We report on an industrial project in which we developed an inventory model to provide decision support for the design and deployment of the field service support system for a remanufacturable product. The product was a dialysis unit for home use. Each unit that was installed in a home would eventually be removed due to failure, or the need for preventative maintenance, or the termination of the service. Upon removal, each unit was shipped to a central depot for re-manufacturing so that it could be returned to service. We develop a model to determine the inventory requirements at each regional depot, and then describe how to use the model to determine the inventory requirements in the two-echelon system consisting of the central facility and the regional depots.
Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)