A GERT-based Monte Carlo Simulation Approach for Analyzing Criticality Indexes of Remanufacturing Process

The growing trend of raw material and final product cost, environmental regulations and concerns, limited resources of the earth, have forced firms and plants to employ remanufacturing process. Hence, remanufacturing has become more important than manufacturing. Thus, to improve the remanufacturing network, evaluating the key outputs of the process is important. In this paper, a GERT-based remanufacturing network is analyzed by Monte-Carlo simulation. In this regard, four critical indexes related to the remanufacturing cost and make-span are developed. The proposed method is applied in an example (lathe spindle remanufacturing) and then analyzed by Arena simulation. The results showed that in lathe spindle remanufacturing example, “Grinding” and “Transport” are two activities with high importance in cost and make-span of the process.