Sustainable Manufacturing

MM ZG534
BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus Lecture 15
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

A MULTI-OBJECTIVE METHODOLOGY
FOR EVALUATING PRODUCT
END-OF-LIFE OPTIONS AND
DISASSEMBLY
INTRODUCTION
As world population increases, more resources will be consumed
to satisfy demand, leading to more waste generated. In 1997,
each person in the USA produced a daily average of 2 kg of
solid waste, or approximately 163 million tons of municipal
solid waste that is eventually landfilled. By 2030, that figure
could climb to 363 billion tons annually, which is enough to
bury Los Angeles 100 m deep.

If common appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators,

automotive plastics, and other consumer products are not
designed for recycling, the embedded stock of potentially
unrecoverable materials is very large. On the other hand, the
number of potential landfill sites for non-hazardous solid waste
is diminishing.
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INTRODUCTION Contd…

Therefore, designing products for sustainable development

has become a pressing concern. One way to achieve
this is to undertake a life cycle assessment (LCA) for a
product. LCA seeks to minimize the environmental
burden arising from the manufacture, use, and eventual
disposal of products. Design engineers, in particular,
ought to consciously plan for product retirement. For
example, should the product be discarded in a landfill,
reused, or recycled in whole or in part?

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END - OF - LIFE OPTIONS FOR
MANUFACTURED
PRODUCTS

When a product reaches the end of its useful life, it can be

reused, remanufactured, recycled (primary or
secondary), incinerated, or dumped in a landfill. The
choice depends on whether the objective is to minimize
environmental impact or deficit (or maximize surplus).

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END - OF - LIFE OPTIONS FOR
MANUFACTURED
PRODUCTS Contd…

Remanufacture involves retaining serviceable parts, refurbishing

usable parts, or replacing identical or reworked components from
obsolete products.
In primary (high grade) recycling a material is reprocessed into a
form that can be used in the same or another “high” value product. For
example, a car tyre can be recycled as a remolded car tyre (same
application), or as a conveyor belt (different application).
In secondary (low grade) recycling a material is reprocessed into
a “low” value product, such as industrial grade rubber being
reprocessed into a general grade rubber.
A material is incinerated to produce heat and electricity.
Waste products with no intrinsic value are dumped in landfills.
This option is a poor environmental choice, and is limited to materials
for which recycling and other end -of- life options are not technically
feasible at the moment.
Special handling is mandatory for all toxic or hazardous
materials. Such materials cannot be processed by any of the six
options mentioned earlier.

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GUIDELINES FOR DETERMINING FEASIBLE
END-OF-LIFE
OPTION FOR COMPONENTS

If the component:
1. Is made of metal without any other alloy, primary recycling
is recommended. If alloys are present, they alter the
mechanical properties of the parent metal, so secondary
recycling or landfill is more appropriate.
2. Is polymeric, primary recycling is recommended;
otherwise, consider secondary recycling or incineration to
recover its energy content.
3. Is made of ceramic, secondary recycling or landfill is
recommended.
4. Is made of an elastomer or is a composite material,
secondary recycling or incineration is recommended,
otherwise landfill.
5. Contains toxic or hazardous material, special handling is
required.

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 EoL ECONOMIC VALUE

1. Reuse value = Cost of component - Miscellaneous cost (1)

2. Remanufacture value = Cost of component - Remanufacture

cost - Miscellaneous cost (2)

3. Primary recycle value = (Weight of component * Market value

of material) - Miscellaneous cost (3)

4. Secondary recycle value = (Weight of component * Scrap

value of material) - Miscellaneous cost (4)

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EoL ECONOMIC VALUE
5. Incinerate value = (Energy produced * Unit cost of energy) -
Miscellaneous cost (5)

6. Landfill cost = - (Weight of component * Cost of landfill) -

Miscellaneous cost (6)

7. Special handling cost = - (Weight of component * Cost of

special handling) – Miscellaneous cost (7)

8. Miscellaneous cost = Collection cost + Processing cost (8)

Collection cost is incurred when unserviceable products

are retrieved from users. It consists of handling,
transportation and storage costs.

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COMPUTING EoL IMPACT
One metric of environmental impact during end-of-life
retirement is the eco-indicator, proposed by Product Ecology
Consultants. They have an extensive database of common
materials (for example, steel, aluminum, and copper) and
processes (for example, extrusion, injection molding, and
machining). The materials and processes have been defined
such that an eco-indicator can be defined for each material and
process. Thus, there is an indicator for the production of 1 kg of
polyethylene, one for the extrusion of 1 kg of polyethylene, and
one for the incineration of thermoplastics.
The Eco indicator of a material or process is, thus, a
numerical index of its environmental impact, the higher its value,
the greater the environmental impact. The eco-indicator is
expressed in eco-indicator points (Pt.) or milli-indicator points
(mPt) which is one-thousandth of a Pt.
contd…
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COMPUTING THE EoL
IMPACT Contd…

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DETERMINING THE
OPTIMAL END-OF-LIFE
OPTION
The most appropriate end-of-life option is often a compromise
between the twin objectives of minimizing environmental impact
and minimizing deficit (or sometimes maximizing surplus). Thus, a
multi-objective problem arises:

Maximize objective function = w1 (end-of-life cost) - w2

(environmental impact) (10)
where w1 and w2 are weightings that ascribe the relative
significance of economic value or environmental impact. End-of-life
cost may be determined by Eqns (1) to (8) while the end-of-life
impact on the environment is assessed by the metric, EOLI,
expressed in Eq. (9).
By using the above guidelines, the optimal end-of-life option
for components in a product can thus be determined.

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END-OF-LIFE
DISASSEMBLY
Except for the end-of-life options of incineration and landfill, a
product has to be disassembled so that its components can be
reused, remanufactured, or recycled. However, the product need
not be completely disassembled, only to the extent when most of
the economically valuable components can be recovered. Thus,
the stage at which disassembly should cease should be easily
determined. Broadly speaking, this stage is when:
1. All recyclable or valuable components are retrieved.
2. Economic gain is maximized or deficit minimized.
3. Environmental impact is within expectations.
4. The time for disassembly is within predefined limits.
Before the optimal stage of disassembly can be determined,
all the feasible disassembly sequences for the entire product must
be known. For most products, the feasible disassembly sequences
have very different associated costs because of the need for
different fixtures, tooling, part handling and reorientations.

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 END-OF-LIFE RETIREMENT – NET RECOVERABLE
COSTS

The following formulae is used to compute the times

and costs associated with the end-of-life retirement of a
product:
Total time for product retirement = Time to collect the
product from the user + Labor time to disassemble product
+ Time to reuse, remanufacture, recycle, or landfill the
components (11)
Disassembly cost = (Labor to disassemble product *
Labour rate) + Tooling costs + Material costs + Overhead
costs (12)
Net recoverable cost = end-of-life economic value (see
Section 2.2) – Disassembly cost (13)

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GUIDELINES FOR EoL
DISASSEMBLY
In considering end-of-life disassembly of a product, the
following guidelines are used:
1. Remove toxic or hazardous components from the
product and separate them individually.
2. If cost effective, extract reusable components from the
product and separate them.
3. If cost effective, extract remanufacturable components
from the product and separate them.
4. Group compatible recyclable components together,
and, if cost effective, extract the remaining incompatible but
recyclable components.
5. Group components for incineration together.
6. Landfill remaining components without further
disassembling the product.

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DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF
DISASSEMBLY
OF END-OF-LIFE PRODUCTS

In order to determine the extent to which a product

should be disassembled during its retirement, one may
consider minimizing environmental impact, or associated
costs, or maximizing the rate of return. The highest rate
of return for a large appliance may happen after only a
few critical items are removed. However, this is unlikely
to happen for most products, therefore, it is necessary to
strike a compromise among minimizing environmental
impact and associated costs and maximizing the rate of
return.

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DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF
DISASSEMBLY
OF END-OF-LIFE PRODUCTS Contd…

The highest rate of return for a large appliance may happen

after only a few critical items are removed. However, this is unlikely
to happen for most products, therefore, it is necessary to strike a
compromise among minimizing environmental impact and
associated costs, and maximizing the rate of return. Therefore
1. If the objective is to minimize environmental impact, as many
reusable, recyclable and toxic components as possible are extracted
from the product. Such disassembly will usually require a large
amount of time and resources.

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DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF
DISASSEMBLY
OF END-OF-LIFE PRODUCTS Contd…

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DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF
DISASSEMBLY
OF END-OF-LIFE PRODUCTS Contd…

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DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF
DISASSEMBLY
OF END-OF-LIFE PRODUCTS Contd…

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DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF
DISASSEMBLY
OF END-OF-LIFE PRODUCTS Contd…

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PRODUCT EoL
EVALUATION
• To illustrate the use of the methodology for evaluating
product end-of-life options, it was decided to minimize
the retirement deficit and impact on the environment of a
small coffee maker. Figure below shows an exploded
view of the coffee maker which consists of 84 parts in 10
subassemblies, weighs 1.81 kg and is made of 12
different materials. The results of evaluation for eight
major components are shown in Table below.

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…
As an illustration of the computations involved, calculations
for the component base are discussed. The base is
made from 0.14 kg of sheet metal. The market price and
scrap value for sheet metal is US$0.83 and US$0.083
per kg, respectively, whereas landfill cost for 1 metric ton
of materials is US$60. Feasible end-of-life options for
metals are primary recycling, secondary recycling and
landfill.
Primary recycling value= (Weight of component *
Market value of material) - Miscellaneous costs
= 0.14 * 0.83
= 0.1162

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…
From the results, it can be seen that primary
recycling yields the highest objective value and, hence,
is the best end-of-life option for the component base.
From Table 1, it can be seen that components which
are primary or secondary recycled give rise to a surplus
and do not adversely impact the environment. On the
other hand, components 5 and 7 which require special
handling, incur a deficit and impact the environment. In
the coffee maker, both components PCB and heater
plate contain toxic materials and so have to be specially
handled during product retirement.

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…
After determining the optimal end-of-life option for all
components in the coffee maker, the overall disassembly
sequence is then generated using the MSA algorithm [18].
The optimal stage at which disassembly should cease is
determined by Eqs (14) to (21). The results are shown in
Table 2. It can be seen that, except when the time for
disassembly is to be minimised, complete product
disassembly is always mandatory. When the objective is to
minimise the time for disassembly, the entire product will be
landfilled at a deficit of US$1.77 per device, and an incurred
environmental impact of 0.2395 mPt. If the coffee maker were
to be completely disassembled and all components
processed, the total disassembly time would be 97 s, and a
surplus of US$0.1918 is realisable. The measure of impact on
the environment that is averted is 5.0336 mPt.

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PRODUCT EoL EVALUATION
Contd…

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CONCLUSIONS
A multi-objective methodology for determining the
appropriate end-of-life options for components in a
manufactured product is presented, based on the
objectives of minimizing environmental impact and deficit
(or maximizing surplus). Before a component can be
reused or remanufactured or recycled, it has to be
extracted from the assembled product. Guidelines for
product disassembly are discussed, and the cost,
environmental impact, and disassembly time are
quantified. A methodology for determining the optimal
stage of disassembly of a product is proposed.

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CONCLUSION Contd…

A coffee maker, which consists of 84 parts in 10

subassemblies and made of 12 different materials was
analyzed by the methodology. The PCB and the heater
plate contain toxic materials and so have to be specially
handled during product retirement. The base housing
has least impact on the environment. If the coffee maker
were to be completely disassembled and all components
processed, the total disassembly time would be 97 s,
and a surplus of US$0.1918 is realizable. The coffee
maker was found to be designed for end-of-life
retirement.

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Thanks

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