Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Disassemblability of end-of-life vehicle: a critical review of evaluation methods

T.F. Go*, D.A. Wahab, M.N.Ab. Rahman, R. Ramli, C.H. Azhari
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Environmental sustainability has become the main items of contest in the automotive industries.
Received 6 February 2010 Therefore in the order to reduce the environmental impact of end-of-life vehicles, European Union,
Received in revised form Japan, USA, and Australia laws require manufacturers to take back their products at the end of their
18 April 2011
useful life and recycle them. In order to enhance the recycling rate of the vehicle, disassemblability of the
Accepted 4 May 2011
automotive components has been a major concern. In the chain of end-of-life, except for landfill and
Available online 31 May 2011
incineration, components of economic value destined for reuse, remanufacture, or recycling have first to
be disassembled from the end-of-life vehicles. There are several efforts within the academic community
Keywords:
End-of-life vehicles
to rationalise design for disassembly and recycling, and several attempts by industry to study these issues
Disassemblability in the context of specific products. Recent publications offer a broad perspective on recyclability and
Design for disassembly and recycling disassemblability. It is therefore necessary to determine the optimal stage of disassembly, when all
Recovery economically valuable components are retrieved. This paper presents a review of several disassembl-
ability methods, including spread sheet-like chart, end-of-life value and time for disassembly. The review
concludes on the need for an effective disassembly method in order to enhance the recovery of products.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction reduction refers to better material utilization (McGlothlin and Kroll,

1995); for example, reducing the wall-thickness of parts. This
In recent years, issues on environmental and sustainability have reduces the amount of material requiring disposal. The second
become the main items of contest in the automotive industries. In opportunity is the specification and use of recycled materials.
most developed countries, end-of-life legislations have been set as Design for Disassembly (DFD), the subject of interest in this paper,
the situation worsens (Mat Saman and Blount, 2006). These legis- is the third method that could be applied during design to improve
lations have forced automotive manufacturers to accept responsi- the overall product recyclability.
bility of the complete life cycle of vehicles. Apart from recycling, there are other end-of-life options
In order to improve the recovery of products at their end-of-life, including reuse and remanufacturing. These three “R” can be cat-
two strategies can be implemented by the automotive or automo- egorised as recovery strategies. To enable these three end-of-life
tive components manufacturers: either curative action or preven- options of a product, a certain level of disassembly is required.
tive action (Mathieux et al., 2008). Curative actions may include Edwards et al. stated that the implementation of ‘Design for
promoting technical and economic development and improvement Disassembly’ methodologies and environmental guidelines are
in recovery processes to be applied to products at the end of their aimed at making automotives less hazardous and easier to dispose
life, while preventive actions are improving, through better design, of, hence a more environmentally friendly car to satisfy public
the product’s recoverability which are called Design for Recycling interest (Edwards et al., 2006). However, according to Afrinaldi and
or Design for Environment. Mat Saman, the environmental impacts of products can be mini-
It is hoped that Design for Recycling (DFR), dismantling and mised only if the products can be disassembled and recycled easily
environment are becoming an essential aspect of modern auto- and the cost effectiveness of recycling will be increased if disas-
motive industry and their consideration has become a more sembly is made easier (Afrinaldi and Mat Saman, 2008). Therefore,
important element in the automotive design and development this paper will review related work that addressed evaluation
process. McGlothlin and Kroll stated that DFR encompasses three methods for disassemblability.
major opportunities that exist during product design. Source
2. End-of-life vehicle
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ60 389 216 118; fax: þ60 389 259 659.
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (T.F. Go), Mathieux et al. defined recoverability of a product as its ability
[email protected] (D.A. Wahab). to be recovered, i.e. the ability of the product, its components and

0959-6526/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.05.003
 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546 1537

the constitutive materials either to be reused, or to be recycled, or literature and new observations (Seitz, 2007). The first parts of the
to be recovered as energy (Mathieux et al., 2008). Fig. 1. represents driving forces include ethical and moral responsibility, product take
the theoretical recovery hierarchy from Gerrard and Kandlikar back and recovery legislation and direct economic motive (profit-
(2007). Reuse is the highest hierarchy in product recovery ability of remanufacturing) (Seitz, 2007). The new motives have
(Gerrard and Kandlikar, 2007; Amelia et al., 2009). If it cannot be been identified as driving forces for automotive engine remanu-
reused directly, it might need some additional work on the same facturing undertaken by the OEM. It was found that for the auto-
form or pattern or to make into another form/pattern. This is called motive manufacturer, the remanufactured engines provided
remanufacture or reconditioning. In other words, remanufacturing a valuable source of spare parts and under-warranty engines. In
means that a product is reprocessed or upgraded in an industrial addition, market share and brand protection as well as customer
process (Östlin et al., 2009). The remanufacturing process aims at orientation were seen as the more dominant reasons for the
extending the life of products by diverting products to a new undertaking of the recovery operation than the motivations dis-
second life instead of being buried (Zwolinski et al., 2006). Recy- cussed in the literature (Seitz, 2007).
cling implies that material is processed out of one form and remade
into a new product (Lambert and Gupta, 2005). Next, recovery is 3. Consideration of EOL requirements
the use of waste for useful purposes such as energy recovery, road
surfacing etc. Then, the last consideration is a waste material that is Based on several papers published in the field of ELVs, Mat
sent for disposal in landfill (Mat Saman and Blount, 2006). Saman and Blount stated that there are four main EOL require-
Fig. 2. shows the physical product life-cycle which is a modifi- ments that automotive designers have to consider during auto-
cation from Östlin et al (2009). Here, the flow of the life-cycle motive design and development process; design consideration,
product from raw material until their end-of-life options is shown. material used, economic aspect and directive requirements (Mat
An end-of-life vehicle (ELV) is a specified vehicle which is dis- Saman and Blount, 2008). The four EOL requirements have been
carded or is to be discarded by its registered owner as waste. summarised as follows.
Vehicles normally reach the end of their useful lives, either due to
age (typically around 12e14 years), or because of heavy damage 3.1. Design consideration
following an accident. Therefore there is no fixed age, at which
a vehicle can be considered an end-of-life vehicle (http). Product design plays a vital role in ensuring sustainable devel-
ELVs can be categorised into 2 main groups; natural and opment of products. It is at the design stage namely the concept
premature (Mat Saman and Blount, 2006). Premature vehicles have and embodiment design stage that Design for X in the form of
come to the end of their useful life before their average lifespan, design guidelines or tools are incorporated into product design
either due to fire, theft, flood, vandalism or accident damage. These (Wahab, 2010). Design plays a key role in determining economic
cases often have a wealth of reusable part removed before further and environmental benefits of remanufacturing (Kerr and Ryan,
processing. Meanwhile, natural ELVs are vehicles that reach the end 2001). The main element in ELVs concept is the design consider-
of their useful life. It tends to be in a bad state of repair and part ation as the design decisions on the part of automotive designers
resale value is at a minimum and often a number a health and can make automotive recycling a safer and more efficient process
safety issues need to be addressed before de-pollution and further by eliminating the presence of hazardous substances. It enables
processing. products to be easily dismantled and enable components to be
Nowadays, customers are not only concern about price, but it is remanufactured several times (Mat Saman and Blount, 2008).
more common now for the customers to choose products that Products that are designed for disassembly and remanufacturing
correspond with manufacturers ethics, such as those based on can deliver much greater savings than can be achieved through the
environmental issues. The remanufacturing of products or parts is remanufacturing of a product that was not designed with this
the most significant in terms of resource conservation and in intention (Kerr and Ryan, 2001).
economic terms primarily in relation to the aftermarket supply The success of remanufactured or reused components is
(Subramoniam et al., 2009) and the remanufacturing process is dependent on several aspects of the product design such as dura-
a process in which reasonably high volumes of similar products are bility and reliability of the components, ease of disassembly and
collected to a central service place, disassembled and then treated reassembly, ease of cleaning, inspection and maintenance (Wahab,
to be reused (Zwolinski et al., 2006). Therefore, obviously the 2010). These requirements have to be incorporated into the product
growing ‘‘Green’’ awareness can force the automotive OEMs to during the concept and embodiment design stage as it involves
demand remanufacturing products from the suppliers in their design decisions pertaining to material, geometry, product archi-
contracts (Subramoniam et al., 2009). tecture and configuration. According to Murthy and Blischke (2003)
Seitz (2007) categorised the driving forces and motivations of reliability of an item in use deteriorate with age. Deterioration is
automotive remanufacturing into motives identified in the affected by several factors including environment, operating
conditions and maintenance. The rate of deterioration can be
controlled through maintenance efforts however at an increasing
cost. As such, products have to be designed for maintenance in
order to prolong its useful life as a remanufactured or reused
product.
Design for Recycle, Design for Disassembly and Design for
Environment guidelines would assist automotive designers to
improve automotive design with consideration on all the current
needs such as environmental, disassembly, recycling and financial.
Designing for Robustness would assist automotive designers in
minimising variations in the quality of product due to environment
and operating conditions (Dieter, 2000; Otto and Wood, 2000).
Design for Remanufacture is a relatively new addition to Design for
Fig. 1. Theoretical recovery hierarchy. (Gerrard and Kandlikar, 2007). X (Wahab, 2010). It is a combination of Design for X strategies that
1538 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546

Fig. 2. The physical product life cycle often referred to in environmental research, modified from (Östlin et al., 2009).

can optimise the process of remanufacturing, common examples significance with considering the materials’ problem and their
include Eco-Design, Design for Upgrade and Design for Disas- direct reuse as materials for subsequent processes (Mat Saman and
sembly. Sundin (Sundin, 2004) revealed some trends in the diffi- Blount, 2006).
culties of remanufacture, which Design for Remanufacture may be Singh (1992) specifically studied plastic material for automotive
able to resolve namely product complexity, fastening methods for components (Mat Saman and Blount, 2008). The conclusion was
assembly and disassembly, increased part fragility and wear resis- that plastic material cannot be completely remade into products
tance, ease of identification and handling. with the same quality as the original. It can only be remade into
The British Standards Institution (BSI) has published a series of either a lesser grade plastic or mixed with different materials. Selke
standard for product design consultation as listed below. also found that increasing the plastic content makes the compo-
nent difficult to recycle (Selke, 1989). However, plastics used for
i. BS 8887-1:2006 - Design for manufacture, assembly, disas- automotive components must be marked with type and grade to
sembly and end-of-life processing (MADE): General concepts, enables rapid identification because this is part of the Directive
process and requirements, (Mat Saman and Blount, 2008). A joining technique should be used
ii. BS 8887-2:2009 - Design for manufacture, assembly, disas- that makes the disassembly process simpler and quicker and
sembly and end-of-life processing (MADE): Terms and enables the part to be removed before crushing and shredding (Mat
definitions, Saman and Blount, 2008).
iii .BS 8887-220:2010 - Design for manufacture, assembly, Titanium materials can be used for engine valves, turbocharger
disassembly and end-of-life processing (MADE): The process wheels, front and rear bumper support, drive shafts, exhaust pipes
of remanufacture. Specification and coil springs. Typically, titanium is as strong as steel but lighter.
It can reduce the weight of the automotive and at the same time
Nowadays, new technologies, such as CAD, rapid prototyping reduce the fuel consumption. In additional, titanium can be cat-
and tooling are reducing product development times. The strength egorised as a high value material, hence making ELVs more valuable
of the proposed design tool is that it will assist automotive at EOL (Mat Saman and Blount, 2008).
designers to analyse any design more efficiently. It can also provide Mat Saman and Blount also stated that other automotive
guidance and justification on how the automotive components materials that make a large impact on the environment is rubber
should be developed in order to improve the design with the target for tyres and glass (Mat Saman and Blount, 2006). According to an
to increase the value at end-of-life. Generally, the proposed design article in The Times, every year in Britain 25 to 30 million tyres are
tools will (Mat Saman and Blount, 2008), discarded (Mat Saman and Blount, 2008). A majority of the glass is
sent to landfill since glass cannot achieve a satisfactory economical
i. Become a guidance for automotive designers in the decision recycling cost using current methods (Mat Saman and Blount,
making process in order to design the automotiveto fulfil the 2006).
end-of-life value requirements. Selecting the right material for the automotive components is an
ii. Provide a guidance and justification on how the automotive important aspect in order to meet the requirements of design
components should be developed with respect to the automotive for recovery. The use of recycled materials is increas-
component’s potential improvement. ingly important as product take back and legislation requirement
iii. Give an indication of the performance of the current and on producer responsibility are implemented. Table 1 shows the
proposed design of the automotivein relation to the revenue parts of an automotive that have potential to be recycled. Such as,
and cost of recycling processes. engine, suspension, car door and wheel can be recycled into general
iv. Provide information to the automotive recycling companies steel product; bumper can be recycled into bumper, interior parts
to determine the performance of the financial appraisal of any and toolbox.
necessary capital purchase. The Principles of Environmental Assurance at Canon outlined
that the impact of waste products on the environment is clearly less
if a part is reused in its existing form rather than conversion into
3.2. Materials used raw material (Canon Remanufacturing Initiative, 2010). The rema-
nufacturing process involved disassembly, rigorous testing and
The type of materials chosen is a key element in the automotive grading according to fixed standards so that the performance and
development process as the choice of materials is of great reliability is identical to products manufactured from all-new parts
 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546 1539

Table 1
Parts recycled from ELVs. (Toyota, 2005).

Part Recycled Part Recycled

1. Window (glass) Tiles etc. 2. Seat (foam and fiber) Soundproofing materials for vehicles
3. Body, trunk, hood and door (steel) Car parts and general steel products 4. Wire harness (copper) Copper and engines products
(cast aluminium reinforcement)
5. Bumper (resin) Bumper, interior parts, toolbox etc. 6. Radiators (copper and aluminium Gun metal ingots and aluminium products
7. Coolant. Engine and gear oil (oil) Alternative fuel for boilers and 8. Engine, transmission, suspension General steel and aluminium products
incinerators and wheel
(steel and aluminium)
9. Catalytic converter (rare metals) Catalytic converters 10. Tyre (rubber) Raw material and alternative fuel for
cement manufacture

(Canon Remanufacturing Initiative, 2010). Canon guarantees its friendly materials and also to design vehicles with reuse, remanu-
customers that their remanufactured copiers are as reliable as all- facturing and recycling in mind (Directive, 2000). Basically, there
new products. are many legislative agencies in the world such as the Environ-
mental Protection Agency in USA, the Ministry for International
3.3. Economy aspect Trade and Industry in Japan as well as the European Union Council.
The ELV Directive has proven to be the catalyst for substantial
Currently, automotive disassembly and recycling are of high reform within the vehicle recovery sector, and has clearly brought
ecological and economic importance. To comply with the increas- EOL stakeholders into the vehicle value chain. The challenges and
ingly stringent automotive recycling legislation and to ensure that pressures of being part of the extended enterprise have required
the automotive recycling business is economically competitive, the huge investment within the industry that has traditionally seen
process has to be automated to the highest possible extent. little intervention from either the Government or automotive
Therefore, ELV requirements need to be properly considered at the manufacturers. Indirectly charged with the responsibility of
early stage of automotive design to ensure that recycling is meeting the reuse, recovery and recycling targets laid down by the
profitable. directive, the recovery sector has made considerable headway in
In order to realise the benefits of recovery, the industry must fulfilling the 2006 target, but there is still a long way to go if the
understand the financial returns (Wahab, 2010). The demand for 2015 target remains in place (Selke, 1989).
recovered products and its supply chain must be in place to facili-
tate the recovery industry. The importance of supply chain is to
ensure quality and availability of reused parts or components and 4. Description of the evaluation methods
deals with the way how manufacturers take back their reused
products (Lindahl et al., 2006). There are few efforts within the academic community to ratio-
The current output value of the remanufacturing industry nalise design for disassembly and recycling, and several attempts
world-wide has exceeded US$140 billion, of which the United by industry to study these issues in the context of specific products
States accounts the biggest shares to be more than US$100 billion, since 1990s. Recent publications offer a broad perspective on eco-
in which auto parts and engineering machine remanufacturing design and product life cycle design. Among all the documented
takes up over two thirds to about US$70 billion (Jian, 2010). The studies it can be observed design for recycling and design for
United States has about 500,000 people working in the remanu- disassembly appear to be the least commonly addressed and
facturing sector. In the United Kingdom, the remanufacturing movement towards design for reuse and remanufacturing seems
industry has been claimed to be worth £5 billion per year and limited. Recovery through disassembly is the subject of concern in
identified as a potential contributor to sustainable development this paper as it is one of the determinant factors for a successful
(OHL, 2004). Within the automotive industry, automakers such as recovery of ELV. Except for landfill and incineration, components of
BMW and Mercedes are among pioneers in the remanufacturing economic value destined for reuse, remanufacture, or recycling
industry. have first to be extracted from the product (Lee et al., 2001). It is
therefore necessary to determine the optimal stage of disassembly,
3.4. Vehicle Directive when all economically valuable components are retrieved.
In other words, determining the best strategy for recovery of
A European Directive adopted in 2002 covered the waste of a product has led several researchers to use cost estimation and life
electric and electronic equipment (WEEE). Thus, Directive against cycle assessment (LCA) techniques. Design for disassembly points
the recovery of vehicle should be implemented too. After this to a decrease in the costs of dismantling a product, which can in
Directive, manufacturers in the European countries are now turn lead to enhanced recycling and reuse of the product itself, or
responsible for the treatment and the recovery of their products: parts thereof (Cerdan et al., 2009). Whilst disassembly is an
they should take on a large part of the economic burden of the important aspect of recoverability, designers must also consider the
recovery, facilitate the development of efficient recovery routes and disassemblability of subassemblies, components, or materials.
make sure that specific recovery rates per weight are met. The Automotive manufacturers and automotives components
Directives also contain some incentives for the manufacturers to manufacturers must take into consideration design for recycling
ensure that the design of their products integrates end-of-life and disassembly in their new design. Increasing the level of reuse
recovery aspects (Mathieux et al., 2008). and remanufacturing will be a key part of moving toward
Thus, the movement for improved vehicle recycling has its sustainable automotive production.
origin in the EU Directive on ELVs. This Directive which was devised In the following section, work done by other researchers related
mainly to avoid vehicle crisis was motivated by environmental to design for disassembly time evaluation method will be reviewed.
consciousness. Design decisions on automotivemanufacturing are The methods are Hitachi Disassemblability Evaluation Method
steered by this Directive to areas such as the use of environmentally spread sheet-like chart, end-of-life value and time for disassembly.
1540 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546

4.1. Hitachi Disassemblability Evaluation Method 4.2. Spread sheet-like Chart

The Disassemblability Evaluation Method (DEM) was developed The spread sheet-like chart was designed by McGlothin and
in 1993 as a quantitative measurement of the ease with which Kroll (1995) and improved by Kroll and Hanft (1998) at 1998 to
a product could be disassembled (Fatmawati, 2007). DEM was measure ease of disassembly of a product. Fig. 4. shows the spread
developed by Hitachi Limited as an effective tool to determine ease sheet-like chart. Using this method, disassembly difficulties were
of disassembly of a product without requiring product prototype categorised into accessibility, positioning, force, additional time
and experimentation. DEM is a method for quantitative evaluation and special, as described below:
of the difficulty level associated with the disassemblability of new
products. Design improvements is achieved by reviewing and i. Accessibility: a measure of the ease with which a part can be
interpreting the evaluation results for further disassemblability accessed,
evaluation to determine the effect of the improvement on disas- ii. Positioning: a measure of how precisely the tool or hand needs
sembly time. to be positioned and oriented in order to perform the task,
DEM provides a “Disassemblability Evaluation Score” based in iii. Force: a measure of the amount of force required to perform
a 100 point scale, simultaneously with the disassembly time esti- the task,
mation. The score acts as an index for the two goals, which are iv. Additional time: while each of the previous difficulty sources
a quantitative express for ease of disassembly and indication on is related to time, this category has to do with additional time
areas that required improvements. penalties,
The following formula was developed using the following v Special: this is a provision to note special problems encoun-
principles: tered that do not fit in any of the other categories.

i. Reflection of disassembly time estimation, The difficulty scores were determined through work measure-
ii. Reflection of the disassembly time that can be reduced ment analysis and derived from estimates of performance time
though design improvements. based on the MOST (Maynard Operation Sequence Technique)
systems. The scores used in this method are 1e10. The difficulty
Ei ¼ 100  sf or Ei ¼ 100  penalty point rating had to be determined to facilitate the assessment of ease of
disassembly for a product design. Therefore, according to the chart
where Ei ¼ Diassemblability Evaluation Score, s ¼ Demetri in Fig. 3, the design effectiveness is defined by:
constant, f ¼ time value for operations P
Ei is determined so that the demerit score, which reflects the 5 Column 3
Design Effectiveness ¼ P  100 (2)
time values for operations that have potential to be improved, is Column 13
subtracted from the perfect 100 point score. This expresses the
Meanwhile, the estimated disassembly time is calculated as
degree of improvement possibility and therefore shows the possible
follows:
level of the part improvements. The possibility level is parts which

X X 
Disassembly Time ¼ Column 13  5  Column 5  1:04 þ ðNumber of Tool and Hand ManipulationsÞ  0:9 (3)

seem easy to improve and parts for which the effect of the
improvements is large. From the DEM index and by concentrating on Therefore the main goal of the spread sheet-like chart is to make
parts for which the index value is particularly low, effective design products easier to disassemble. The evaluation result such as
improvements can be carried out in an efficient manner. disassembly efficiency, disassembly time and disassembly cost
Design improvements are carried out by identifying “weak- estimation are calculated and then evaluated to identify what
nesses” in the design at the earliest possible stage of design by should be improved. Design optimization is achieved by reviewing
using two indicators: the evaluation results, making improvements on the design and re-
evaluates the design (Fatmawati, 2007). The spread sheet-like chart
1. Disassembly evaluation score, E is used to assess design quality can be implemented as a design tool of DFD, DFR, work measure-
by determining the difficulty of disassembly operation. An ment and concurrent engineering.
excellent design should achieve an evaluation score, E more It is a design tool for assessing the ease of disassembly of
than 80%. products has been described and its use demonstrated. The
2. Disassembly cost index, K is used to assess the disassembly procedure is primarily intended to be applied early in the design
cost. The acceptance value of K is below 70%. process, when the product description consists of relatively-
detailed sketches. However, this evaluation is only done on the
Therefore, Hitachi DEM analysis is performed when the design aspect of geometric design without consideration on the economic
details are known. Design details include the parts number, types, aspect.
optimal disassembly sequence, shapes of components and their
disassembly relationships. DEM is used to guide the designer in the 4.3. Disassembly Time
search for a best initial design to reduce time and cost. As a result,
the researcher investigates detail of the DEM approach from Time of disassembly plays the main role in disassembly opera-
determined the disassembly sequences and score for each part of tion because it is related to cost of disassembly. A few methods for
the original design. Improvements to the original design will then disassembly time evaluation had been proposed by the academic
be proposed for purpose of redesign. community. The methods are described in this section including
 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546 1541

Fig. 3. Disassembly evaluation chart. (Kroll and Hanft, 1998).

total time for disassembly (TTD) by Gungor and Gupta (Gungor and when i ¼ 1; thenðTxi1 ;xi Þ ¼ txi
Gupta, 1997), the method of disassembly time evaluation using txi ¼ Disassembly time of xi
work factor by Yi et al.(Yi et al., 2003) and Total Time for Disas- a ¼ Direction Factor
sembly sequence by Kongar and Gupta (Kongar and Gupta, 2006). (
0:1  1:0 ; if direction of disassembly change from Xi1 to Xi
Since disassembly sequencing is an NP (nondeterministic a ¼
0 ; otherwise
polynomial time) Complete problem, there is no easy way to
determine the optimum sequence for disassembly. Gungor and b ¼ Joint Change Factor
(
Gupta (Gungor and Gupta, 1997) proposed a disassembly evalua-
0:1  1:0 if the joint type of Xi and Xi1 are different
tion that uses Total Time for Disassembly (TTD) as the parameter to b¼
0 ; otherwise
give a measure of the efficiency of a given disassembly sequence of
a product (Gungor and Gupta, 1997). n ¼ number of subassemblies in the product
In order to calculate the total time of disassembly (TTD) for
X
n   alternative disassembly sequences of a product, the following
TTD ¼ Txi1 ;xi (4) information must be known: disassembly sequences of the
i¼1
product, disassembly time of each component of the product,
Where disassembly directions and joint types of the components of the
product.
Txi1 ;xi ¼ txi  ð1 þ a þ bÞ i ¼ 1; 2; .; n (5) Kongar and Gupta present a genetic algorithm for disassembly
sequencing of EOL products with a fitness function which is
ðTxi1 ;xi Þ ¼ Adjusted time of disassembly of xi being disassembled after
dependent on the increment in disassembly time. There are three
xii
factors, which add up to the disassembly time of a component
(Kongar and Gupta, 2006, 2001).

i. Basic disassembly time for component j in sequence seq (dtj).

ii. The penalty (in seconds) for each direction change (ctj) for
component j in sequence seq.

0; if no direction change is required; ðe:g:;þx to þ xÞ

ctj ¼ 1; if 90 change is required; ðe:g:;þx to þ xÞ (6)
2; if 180 change is required; ðe:g:;þx to  xÞ

iii. The penalty for change in disassembly method (mtj).

0; if no method change is requiredðe:g; N to NÞ

mtj ¼ (7)
1; if method change is requiredðe:g; N to DÞ

Let TS denote the total disassembly time for each chromosome

in generation. Hence, total time to disassemble all the components
can be calculated as follows:

X
n X
n1 X
n1
TS ¼ dtj;seq þ ctj;seq þ mtj;seq ;cj;j ¼ 1;.;n (8)
seq¼1 seq¼1 seq¼1

The model provides quick and reliable input to the disassembly

scheduling environments as this model involves simple mathe-
Fig. 4. Design for End-of-Life Value. (Edwards et al., 2006). matic equations which are easy to understand and apply.
1542 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546

Yi et al. (Yi et al., 2003) proposed a study on the method of Table 2

disassembly time evaluation of a product using the work factor Influence Factors on Standard Time. (Yi et al., 2003).

method. The purpose of the method is to obtain approximate Base Time Influence Factors Time
disassembly time for the product to be disassembled using Preparation Time (Tp) Time for identifying joint elements (Tpb)
a formula derived from information on the product’s connecting Time for searching and identifying tools(Tps)
parts and working environment, without disassembly the product Time for gripping tools(Tpg)
Movement Time (Tm) Time for moving between joint elements(Tmd)
directly. The analysis is done to investigate factors influencing
Time for redirecting toward the side of joint
disassembly time. The disassembly base time was derived from the elements(Td)
influence factors which are classified as follows: Operation Time/Disassembly Time for aligning between tool and joint
Time (Td) element(Tdal)
1. Time required for preparing tool (Tp). Time for tool operation area(Tda)
Time for basic separation of joint element(Tdb)
2. Time required for moving between joint elements (Tm). Time for intensity of work(Tw)
3. Time required for disassembling joint elements by using tool (Td). Post-processing Time (Tpr) Time for post-processing due to weight and
4. Post processing time required for moving disassembled parts to size of the disassembled parts (Tprsw)
proper locations (Tpr). Time for post-processing due to movement of
disassembled parts (Tprdt)
Time for post-processing due to hazard (Tprd)
There are 12 selected influence factors related to disassembly
time by classifying them into four standard times as shown in
Table 2. In order to quantify the selected influence factors in terms
of time, work factor system which is one of the movement analysis 2
systems was used in this method. The operation time was obtained X
NP
by applying predetermined values of time based on human basic Max4 Impact of Processing component i
movement. The disassembly time was calculated using the stan- i¼1
3
dard time on the disassembly base time depending on the sequence X
NT
of disassembly operation. The disassembly time of the product is  Land fill Impact of Component j5 (9)
the sum of the disassembly time of each component of the product. J ¼ NPþ1
Disassembly time of each component of the product is the sum of
preparation time, movement time, operation time and post-pro-
cessing time. Disassembly time value in the work factor method is Where, NP ¼ number of components disassembled and processed
decided by the number of work factor regardless of whether work NT ¼ Total number of components in the product
factor occurs either by weight or by artificial regulation factors. The
result of disassembly analysis is obtained using work factor system ii. If the objective is to minimise deficit (or maximise
table, considering moving body part, moving distance, weight and surplus), further disassembly is unnecessary when the
artificial regulation factors (Yi et al., 2003). greatest positive net cost or lowest negative net cost is
reached

4.4. End-of-life value

2
X
NP
Gupta and Isaac proposed a value analysis tool of disposal strat- Max4 ðCost Gained  Disassembled Cost
egies for automobile but it used a goal programming to identify the i¼1
trade-off between technological, economic feasibility and degree of 3
environment detriment (Gupta and Isaacs, 1997). The developed tool X
NT
 Processing CostÞi  Land Cost of Component 5 (10)
is an evaluation methodology that enables a automotive designer to
J ¼ NPþ1
measure disassembly and recycling potential for different automotive
designs. This methodology is called physical programming. It is
a decision tool to optimise the trade offs between technological and
economic feasibility and the degree of environmental detriment. iii. If the objectives are to minimise the time for disassembly and
In order to determine the extent to which a product should be deficit (or maximise surplus), disassembly can stop when the
disassembled during its retirement, one may consider minimising highest rate of return is achieved. This can be determined by
environmental impact or associated costs or maximising the rate of dividing the net cost recovered at any point on the financial
return. Lee et al. proposed the following guidelines to determine the line by the total time elapsed. Alternatively, disassembly
optimal level of disassembly of end-of-life products (Lee et al., 2001): should cease when the most economically valuable compo-
nent is recovered.
i. If the objective is to minimise environmental impact, as many
reusable, recyclable and toxic components as possible are
extracted from the product. Such disassembly will usually Where Total time ¼ Total time for end-of-life product retirement
require a large amount of time and resources.

" #
PNP PNT
Max i ¼ 1 ðCost Grained  Disassembled Cost  Processing CostÞi  J ¼ NPþ1 Land fill Cost of Component
Rate of Return ¼ (11)
Total Time
 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546 1543

Total Time for Product Retirement ¼ Time to Collect the Product from User þ Labour Time to Disassemble Product
þ Time to Reuse; remanufacture; recycle; or landfill the Components (12)

iv. If the objectives are to minimise the time for disassembly and Coates and Rahimifard (Coates and Rahimifard, 2006) presented
minimise environmental impact, disassembly can stop when the holistic end-of-life cost model for automotive recovery sector.
the highest rate of environmental impact is achieved. This can In their methodology, ELV costing database, indirect ELV processing
be determined by dividing the overall environmental impact costs, pre-shredder dismantling costs, post-fragmentation costs
at any point on the graph by the total time elapsed. Alterna- have to be collected. ELV costing database consists of the capital
tively, disassembly can cease when the component with the equipment cost, average material pricing index, material property
highest environmental impact is recovered. data, machine efficiency values, automotive information and rates

" !#
PNP PNT
Max  i ¼ 1 Impact of Processing Component i þ J¼NPþ1 Landfill Impact of Component j
Rate of Environment Impact ¼ (13)
Total Time

v. If the objectives are to minimise environmental impact and of labour, exchange, fuel etc. Besides that, the authors also used the
deficit (or maximise surplus), disassembly can stop when the activity based costing (ABC) method to attribute the indirect cost to
highest rate of return is achieved. This can be determined by the end-of-life vehicle’s processing cost. The study was based on
multiplying the net cost recovered at any point on the the data from 300 ATFs (Authorized Treatment Facilities) in UK to
financial line with the environmental impact. determine the standard subassembly removal times and applica-
tion of an end-of-life vehicle costing database.
Coates and Rahimifard (Coates and Rahimifard, 2006) identified
Rate of ReturnðImpactÞ ¼ Max½Net Cost Recovered three specific areas that have either been ignored during the design of
 ð  Environment ImpactÞ ð14Þ automotives or unsuccessfully addressed in the proposed framework
for end-of-life vehicle recovery (Fig. 4). These areas are the manual
here dismantling of parts and assemblies, the separation of post shredder
plastics, and the recycling value of post shredder material streams.
X
NP Based on these three areas, the authors created several requirements
Net Cost Recovered ¼ ðCost Gained  Disassembled Cost to tackle these problems during the design stage as outlined below:
i¼1
 Processing CostÞi i. The whole vehicle needs to be analysed at an initial stage in
the design process to isolate problematic materials as early as
X
NT
 Landfill Cost of Componen possible.
J ¼ NPþ1 ii. Assemblies that are inefficient in material and part use should
(15) therefore be identified earlier in the design process and
redesigned to reduce potential disassembly time and increase
reuse and recycling value.
X
NP iii. Redesign methods should not only consider the disassembly
EnvironmentImpact ¼ Impactof ProcessingComponenti time, but the functional value of the assembly being removed.
i¼1 If an assembly is designed for reuse or replacement, its
X
NT functional connections to other assemblies could be
 LandfillImpactof Componentj (16) improved to ease replacement, its part lifetime could be
J¼NPþ1
aligned to the part and not the car, and the materials used
could be made compatible for recycling purposes.

vi. If the objectives are to minimise the time for disassembly, Afrinaldi et al. (Afrinaldi et al., 2008) proposed a methodology
environmental impact and deficit (or maximise surplus), which is implemented as a computer-based disassemblability
disassembly can stop when the highest rate of return is evaluation tool. This methodology consists of two distinct
achieved. This can be determined by dividing the net cost elements, end-of-life options determination and numerical evalu-
recovered multiplied by the environmental impact at any ation of disassemblability. The authors used the equations
point on the financial line by the total time elapsed. proposed by Lee et al. (Lee et al., 2001) to calculate end-of-life value
of each component followed by the use of disassemblability eval-
Rate of ReturnðTime and ImpactÞ uation method proposed by Desai and Mital (2003). This method
  defined disassemblability as a function of several design parame-
fNet Cost Recovered  ð  Environment ImpactÞg
¼ Max (17) ters, such as degree of accessibility of components and fasteners,
Total Time
1544 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546

Table 3
DFD evaluation methodologies.

DFD Evaluation Methodologies Approach Researcher Year

Hitachi Disassemblability Evaluation Method A qualitative evaluation on difficulty of disassembly operation Hitachi Limited 1993
and quantitative evaluation on disassembly time.
Spread sheet-like chart A quantitative evaluation of disassembly operation by determining McGlothin and Kroll 1995
the task performance Hanft. E.Kroll 1998
Total time for disassembly (TTD) A methodology to measure the efficiency of a given disassembly Gungor and Gupta 1998
sequence of a product
End-of-life value A multi-objective methodology for determining the appropriate S. G. Lee, S. W. Lye and 2001
end-of-life options for components in a manufactured product, M. K. Khoo
based on the objectives of minimising
environmental impact and deficit (or maximising surplus).
Work Factor Method Applied predetermined value of time. Hwa-Cho Yi, Young- 2003
Chan Park, Kun-Sang
Lee.
Total Time for Disassembly sequence A genetic algorithm model was presented in order to determine Kongar and Gupta 2001 & 2006
the optimal disassembly sequence of a given product.

amount of force (or torque) required for disengaging components, later design. Fast and correct decision making is necessary in order
positioning, requirement of tools, and design factors such as for companies to remain competitive in the global market.
weight, shape and size of component being disassembled. Based on this comprehensive review on end-of-life vehicle,
Disassembly time for each task is defined as: recycling, design for disassembly and the related fields, it can be
concluded that integrating the constraints of end-of-life strategies
Disassembly TimeðsecÞ ¼ Total Disassembly Score  10 into design at the early stage is one of the important aspects that
 0:036ðsecÞ (18) need to be considered. Several researchers have proposed the
evaluation methodology of disassemblability. The metrics used in
Disassembly cost is defined as: the proposed methodology can be generally divided into two
categories, absolute metric such as time and cost, energy for
Disassembly Costð$Þ ¼ Disassembly TimeðsecÞ disassembly and entropy for disassembly, and relative metrics such

$ as design effectiveness. The data used to analyse the disassembl-
 Labor Cost (19)
sec ability of product from the aspect of absolute metric is easier to
obtain and define. Table 3 shows the approach of various DFD
The environmental impacts of products can be minimised only if evaluation methodologies.
the products can be disassembled and recycled easily and the cost Hitachi DEM is the earliest DFD evaluation methodology was
effectiveness of recycling will be increased if disassembly is made proposed by Hitachi limited. It is a qualitative evaluation on the
easier. Besides that, a research program led by the Centre for difficulty of disassembly operation and quantitative evaluation on
Sustainable Manufacturing and Reuse/Recycling Technology disassembly time. The spread sheet-like chart is a quantitative
(SMART) at Loughborough University had proven that cost plays evaluation of disassembly operation by determining the task
a very important role in recovery sector. The research program is performance which determined the difficulty scores of work
entitled Cost-orientated Approach to Design and Recovery of measurement analysis and estimating performance time based on
Vehicle to meet the requirement for the End-of-Life Vehicle MOST. These two methods intended to assist designers in identi-
Directive. fying weakness in the original design from a disassembly viewpoint
and provide suggestions to improve the design, finally redesign the
5. Dicussion and conclusion product. It is observed that spread sheet-like chart is more reliable
than Hitachi DEM as the former considers 11 factors and scaling of
In view of reducing the environmental impact of end-of-life difficulty scores is based on MOST which is more standardised
vehicles, European Union, Japan, USA, and Australia laws require method.
manufacturer to take back their products at the end of their useful Furthermore, time estimation provides a powerful measure
life and recycle them. In order to enhance the recycling rate of the of ease of disassembly when used for comparing alternative
vehicle, it is important to disassemble every part of the vehicle design of a product. Therefore, most of the DFD evaluation
depending on the materials. However, it may be unrealistic, if the methodologies do consider time estimation. The three models of
cost is too high. Due to this, disassembly effort should be deter- time estimation for disassembly considered three different
mined at the automotive development phase where its properties factors. The models provide good directions for future research
are set. related to study disassembly study. The total time for disas-
However, many of the designers do not have the experience in sembly (TTD) proposed by Gupta and Gungor in 1997 was used
design for disassembly and recycling to determine a design of an to measure the efficiency of a given disassembly sequence of
environmentally friendly car (Afrinaldi et al., 2008). It is therefore a product. Factors that affect TTD were identified as joint type
necessary for a support system on disassemblability to be available and direction of disassembly changes. Kongar and Gupta
in order to encourage designers to incorporate disassemblability proposed a disassembly sequencing technique based on genetic
due to legislation and customer demands. The system should be algorithm that considers the presence of constraints, precedence
able to provide feedback regarding possible improvements to the relationships and option of end-of-life in 2006. The fitness
design. The system should also provide assistance in making function in their research is the total time for disassembly
decisions at the early stage of the automotive design and devel- sequence. The method of disassembly time evaluation of
opment process in order to avoid cost and time consumed through a product proposed by Yi et al. is based on the work factor
 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546 1545

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1546 T.F. Go et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1536e1546

Associate Prof. Dr. D.A. Wahab, achieved PhD Dr. R. Ramli is a lecturer in University
in Concurrent Engineering: Product Design Kebangsaan Malaysia. He graduated with
(1999), MSc in Design and Manufacturing B.Eng (1997) from Kyoto University, Japan,
(1995) from the Manchester Metropolitan MSc (2005) and PhD (2008) from Gifu
University, and Bachelor, Chemical and University,. His background is in
Process Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Manufacturing Engineering focusing on arti-
Malaysia, 1988. Her areas of expertise include ficial intelligence.
product design focusing on life cycle
requirements.

Prof. Dr. Che Husna Azhari is a Professor at

the Faculty of Engineering and Built Envi-
ronment, UKM, with specialization in non-
metallic material processing. She is currently
Associate Prof. Dr. M.N.Ab. Rahman gradu- the Director of the Center for Corporate
ated with BSc, MSc (UTM), PhD (Nottingham). Planning and Communications (PPKK) Uni-
His areas of expertise are Quality & Opera- versiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) starting 1
tions Management, Manufacturing and October 2008.
Production Engineering, Quality, Operations
Management and product life cycle.