1. ¹Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burg, Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2. ²Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

Correspondence: R Teunter, Econometric Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burg, Oudlaan 50, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: teunter@yahoo.com

Received December 2001; Accepted October 2003.

Abstract

We describe hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing systems with a long lead time for manufacturing and a short lead time for remanufacturing. We review the classes of inventory strategies for hybrid systems in the literature. These are all based on equal lead times. For systems with slow manufacturing and fast remanufacturing, we propose a new class. An extensive numerical experiment shows that the optimal strategy in the new class almost always performs better and often much better than the optimal strategies in all other classes.