Analysis of disasembly systems in remanufacturing using kanban control

Abstract

Disassembly is the most critical stage of remanufacturing activities. The condition of parts disassembled for reuse/remanufacturing display a high variance. Hence demand for different parts found in a core cannot always be satisfied by a single core. At this point the question is whether to partially or fully disassemble the second core. In this study, we concentrate on quantifying the potential benefits of this decision in a remanufacturing environment by using a queuing network model with kanban control. In our model, machine service times, demand and return arrival times to the remanufacturing facility are assumed to be independent and exponentially distributed random variables. The model is solved analytically by an approximate method to obtain the steady state performance measures of different types of disassembly systems. The accuracy of the approximation is validated by simulation experiments. Then steady state performance measures are aggregated to an expected total cost function to make a comparison based on the minimum total costs of the disassembly policies. To obtain the minimum of the total cost function, heuristic search procedures are proposed. Finally, some important results that can give managerial insights for the planners of disassembly systems are derived from experimentations and comments on the profitability of allowing partial disassembly are remarked.