Page 316 - Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning

C HAP TE R 17

Remanufacturing

Remanufacturing is an industrial process in which worn-out products are restored to
like-new condition. In contrast, a repaired product normally retains its identity, and only
parts that have failed or are badly worn are replaced or serviced. Integrated planning and
control systems help to coordinate and schedule the difficult job of having the right part
in the right place at the right time to support this industry. As difficult as standard man-
ufacturing is, the remanufacturer has a task that is several orders of magnitude more dif-
ficult. The first step in the remanufacturer’s planning process is to take a product that is
no longer usable and, based on past replacement or repair history, have the right compo-
nents available to return the product to usefulness. This requires very sophisticated plan-
ning tools. Not only is there a statistical probability attached to which parts may be
replaced, but there are also many different routings that the part could take to be put in
“as new” condition. To further complicate the issue, the planning of materials and capac-
ities in the remanufacturing environment greatly depends on the quality and availability
of the carcass assets from which the process starts.
Another challenge to the remanufacturer is the simple process of tracking invento-
ry. The product likely will have the same part number before and after the remanufac-
turing process. This requires some unique identification of part condition to plan the sup-
ply and demand accurately. A standard material planning system usually considers the
status codes as information only and will combine the rebuilt and core product quanti-
ties together. The most common solution is to apply a different part number to the dif-
ferent-status parts so that they can be kept separate in the planning system. See Chapter
6 for material requirements planning (MRP) system requirements. Bills of materials
(BOMs) then are used to link the parts usage together.
Another complexity becomes apparent when the components of a particular asset
must be tracked directly back to that particular asset and cannot be used interchangeably
in other products with the same item identification code. Add to this complex web of

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