Conclusions and Emerging Topics

Introduction

This book dealt with the use of computational intelligence (CI) approaches for remanufacturing optimization. Remanufacturing, as defined in this book, is a process consists of used products retrieval, used products reproduction, and remanufactured products redistribution. There are various problems encountered at three stages and amongst them, several of them are listed as below:

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  Issues at used products retrieval stage: used products return pattern, used products collection, used products remanufacturability evaluation, and used products pre-sorting system’s reliability;

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  Issues at used products reproduction stage: post-disassembly part-machine clustering, reprocessing operations scheduling, reprocess cell layout, and re-machining operations optimization;

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  Issues at remanufactured products redistribution: batch order picking, and complex adaptive logistics system design and optimization.

The computational intelligence methods employed in this book can be divided into the following two groups:

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  Conventional CI methods: Adaptive resonance theory neural network (Chapter 8), genetic algorithm (Chapter 4), fuzzy logic (Chapters 5 and 9), agent-based modelling and simulation (Chapters 3 and 7), and ant colony optimization (e.g., ant colony system in Chapter 8, hybrid ant system in Chapter 10, fuzzy MAX-MIN ant system in Chapter 9, and MAX-MIN ant system in Chapter 12); and

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  Innovative CI methods: Firefly algorithm (Chapter 11) and teaching – learning-based optimization algorithm (Chapter 6).

Overview Of The Previous Chapters

Chapter 1 introduced the background knowledge of the main targeted problem considered in this book, i.e., remanufacturing and its associated reverse logistics (RL). The chapter started with an introduction about the role of remanufacturing in environment protection; then the related studies dealing with the remanufacturing were first outlined in the background section which was followed by a discussion about the work dedicated to the reverse logistics; finally, the conclusion drawn at the last section closed the Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 presented an overview of CI. The chapter started with an introduction about the issue of CI; then the related methodologies dealing with our book were discussed in the next section; right after this, the use of CI methodologies to deal with various remanufacturing/reverse logistics problems were conducted; finally, the conclusion drawn at the last section closed the Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 examined the used products return service quality perceived by the end users and their corresponding willingness-to-return (WTR) with respect to the used products in their possession. The chapter started with an introduction about the issue of returns quantity encountered at the used products collection stage; then the related studies dealing with returns quantity and quantity were discussed in the background section; next, the focal problem of the Chapter 3 was stated in the problem statement section; a detailed description about our approach, i.e., the agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS), can be found in the proposed methodology section; right after this, three simulations, with each one linked to a specific used products return scenario, were conducted in the experimental study section; the potential research directions regarding the main problem considered in the Chapter 3 were highlighted in the future trends section; finally, the conclusion drawn at the last section closed the Chapter 3.