Effects of Human Factors in Planning and Production Control Activities in Remanufacturing Companies

Abstract

Due to the scarcity of natural resources, the high competitiveness between companies and the need to create new business opportunities, some manufacturers are becoming interested in activities that involve more complexity than conventional manufacturing of its products. This is the case of companies being the original manufacturers of a product, engaged in reverse logistics to recover it at the end of its useful life and apply remanufacturing. The main objective of this research is to identify how human factors influence the activities of planning and production control, specifically in the remanufacturing process. However, it is interesting to note that it is not possible to establish a fair comparison between the conventional manufacturing process and remanufacturing in this regard. Remanufacturing is a process with greater uncertainty, so that establishing relationships with influential human factors allows: first, to make a more realistic approach to the situation in the company; second, determine the manner in which the staff makes decisions about the process and; third, develop a strategy allowing the company to improve its key performance indicators. Remanufacturing, is a relatively new process, the papers found with this approach are scarce. So conducting exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research was considered. To start this research, a study was conducted including employees of seven companies in the auto parts remanufacturing industry. In the first place, semi-structured interviews were applied; thereby the basic information to design the survey was obtained, which prior to its implementation was validated. After collecting the data, a confirmatory factor analysis was developed. Subsequently, we proceeded with the design and implementation of a SEM (Structural Equations Modelling). This allowed proposing a theoretical model to interpret the information provided by employees in the implementation phase of interviews and surveys. The model is convincing in demonstrating that the activities of planning and production control in remanufacturing are strongly affected by the human factor and has a significant impact on its key performance indicators.