with positively dependent capacities and completely characterize it for the models where only one capacity is random. For the model with an ample manufacturing capacity, we further show that, among others, the optimal policy has the same structure as that for an auxiliary dual-sourcing inventory model under certain conditions. Finally, our numerical study shows that, among others, ignoring the randomness of a slightly or moderately variable remanufacturing capacity incurs a negligible cost to the firm, so does ignoring the correlation between random manufacturing and remanufacturing capacities. This is joint work with Suting Liu.

Biography:

Xiting Gong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School. Prior to joining CUHK, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He received a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Management Science, all from Peking University. His research interests include operations management, stochastic inventory theory and applications, revenue management and pricing, and approximation and data-driven algorithms. He has published over ten research articles in top-tier academic journals in his field such as Management Science, Operations Research, and Production and Operations Management. His research has been funded by multiple ECS/GRF grants, CUHK direct allocation grants, and an industry grant. He is an associate editor for Naval Research Logistics and Operations Research Letters.

Source: Guanghua School of Management