End-of-life Products Research Articles

Emotions, deliberations, and end‐of‐life products

AbstractDeath is inevitable; yet, not all consumers prepare for death by purchasing end‐of‐life (EOL) products. Using the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the dual‐process model framework, this study aims to examine the role of emotions and cognitions in influencing consumers' decisions to engage in planning for death. A mixed methodology design was used. Study 1, a qualitative study, uncovered positive and negative emotions and deliberative reasoning that comprise consumers' EOL purchase decision process. Study 2, a quantitative study, confirmed that emotions and deliberations independently and jointly influenced consumers' EOL attitude and behavior and that emotions affected deliberations for both prepaid funerals and wills. Subjective norms outperformed attitude in predicting both products' purchase behavior. These finding supported the dual‐process model of behavior and the TRA in the EOL research context and contributed to the EOL literature by investigating the effects of emotions and deliberations concurrently; thus validating the important role of emotions in influencing EOL planning and purchase. In light of our findings, marketers could, after due cognizance of the morbidity and sensitivity of the topic, develop actionable promotional and segmentation strategies for EOL products and other emotion‐laden, unsought products and service.

Fused Deposition Modelling Filament with Recyclate Fibre Reinforcement

The legacy of composite waste from manufacturing processes or end of life products is a growing and urgent challenge to be solved. An emerging idea is to incorporate composite recyclate in additive manufacturing. The focus of this work was to develop this capability and research the functional performance of additive manufactured parts through incorporating recyclate fibre in fused deposition modeling material. The research focused on additive manufacturing with virgin acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and recyclate fibre reinforced ABS. The effect on tensile strength for different fibres (recycled by pyrolysis and mechanical process) was evaluated. Tensile test result showed an improvement by 43%, 49% and 69% when ABS was reinforced with mechanically recycled fibre, Pyrolysis recycled fibre and virgin carbon fibre respectively. The work identified the key potential for additive manufacturing to utilize recyclate and functional benefits as well as the areas for further scientific research. This is important for new innovations for use of composite recyclate to improve the functionality of additively manufactured parts.

Warranty cost sharing policies with preventive maintenance strategy for sensor embedded remanufactured products

With the rapid growth of interest in remanufactured products, offering warranty for remanufactured products and components is becoming necessary for remanufacturer in order to meet customers' requirements mechanism. Furthermore, maintenance policies are of great importance in order to reduce the warranty cost of the remanufacturer. In this paper, a simulation model for remanufactured items sold with one-dimensional non-renewing cost sharing warranty (CSW) and cost limit warranty (CLW) are proposed from the point of view of remanufacturer. In this model, an end-of-life product (EOLP) is subjected to upgrade action at the end of its past life. During the warranty period, preventive maintenance actions are carried out when the remaining life of the product reaches a pre-specified value so that the remanufacturer's expected profit can be maximised. Finally, a numerical example and design of experiment analysis are provided to demonstrate the proposed approach.

Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in Closed Loop Supply Chain

Due to the awareness of environmental issues and the dwindling natural virgin resources, many company have attempted to increase the sustainability of their activities. One efficient way to pursue company’s sustainability is incorporation of consideration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to designing a closed loop supply chain (CLSC). CLSC is now a revenue opportunity and low environmental emission application for manufacturers instead of classical cost-minimization approach. Recently, some governmental legislation forced producers to take care of End of Life (EOL) products. Electrical goods contains mandatory requirements on collection, recycling, and recovery in some country. A supply chain, in its classical form (forward supply chain), is a combination of processes to minimize cost by fulfill customers’ requests. Reverse logistics plan and control EOL product from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal. If we consider forward and reverse supply chains simultaneously, the result network will construct a CLSC. This paper developed a mathematical model to consider corporate social responsibility activities in CLSC. This research formulates a multi-objective problem for closed loop supply chain (CLSC) design by incorporating CSR. Moreover the model, in addition to pursue objectives that maximize profit, minimize environmental emission, and maximize CSR objective, provides a range of strategic decision solutions for decision makers to select plan for a CLSC incorporating CSR. A proposed multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model was solved. A numerical example was used to validate the potential application of the proposed model.

Flexible Process Planning and End-of-Life Decision-Making for Product Recovery Optimization Based on Hybrid Disassembly

With growing environmental and sustainability-related concerns, recovery optimization of mechanical products has been gaining increased exposure. It facilitates environmental sustainability through the improvement in the life-cycle material efficiency and reduction in environmental impact with disassembly sequence planning, component reuse, and material recycling. Traditional product recovery separates end-of-life (EOL) products into components and selects EOL options of components. However, there are many practical cases in which the recovery of a set of subassemblies and components leads to better net revenue than that of a complete set of single components. This paper proposes to model and optimize hybrid disassembly and EOL operations of product recovery to maximize the recovery profit and minimize the environmental impact. Flexible process planning of hybrid disassembly determines a disassembly level by identifying the reusability of subassemblies and disassembly sequences mixed with subassemblies and components. Optimal EOL decisions for each subassembly and component are investigated such that the economic and environmental objectives can be achieved. Finally, a case study is described to illustrate the proposed method and the influence on decision variables of the tradeoff between the recovery profit and environmental impact is discussed. Note to Practitioners —This paper deals with the process planning and EOL decision-making problem of product recovery. Based on hybrid disassembly, this paper proposes a flexible process planning and EOL decision-making method for product recovery. Flexible process planning of hybrid disassembly determines a disassembly level by identifying the reusability of subassemblies and disassembly sequences mixed with subassemblies and components. Optimal EOL decisions for each subassembly and component are investigated such that the economic and environmental objectives can be achieved. The goal of this paper is to model and optimize hybrid disassembly and EOL operations of product recovery to maximize the recovery profit and minimize the environmental impact. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can leads to small environmental impact and low cost. Subassemblies and components with high reliability and expensive price are suggested to be destined for reuse. Minimizing transportation distances is more effective to reduce product recovery cost. Such results can help decision makers to perform better judgments when a disassembly process of an EOL product is executed.

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

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.

Internet of Things Enabled Real-Time Sustainable End-of-Life Product Recovery

Abstract Industry 4.0 revolution influenced manufacturing and life cycle of products. Internet of things, big data analytics, and cyber-physical systems have an essential role in the sustainability of product lifecycle management. In this study, the impact of IoT and real-time data processing on end-of-life product recovery is assessed. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Global Positioning System (GPS) and data mining are embedded into multi-objective optimisation model to highlight the impacts of IoT on the sustainability of End-of-Life (EoL) product management. Four strategies in the Ladder of Lansink, reusing, recycling, energy recovery and disposal are selected as the alternatives for decision making regarding EoL products based on real-time information. The sustainability of logistics network is also considered.

Evaluation of design alternatives of End-Of-Life products using internet of things

Internet of Things (IoT) can play a crucial role in End-of-Life (EOL) product recovery. It can help in determining conditions of returned EOL products with the help of sensors and RFID tags, which then can be used to decide a feasible recovery process for the EOL product amongst disassembly, remanufacturing, recycling or disposal. Product design is a key criterion which affects the choice of recovery process. Complex product designs will increase the cost of disassembly which will lead to higher recovery costs. Therefore, considering the recovery operations during a product's design phase can lead to effective recovery process after its EOL.In order to see the effect of product design on product recovery using IoT, this paper proposes an Advanced-Remanufacturing-To-Order-Disassembly-To-Order (ARTODTO) system which receives sensors and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags embedded End-Of-Life (EOL) products to satisfy various products, components and materials demands. The received EOL products can be recovered via disassembly to meet the components demands, remanufactured to meet the products demands or recycled to meet the materials demands. The remaining EOL products can be disposed of. The model evaluates different designs of a product for the ease of disassembly and remanufacturing based on three criteria viz., total profit, quality level and the number of disposed items. To solve the proposed multi-criteria decision-making model, linear physical programming is used. An example of laptops is considered for illustration of the proposed methodology.

A design for disassembly tool oriented to mechatronic product de-manufacturing and recycling

The easy disassembly of certain product components is a prerequisite to guarantee an efficient recovery of parts and materials. This is one of the first step in the implementation of circular economy business models. Design for Disassembly (DfD) is a particular target design methodology supporting engineers in developing industrial products that can be easily disassembled into single components.The paper presents a method and a software tool for quantitatively assessing the disassemblability and recyclability of mechatronic products. The time-based method has been implemented in a software tool, called LeanDfD, which calculates the best disassembly sequences of target components considering disassembly precedencies, liaisons among components, and specific properties to model the real condition of the product at its End-of-Life (EoL). A dedicated repository has been developed to store and classify standard times and corrective factors of each disassembly liaison and operation. This knowledge feeds the two LeanDfD tool modules: (i) product disassemblability module, which allows to carry out the time-based analysis and to improve the disassemblability performance of target components, and (ii) product recyclability module, which estimates the quantities of materials that could be potentially recycled at the product EoL. The LeanDfD tool functionalities have been defined starting from the means of the user stories and the developed tool framework, data structure, databases and use scenarios are described.A group of designers/engineers used the tool during a re-design project of a washing machine, considering the disassemblability as the main driver. The case study highlights how the proposed DfD method and tool are able to support the implementation of re-design actions for improving product de-manufacturability and EoL performance. The LeanDfD features aid engineers in making a quick and robust assessment of their design choices by considering quantitative disassemblability and recyclability metrics.

A bi-objective network design for value recovery of neodymium-iron-boron magnets: A case study of the United States

Rare earth elements (REEs) such as neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy) are indispensable in modern society because they are vital for creating powerful neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets used in many technological applications. These elements have been subject to a significant supply uncertainty. A promising strategy to alleviate supply risk is value recovery from end-of-life (EOL) products. This paper proposes a reverse supply network to optimize: 1) the locations and capacities of dismantling and recycling facilities, and 2) the transportation flows between collection centers, dismantling facilities, recycling facilities, and sales points. Two objectives are considered: maximizing profit and environmental benefits. A Pareto front is created that shows non-dominated optimal solutions. When the model was applied to the United States, California was found to be the most important state for EOL product collection, representing up to 22% of the total collection volume. Nevada, Tennessee, and Delaware were the key states for EOL product dismantling, and Nevada, Texas, and Delaware were the key states for NdFeB magnet recycling. A sensitivity analysis was performed to measure the impact of different NdFeB magnet price on the overall network design. While REE recovery is still at an early stage of the development, this research serves as a blueprint for constructing a profitable and environmentally friendly NdFeB magnet reverse supply chain.

Value recovery options portfolio optimization for remanufacturing end of life product

Recovering valuable components from End-of-Life (EOL) product is regarded as a means to extend remaining useful life and reduce production cost of used components in the context of remanufacturing. There are three value recovery options for each component including new, reuse, and reconditioning, making the value recovery of EOL product a complex combinatorial optimization problem. To obtain the optimal value recovery options portfolio of used components and improve the economic benefits from remanufacturing, a multi-objective optimization method of value recovery is applied to the remanufacturing of EOL product. Firstly, an evaluation criterion in terms of quantified damage level and remaining life of used components is established, which aims to identify value recovery options for each used component. Then, the concept of Life Span Equilibrium (LSE) is proposed and a multi-objective optimization model is established, in which LSE, value recovery efficiency, and cost are taken as the objectives. An adaptive Epsilon-dominance based Strength Pareto Evolution Algorithm (AE-SPEA2) is employed to obtain an optimal value recovery portfolio, and its results are compared with an Elitist-based Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) and a Pareto Envelope based Selection Algorithm (PESA-II). Finally, a used lathe (model C6132) is taken as an example to verify the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed method, the results of which indicate that the proposed method is effective in optimizing the value recovery of EOL product.

A multi-objective decision making approach for dealing with uncertainty in EOL product recovery

Recently, product recovery is considered as a promising approach to increase the economic benefit and reduce the environmental impact of products at the end-of-life (EOL) phase. After disassembly, each component of an EOL product can have different EOL options such as reuse, remanufacturing, recycling and landfill. Depending on the selected EOL options of components, the recovery value of the EOL product will be different. Thus, it is necessary to develop a decision-making method for EOL product recovery in order to select the best EOL options of components for maximizing the recovery value. However, EOL product recovery is usually characterized by a high level of uncertainty due to disassembly operations, product quality conditions and external attributes such as consumer preference, market requirement and price. Limited research has examined uncertainty of EOL product recovery during the EOL phase. Moreover, there has been a lack of research on dealing with uncertainty of EOL product recovery in a quantitative manner.To deal with this limitation, taxonomy of uncertainty metrics is developed through the whole EOL product recovery. The quantifications of uncertainty measures of EOL product recovery are formulated by different dimensions of quality condition, disassembly complexity and EOL recovery. A multi-objective decision making approach for dealing with uncertainty in EOL product recovery is proposed. Artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is employed to find the best EOL options of components with maximum feasibility and profit for EOL product recovery. A typical motor is used as a case study to illustrate the methodology. This paper addresses the uncertainty involved in determining the EOL options of components for EOL product recovery. The proposed approach closes a gap in the current EOL product recovery assessment criteria. By comparing to those selections of EOL options without considering uncertainty, the results show that considering uncertainty turns EOL product recovery more realistic and can give several good alternatives to decision makers.

A multiple lifecycle-based approach to sustainable product configuration design

Research on end-of-life (EoL) product recovery has focused on adopting reuse, remanufacturing, and/or recycling after product use. These product EoL strategies need to be considered early during product design in order to reduce the total lifecycle cost, minimize environmental impact, and enhance overall product sustainability. Considering the implementation of such EoL strategies across multiple lifecycles of a product will enable maximum recovery of the materials and embedded energy from previous lifecycle products for use in subsequent lifecycle products. Such practices can help companies increase global manufacturing competitiveness and promote corporate social responsibility for more sustainable economic growth. However, a multi-lifecycle based approach to product configuration design optimization, simultaneously considering conflicting objectives, has not been well addressed in previous studies. In this study, a multi-lifecycle based methodology is proposed to solve multi-objective product configuration design problems considering conflicting economic and environmental objectives. The methodology addresses issues across all the lifecycle stages, from extracting raw materials to product EoL recovery (i.e., pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, use, and post-use), and the entire demand cycle. The multi-objective optimization problem can be solved by introducing a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II using which various product design solutions can be generated by considering the tradeoff between several objectives. The proposed methodology is implemented on an industrial case study for the configuration design of toner cartridges. The Pareto optimal solutions yield better economic and environmental performances compared to the performance of the base toner cartridge. The results show that following the multi-lifecycle based approach to implement EoL strategies (i.e., reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling) could provide over 20% savings in total lifecycle cost, total global warming potential, and total water use in comparison to the same product configuration made up with entirely new components.

Analysis of consumer behavior and energy calculation for phase end of life on stamped batik products

A product will enter the end of life phase when the usage period expires. End of life recycleis divided into three categories, namely reuse, recycle, and landfills. Reuse is transferring usage rights to others to be used for the same purpose. Recycle is utilising used goods as raw materials for other products. Landfills are putting used clothing to a garbage dump site. Consumers have different tendencies to the expired product. Stamped batik as a typical product of Solo also experiences the same treatment at the end of its life. This study has the objective of reviewing the consumer behaviour toward the stamp batik and calculating the energy needed in the final product period. Simapro 3.8.0.0 sofwate was used for the analysis. Based on consumer behaviour toward the end of product life, the stamped batik user mostly transfer the function of stamped batik to cleaning cloth or recycle (48.97%). The energy needed for the recycling process of stamped batik is 3.2 kPt. The energy resources of the landfill of stamped batik are 0,085 kPt. The electrical energy used for landfills of stamped batik is 14.4 MJ per year.

MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE WARRANTY POLICY FOR SENSOR EMBEDDED REMANUFACTURED PRODUCTS

Manufacturers attempt to respond to consumers’ concerns involving environmental issues as well as the more governmentally stringent environmental legislations by establishing facilities which include the minimization of the totality of waste relocated to landfills by recovering materials and components from returned, or End-Of-Life (EOL) products and reuse them to build a remanufactured product, and/or novel components. In this paper, an optimization simulation model for remanufactured items sold with one-dimensional non-renewing Money Back Guarantee (MBG) Warranty policy is proposed from the view of remanufacturer, in which, an End-Of-Life product (EOLP) is subjected to upgrade action at the end of its past life and during the warranty period. Finally, a numerical example and Design of Experiment analysis are provided to demonstrate the proposed approach.

A new distribution-free model for disassembly line balancing problem with stochastic task processing times

Effective conduct with End of Life (EOL) products is a hot research topic in green and smart manufacturing. For EOL product recycling and remanufacturing, a fundamental problem is to design an efficient disassembly line under consideration of stochastic task processing times. This problem focuses on selecting alternative task processes, determining the number of opened workstations, and assigning operational tasks to the workstations. The goal is to minimise the total cost consisting of workstation operational cost and hazardous component processing cost. Most existing works assume that the probability distribution of task processing times can be estimated, however, it is often not likely to access the complete probability distribution due to various difficulties. Therefore, this study investigates disassembly line design with the assumption that only the mean, standard deviation and an upper bound of task processing times are known. Our main contributions include: (i) a new decomposition color graph is proposed to intuitively describe all possible processes, (ii) a new distribution-free model is proposed, and (iii) some problem properties are established to solve the model. Experimental results show that the distribution-free model can effectively deal with stochastic task processing times without given probability distributions.

Recovery of rare earths from spent NdFeB magnets of wind turbine: Leaching and kinetic aspects

Increasing demands of rare earth (RE) metals for advanced technological applications coupled with the scarcity of primary resources have led to the development of processes to treat secondary resources like scraps or end of life products that are often rich in such metals. Spent NdFeB magnet may serve as a potential source of rare earths containing around ∼30% of neodymium and other rare earths. In the present investigation, a pyro-hydrometallurgical process has been developed to recover rare earth elements (Nd, Pr and Dy) from the spent wind turbine magnet. The spent magnet is demagnetized and roasted at 1123 K to convert rare earths and iron to their respective oxides. Roasting of the magnet not only provides selectivity, but enhances the leaching efficiency also. The leaching of the roasted sample with 0.5 M hydrochloric acid at 368 K, 100 g/L pulp density and 500 rpm for 300 min selectively recovers the rare earth elements almost quantitatively leaving iron oxide in the residue. Leaching of rare earth elements with hydrochloric acid follows the mixed controlled kinetic model with activation energy (Ea) of 30.1 kJ/mol in the temperature range 348–368 K. The leaching mechanism is further established by characterizing the leach residues obtained at different time intervals by scanning electron microscopy- energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Individual rare earth elements from the leach solution containing 16.8 g/L of Nd, 3.8 g/L Pr, 0.28 g/L of Dy and other minor impurity elements could be separated by solvent extraction. However, mixed rare earth oxide of 99% purity was produced by oxalate precipitation followed by roasting. The leach residue comprising of pure hematite has a potential to be used as pigment or can find other applications.

DEMATEL approach for analyzing the critical factors in remanufacturing process

Sharp rise in end of life products and depletion of natural resources stimulate the need of remanufacturing of automotive, electrical and electronics products globally. But developing countries are still facing challenges in successful adoption of remanufacturing practices.This paper attempts to identify and analyze the key issues which may influence the remanufacturing process. Twelve critical factors are determined after thorough literature review and DEMATEL technique is used to develop causal relationship among the factors. The results of this research reveal that government regulations and incentives, consumer acceptance and return tendency are significant factors which has strongest driving power for remanufacturing activities.Moreover, perceived benefits and production planning and control factors are found to be influenced strongly by other factors.

Development of an Evaluation Tool for Engineering Sustainable Recycling Pathways

As the product end of life is becoming more and more complex, the recycling systems encountered many difficulties in valuing all the materials contained in the products. This involves not only recovering many materials but also getting the most economical way and the minimal environmental impact. The recycling industry is a new business sector that needs to be accompanied in its development and research of the most sustainable pathway to guarantee the resources circularity. That is why recyclers need robust assessment tools to make the right choices during the engineering of recycling pathways. This assessment, during the designing phase of the waste management line, should enable recyclers to choose the right recycling processes for a wide range of end of life products. In this article, we present how we develop a methodology for evaluating the performance of recycling processes and give relevant indicators during their design phase.

An approach to favor industrial symbiosis: the case of waste electrical and electronic equipment

Waste management, in particular waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), currently represents an important issue for the modern society. A transition toward circular economy and industrial symbiosis models is needed to mitigate the environmental problem and recover value from end of life (EoL) materials/products. This study aims to define an approach and a platform, dedicated to the WEEE sector, to favor the creation of industrial symbiosis opportunities. Through this structured approach, demand of virgin materials and components, and supply of EoL products are linked to find potential collaborations. In this way, EoL components/materials could be reused in different applications, thus closed-loop lifecycles can be created through industrial symbiosis. A case study focused on the reuse of plastics from electrical cables is shown to demonstrate that in the WEEE sector the implementation of industrial symbiosis models can lead to win-win scenarios for all the involved stakeholders.