An information-centric modelling approach for product recovery

This thesis reports the research undertaken to aid the system designers for recovery industry with tools and techniques to better understand the recovery business and analyse it under various circumstances. The principle objective of the research is to develop modelling and analysis tools and techniques for the small and medium enterprise operating in the recovery industry taking into consideration their information requirements. A mathematical formulation is presented for a reverse logistics network design by considering the capacity constraints for the facilities and multiple product scenarios. A simulation based genetic algorithm approach is also presented for determining the optimal configuration of the network. These approaches have been implemented by developing an optimization tool in Visual Basic which utilises a simulation model built in Arena to evaluate the fitness functions. An information-centred formal model for product recovery enterprises is also presented. The business knowledge is conserved for later reuse by the information-centric approach. The valuable information throughout the design process is collected and shared by both management and designers. The modelling approach is demonstrated with the help of two example problems. The first problem is hypothetical involving single product. It provides an understanding of the main elements of the approach. The second example is that of IT product recovery and redeployment, which is motivated by industrial experience. A web browser based interface has been developed to present and modify the different views populated in the database. The web browser based interface makes it more easily accessible to members of the management team who are not experts in database management. The dynamic analysis of the systems under consideration is done in a distributed environment using the prototype distributed simulation platform developed. In summary, this research has produced prototype tools and models, which can aid the system designers in recovery industry in the design and redesign process by means of easy and accessible information sharing capabilities.