A modal interval based method for dynamic decision model considering uncertain quality of used products in remanufacturing

In this paper, a modal interval based method is proposed to characterize the uncertainty in the quality of collected used products for a closed-loop supply chain. Triggered by an actual case in the construction machinery remanufacturing field, we establish a decent model of a remanufacturer-driven closed-loop supply chain with multi-dimensional reverse channel within the framework of game theory, which includes the supplier, the manufacturer, the retailer with authorization to remanufacture, and the third party collector. In this special remanufacturer-driven supply chain, both the retailer and the third party collector collect the used products for the remanufacturer. Considering the influence of uncertainty in the quality of used products on the buyback price and the cost of remanufacturing process, we utilize modal interval arithmetic to analyze the dynamic pricing and collection strategy of the remanufacturer. Moreover, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed modal interval based method, we compare it with the analysis under the traditional scenario based method. We confirm that the modal interval method can obtain more robust results, and the proposed model and method of our research can give guidance to the construction machinery remanufacturing firms when facing with the quality uncertainty of the collected used products in remanufacturing activities.