Operations Planning Issues in an Assembly/Disassembly Environment

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 among 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. These issues are addressed.