Research Activity Related to Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing 1994 – 2000 (

The establishment of disassembly plants and the creation of product designs which specifically facilitate disassembly are enabling manufacturers to carry out item segregation. Item segregation is defined as the separation from an assembly of a part or a group of parts by following a reverse assembly process. Once segregated, the items can be reused, recycled or discarded. However, there are operational problems associated with item segregation. Foremost amongst these are the lack of planning and scheduling mechanisms, difficulty in coping with reverse flow of materials, and item explosion. Despite the economic and environmental benefits of disassembly, researchers and practitioners are lagging behind in developing methodologies to address the operations and production planning and control issues associated with item segregation. This paper is aimed at addressing these issues. • Gupta, S. M. and Taleb, K., "Scheduling Disassembly", International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 32, No. 8, 1857-1866, 1994. Abstract— We present an algorithm for scheduling the disassembly of discrete parts products characterized by a well defined product structure. As opposed to MRP where the demand occurs at the end item level, the demand in the disassembly case is motivated by the component level of the product structure. Even though the objective in the disassembly case is the reverse of that of MRP, the algorithm itself is not the reverse of the MRP algorithm. It is considerably more complicated. An example is presented and its implementation in a spreadsheet is described. We present an algorithm for scheduling the disassembly of discrete parts products characterized by a well defined product structure. As opposed to MRP where the demand occurs at the end item level, the demand in the disassembly case is motivated by the component level of the product structure. Even though the objective in the disassembly case is the reverse of that of MRP, the algorithm itself is not the reverse of the MRP algorithm. It is considerably more complicated. An example is presented and its implementation in a spreadsheet is described.