Product end-of-life options selection: grey relational analysis approach

Abstract

Management of the product end-of-life (EOL) for a manufacturing enterprise is important. An improper EOL strategy can negatively affect the productivity and profitability and undermines the reputation of an enterprise because of the growing demands for extended producer responsibility. Producers need tools and methods to evaluate each EOL option since it is a complicated but must-be-accomplished task to achieve in order to solve the multiple-criteria problem that combines aspects such as eco-system quality, environmental impacts, human health issues, and economic factors etc. This paper presents an alternative decision-making process to generate an optimal solution from a list of EOL options under the uncertainty condition of incomplete information. Using Grey Relational Analysis, the multi-criteria weighted average is proposed to rank the product EOL options with respect to several criteria at the material level. It will guide the selection process and help a decision-maker solve the selection problem. The method is demonstrated with an example. Various EOL options are evaluated using the developed multicriteria methodology that takes account the environmental, economical and social factors.

Keywords:

• Product end-of-life options
• Multi-criteria decisions
• Grey relational analysis