Integrated Workstation Design and Buffer Allocation in Disassembly Systems for Remanufacturing

Remanufacturing is recognized as one of the most profitable and environmentally conscious options of the circular economy. A remanufacturing process chain includes disassembly, cleaning, inspection, reconditioning and reassembly stages to recover the functionality and value of post-use products. However, the efficiency and profitability of remanufacturing are significantly affected by the variability of post-use product conditions. Consequently, the disassembly tasks times are highly uncertain, and this leads to a lack of robustness in disassembly lines designed without considering these challenges. This paper aims at finding the optimal disassembly line design under uncertainty of tasks times to support remanu-facturing. A mathematical optimization model with the objective of profit maximization is proposed which jointly optimizes and determines (1) the sequence of components to be disassembled and the assignment of disassembly tasks to workstations and (2) the allocation of buffers in order to provide a disassembly line design which has the maximum profit and satisfies the desired cycle time. The benefits of the proposed model are validated within a real case study dedicated to the remanufacturing of mechatronic components in the automotive industry.