Remanufacturing executives were asked to iden-
tify the greatest threats to industry growth over the
.
next 10 years. The majority 60% cited the in-
creased pressure to reduce remanufacturing lead times
.
continuously, and many 38% others cited the lack
of formal systems e.g., operations, accounting, lo-
.
gistics for managing their businesses. Other threats
.
identified included lack of cores 50% , products
.
designed for disposal 34% , and rapid technological
.
changes 28% . The need for academics to develop
new systems and evaluate the applicability of present
systems is clear.
We have identified and described seven compli-
cating characteristics of production planning and
control activities for remanufacturing firms. The
characteristics give focus to efforts in developing
new systems for remanufacturing production plan-
ning and control. Firms use hybrid production plan-
ning and control systems to control operations cater-
ing to diverse markets. Most firms use a variety of
product positioning strategies and this further com-
plicates the problems of planning, controlling and
managing operations. We also note that remanufac-
turing represents a much larger industrial segment
than previously thought, and is deserving of full
attention by academics from all areas.