An exact solution method for multi-manned disassembly line design with AND/OR precedence relations

Abstract

Specific government regulations for waste products and increasing environmental awareness are concerns for companies. Disassembly operations have become essential tools for green manufacturing and for reducing ecological hazards from waste electrical and electronic equipment. An effective and efficient line design may be vital to encourage companies to establish a disassembly center. The line-balancing problem is a critical issue in a disassembly center. Large products may allow simultaneous disassembly of parts using more than one operator at a workstation. However, multi-manned disassembly line balancing creates a more complicated problem. Thus, an efficient solution technique based on a constraint programming (CP) approach is proposed for multi-manned disassembly line balancing with AND/OR precedence relations to minimize cycle time as a primary objective and the total number of workers as a secondary objective. A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model based on previous studies was proposed to define the problem. A CP approach was developed for the first time to solve this problem. A genetic algorithm was used to show the relative performance of the CP method for large problems. The proposed CP approach demonstrates superior performance.