| Recent trends of decreased product life cycles, reduced land availability for waste disposal, and increased governmental regulation over waste disposal has attracted more attention to product remanufacturing. Disassembly is an important first step in processing for remanufacturing and manual systems are labor intensive. However, the number of similar products and product families eligible for remanufacturing continue to grow making the use of disassembly flow lines plausible. Disassembly lines offer greater throughput with higher productivity and the potential for automation. While the issues surrounding forward assembly lines have been revealed and studied, disassembly lines have distinct challenges. We review the decisions, issues, and problems mentioned in the literature that address the complexities of disassembly line balancing and present our progress in solving them. |
Updated 02/23/2014