Triage as a core sorting strategy in extreme core arrival scenarios

Abstract

Surveys have indicated that the remanufacturing industry is concerned about the necessity of agile and prioritized core sorting due to its potential benefits to optimal core inventory and condition assessment, both at equipment and component levels. As such, core sorting holds a pivotal role in remanufacturing operations, however, extreme core arrivals, its stochastic nature and resulting sorting issues, warrant targeted modelling and analysis. This paper is devoted to triage as an agile sorting strategy in extreme arrival scenarios that can be utilized as a complementary core sorting strategy. A statistical model of extreme core arrivals is developed based on Extreme Value (EV) theory and related Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and Fréchet (Fisher-Tippett type-II) distributions. The model is applied to extreme arrivals of valves in an industrial valve repair shop. Using a large sample size, distribution parameters are estimated and the stochastic behaviour of the extreme valve arrivals is evaluated and verified. An analogy between medical triage and remanufacturing triage is discussed, the results and applicability of extreme value analysis in remanufactured valve arrivals is presented, and a generic framework for prioritization of triage strategies is introduced.