Problem of Disassembly-To-Order System for Recycling Rate and Profit using Linear Physical Programming

Abstract

Manufacturing has been required to promote material circulation by reusing components and recycling materials since the depletion of natural resources has become more serious. Thus, values of components and materials in end-of-life (EOL) products need to be recovered for material circulation. Disassembly-to-order (DTO) system, which determines the combinations of the EOL products or components for each recovery process such as disassembly, inspection and recycling, should be constructed to maximize not only profit but also recycling rate for the material circulation. Since the recycling rate can be defined as a ratio of recyclable weight, the maximizing recycling rate can reduce disposal weight of the EOL products. To establish the DTO system environmentally friendly and economically, it should be designed using multi criteria decision making techniques known as Linear Physical Programming (LPP). One of the advantages of the LPP is that mathematical weights for each criterion based on preferences of a decision maker can be calculated with its algorithm. This study addresses the design of DTO problem for recycling rate and profits using LPP. First, procedures of the DTO systems are explained. Next, a numerical experiment is illustrated to show a design example of the proposed method. Finally, conclusions and future studies are provided.