Advancing Circular Economy Research: Insights from StochMod2024 Conference in Milan
by Nicla Frigerio, Politecnico di Milano (PMI)
PMI is thrilled to announce that their joint research paper was recently presented at the prestigious StochMod2024 Conference, held in Milan from June 5-7. The presentation, delivered by PhD student Yunlei Song, showcased their innovative work on promoting the circular economy as a strategic response to pressing global issues such as resource scarcity, energy crises, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The presentation was delivered by PhD student Yunlei Song
“Our research dives deep into the analysis of manufacturing systems within the framework of a circular economy. Specifically, we focus on the scenario where products return after their initial use phase with varying quality levels. This study addresses a shared manufacturing stage that handles incoming products of two different quality levels, catering to an infinite demand for the final product.
The key decisions in our model include determining whether to accept or reject incoming products based on their quality and selecting which product to process at any given time. We developed a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model to represent the controlled system, proposing optimal policies that maximize the average reward per unit time.“
Experiments
Their research involved extensive numerical experiments to analyse the impact of various system parameters on the optimal policy. Key parameters studied include:
Processing Rate: The speed at which products are processed.
Arrival Rate: The frequency at which products return to the manufacturing stage.
Purchasing Cost: The cost associated with acquiring returned products for reprocessing.
These experiments provided valuable insights into how different factors influence the optimal decision-making process in a circular economy manufacturing system.
A Collaborative Effort
This research is funded by AUTO-TWIN and is a collaborative endeavor involving esteemed scholars from multiple institutions:
Yunlei Song (Northwestern Polytechnical University)
Nicla Frigerio (Politecnico di Milano)
Oktay Karabag (İzmir University of Economics)
Barış Tan (Özyeğin University)
“We are excited to share our findings with the academic and professional communities and look forward to engaging in further discussions and collaborations. Our work underscores the significance of a circular economy in addressing global challenges and highlights the potential for innovative solutions in manufacturing systems.“
Stay tuned for more updates and insights as we continue to explore and contribute to this vital field.
