A station crashing-based recursive approach for disassembly line balancing problem in the presence of task failure

Abstract

Disassembly recovers the valuable parts/subassemblies or materials from old and outdated products. The collected old and outdated products have inherent variability in quality, which frequently results in task failure. In disassembly line balancing literature, the authors have handled task failure situations using a predictive-reactive approach which relaxes the cycle time constraint. This relaxation disturbs the paced setting of the disassembly line, which chokes or blocks the workflow in downstream stations. In this manuscript, a station crashing-based recursive solution approach is proposed and a mathematical model is presented to address the task failure problem without relaxing the cycle time constraint. The aim of the proposed approach is to maximise the profit of the disassembly line and minimise the number of workstations required for accommodating all corrective actions. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated with the help of a case study of a toy car. Numerical experiments are performed on the proposed recursive solution framework to (i) test its compatibility with other evolutionary algorithms; (ii) compare its performance with the predictive-reactive approach; and (iii) validate the use of a probability-based station crashing scheme. The results indicate that the proposed approach can consistently produce a significantly better solution (19–28.5% improvement) than the PR approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Product recovery
• disassembly line balancing problem (DLBP)
• recursive approach
• task failure
• paced line

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [Rakshit Kumar Singh^a*], upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rakshit Kumar Singh

Rakshit Kumar Singh is a research scholar at the Mechanical Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India. He has completed his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical engineering from UPTU, India. He also holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from NIT Raipur India. His areas of research include Product recovery, Disassembly line balancing, optimisation techniques, scheduling, Evolutionary algorithms and Circular supply chain.

A. R. Singh

Dr. A. R. Singh is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India. His areas of specialisation are operation research, supply chain management, optimisation techniques, omnichannel, blockchain, education policy and multi-criteria decision-making. He has published more than 40 papers in International journals and International/National Conferences. Some of the international journals in which papers are published include – the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, International Journal of multi-criteria decision making, Journal of intelligent manufacturing, International Journal of Design Engineering, International Journal of manufacturing systems, Applied Mathematics and Computation, etc.

R. K. Yadav

Dr. R. K. Yadav is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India. He holds a Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India. He has done his Master’s in energy studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. His areas of specialisation are Thermal engineering and Energy studies.

Rajeev Kumar Upadhyay

Rajeev K. Upadhyay has received his M. Tech from Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra, India, and is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at R.G.P.V. Bhopal, India. He has been a faculty member since 1998 in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anand Engineering College, Agra, India. He has authored two textbooks on Mechanical Engineering. He has attended and presented a number of papers in national and international conferences. His research interests are Systems Engineering, Quality Management, Optimisation and Soft Computing applications in Systems Engineering. He is a member of the Indian Society of Technical Education.