Dynamic disassembly planning for remanufacturing of multiple types of products

With the increased need for remanufacturing of end-of-life products, achieving economic efficiency in remanufacturing is urgently needed. The purpose of this study was to devise a cost-minimisation plan for disassembly and remanufacturing of end-of-life products returned by consumers. A returned end-of-life product is disassembled into remanufacturable parts, which are supposed to be used for new products after being remanufactured. Each end-of-life product is disassembled into parts at variable levels and through variable sequences as needed, taking into account not only disassembly but also manufacturing, remanufacturing, and holding inventory of remanufacturable parts. This study proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for derivation of the optimal disassembly plan for each returned product, under deterministically known demand and return flows. For the purposes of an illustrative example, the proposed model was applied to the formulation of an optimal disassembly and remanufacturing plan of 'fuser assembly' of laser printers. The solution reveals that variable-level disassembly of products saves a significant remanufacturing cost compared with full disassembly.