Multiobjective U-Shaped Disassembly Line Balancing Problem Considering Human Fatigue Index and an Efficient Solution

Abstract

The progress of science and technology speeds up the replacement of products and produces a large number of end-of-life products. Traditional incineration causes a waste of resources and pollution to the environment. Disassembling and recycling end-of-life products are the recommended way to maximize the utilization of resources and reduce environmental pollution. Disassembly performance is affected by many factors, such as the disassembly posture of the human body, the fatigue of workers on a workstation, disassembly profit, and task precedence relationship. In this article, a mixed integer linear programming mathematical model for U-shaped layout disassembly line balancing problems is developed, in which the balance of workers’ fatigue indices is an optimization objective in addition to disassembly profits. An efficient solution to the problem that uses a collaborative resource allocation strategy of the multiobjective evolutionary algorithm is proposed. The linear programming solver CPLEX is used to verify the accuracy of the model and compared with the proposed algorithm. Experiments demonstrate that the algorithm is significantly superior to the CPLEX solver in handling large-scale cases. The proposed algorithm is also compared with two well-known algorithms, which further verifies its superiority.