Optimal Production Control of Hybrid Manufacturing/Remanufacturing Failure-Prone Systems under Diffusion-Type Demand

Abstract

The problem of production control for a hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing system under uncertainty is analyzed. Two sources of uncertainty are considered: machines are subject to random breakdowns and repairs, and demand level is modeled as a diffusion type stochastic process. Contrary to most of studies where the demand level is considered constant and fewer results where the demand is modeled as a Poisson process with few discrete levels and exponentially distributed switching time, the demand is modeled here as a diffusion type process. In particular Wiener and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes for cumulative demands are analyzed. We formulate the stochastic control problem and develop optimality conditions for it in the form of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) partial differential equations (PDEs). We demonstrate that HJB equations are of the second order contrary to the case of constant demand rate (corresponding to the average demand in our case), where HJB equations are linear PDEs. We apply the Kushner-type finite difference scheme and the policy improvement procedure to solve HJB equations numerically and show that the optimal production policy is of hedging-point type for both demand models we have introduced, similarly to the known case of a constant demand. Obtained results allow to compute numerically the optimal production policy in hybrid manufacturing/ remanufacturing systems taking into account the demand variability, and also show that Kushner-type discrete scheme can be successfully applied for solving underlying second order HJB equations.