An exact solution approach for disassembly line balancing problem under uncertainty of the task processing times

The purpose of this work is to efficiently design disassembly lines taking into account the uncertainty of task processing times. The main contribution of the paper is the development of a decision tool that allows decision-makers to choose the best disassembly alternative (process), for an End of Life product (EOL), and assign the corresponding disassembly tasks to the workstations of the line under precedence and cycle time constraints. Task times are assumed to be random variables with known normal probability distributions. The case of presence of hazardous parts is studied and cycle time constraints are to be jointly satisfied with at least a certain probability level, or service level, fixed by the decision-maker. An AND/OR graph is used to model the precedence relationships among tasks. The objective is to minimise the line cost composed of the workstation operation costs and additional costs of workstations handling hazardous parts of the EOL product. To deal with task time uncertainties, lower and upper-bounding schemes using second-order cone programming and approximations with convex piecewise linear functions are developed. The applicability of the proposed solution approach is shown by solving to optimality a set of disassembly problem instances (EOL industrial products) from the literature.