Partial disassembly sequencing considering acquired end-of-life product age distributions

Uncertainty management is a priority in remanufacturing operations due to uncertain end-of-life (EoL) product quality, quantity and return timing. Ignoring EoL product uncertainty can result in inefficient remanufacturing operations. In this work, an approach is developed that addresses the impact of EoL product quality uncertainty on partial disassembly sequences. Disassembly is performed on nearly all EoL products, yet it is vulnerable to uncertain EoL product quality, defined in this work as the remaining value of an EoL product compared to original equipment manufacturer standards. The developed approach converges to an optimal or near-optimal partial disassembly sequence provided that information regarding acquired EoL product age distributions is known and correlates to EoL product quality. A mathematical framework is introduced to evaluate disassembly sequences based on profit standard deviation and profit probability as well as the traditionally used expected profit. The approach is tested on an example case study to investigate the impact of uncertain quality on the optimal or near-optimal disassembly sequence, expected profit, profit standard deviation and profit probability.