A study on the economic and environmental viability of second-hand items in maintenance policies

The use of second-hand products sold to customers is gaining increasing attention, since environmental concerns are associated with hotspot research topics. However, the use of second-hand items in the production process has not been widely dealt with in the literature related to maintenance issues. In this article, we propose a structured model to assess the viability of considering different percentages of reused items in an inventory. Furthermore, we analyze the effects of the different dependability of a new and of a reused item in the system. The results indicate that when the reused item has the same behavior as a new one, it should always be used. However, when there is a reduction or higher dispersion in its lifetime, the relation between reused and new items should be carefully determined. The fact is that reductions in the cost associated with using reused items may not be worth having, depending on the extent to which their dependability level is reduced. Finally, the main contribution of this paper is the discussion about up to which level of dependability the reused item may differ from a new one so that, in practice, a certain percentage of reused items may be used to replace defective or failed items.

Automated summary

The paper discusses the viability of using second-hand items in the production process, proposing a structured model for considering different percentages of reused items and pointing out the relationship between the reliability of reused items and cost.