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Design for Manufacturing, Assembly, and Disassembly is important in today’s production systems because if this aspect is not considered, it could lead to inefficient operations and excessive material usage, both of which have a significant impact on manufacturing cost and time. Attention to this topic is important in achieving the target standards of Industry 4.0 which is inclusive of material utilisation, manufacturing operations, machine utilisation, features selection of the products, and development of suitable interfaces with information communication technologies (ICT) and other evolving technologies. Design for manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) have been around since the 1980’s for rectifying and overcoming the difficulties and waste related to the manufacturing as well as assembly at the design stage. Furthermore, this domain includes a decision support system and knowledge base with manufacturing and design guidelines following the adoption of ICT. With this in mind, ‘Design for manufacturing and assembly/disassembly: Joint design of products and production systems’, a special issue has been conceived and its contents are elaborated in detail. In this paper, a background of the topics pertaining to DFM, DFA and related topics seen in today’s manufacturing systems are discussed. The accepted papers of this issue are categorised in multiple sections and their significant features are outlined.
Editorial of Special Issue on
Design for manufacturing and assembly/disassembly: Joint design of products and
production systems
Olga Battaïaa, Alexandre Dolguib, Sunderesh S. Heraguc, Semyon M. Meerkovd, Manoj Kumar Tiwarie
a ISAE-SUPAERO, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France; b IMT Atlantique, LS2N, CNRS, La Chantrerie, 4, rue
Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France; c School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Oklahoma State
University, Stillwater, OK, USA; d Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; e Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur, Kharagpur India
Abstract
Design for Manufacturing, Assembly, and Disassembly is important in today’s production
systems because if this aspect is not considered, it could lead to inefficient operations and
excessive material usage, both of which have a significant impact on manufacturing cost and
time. Attention to this topic is important in achieving the target standards of Industry 4.0 which
is inclusive of material utilization, manufacturing operations, machine utilisation, useful features
selection of the products, and development of suitable interfaces with information
communication technologies (ICT) and other evolving technologies. Design for manufacturing
(DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) have been around since the 1980’s for rectifying and
overcoming the difficulties and wastages related to the manufacturing as well as assembly at the
design stage. Furthermore, this domain includes a decision support system and knowledge base
with manufacturing and design guidelines following the adoption of ICT. With this in mind,
“Design for manufacturing and assembly/disassembly: Joint design of products and production
systems”, a special issue has been conceived and its contents are elaborated in detail. In this
paper, a background of the topics pertaining to DFM, DFA and related topics seen in today’s
manufacturing systems are discussed. The accepted papers of this issue are categorized in
multiple sections and their significant features are outlined.
Keywords: Design for Manufacturing, Design for Assembly, Design for Assembly and
Disassembly, Design for Additive Manufacturing, Disassembly Line Balancing.
Introduction
The manufacturing sector is considered an essential part of any country’s economic activity and
it has a wealth generation mechanism to support the social growth through employment
generation, while adhering to sustainability considerations. Since the inception of the first
industrial revolution, several changes have been noticed in the manufacturing domain from the
advancement of design to shop floor operations. Among these modifications, Design for
Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly/Disassembly (DFAD) address the issue of
wastage, maintenance, cost minimisation, and remanufacturing. To comprehend the difficulties
presented in the current era of manufacturing domain, this special issue has been introduced as
‘Design for manufacturing and assembly/disassembly: Joint design of products and production
systems’. The Design for Assembly was the initiation in this domain to reduce the number of
parts for minimising the assembly time, fasteners, parts inventory, and overall cost of the
products. Initially, the DFA was proposed by Boothroyd and Dewhurst in the 1980s with the
development of software packages of Design for Automatic and Manual Assembly (Boothroyd
and Dewhurst, 1983). Later on, the concept was further extended to manufacturing features and
named as Design for Manufacturing (DFM). The main idea of DFM is to develop a collective
understanding of product design and manufacturing. The importance of DFM techniques have
been evident in minimising the manufacturing time and operational difficulties by reducing
shape and process complexity at the design stage. To envision the practical implication of DFM
techniques in advanced manufacturing systems, researchers have developed decision support
systems on the basis of manufacturing guidelines, materials, and manufacturing processes as
mentioned in numerous case studies. In between, some research has been conducted on Design
for Quality (DfQ) to link the concept with quality by considering the dimensions of parameter
control, quality yield, quality defect prediction and detection, follow-up of the quality standards,
etc. (Das, Datla, and Gami, 2000). Further, environmental aspects are also incorporated in this
domain and identified as Design for Environment (Ghadimi et al. 2016). The Design for
Environment (DfE) is developed to maintain product design and its environmental impact
(Fitzgerald, Herrmann, and Schmidt, 2010). To capture the emerging trends of manufacturing
sector with the advancement of additive manufacturing, the domain is further extended to Design
for Additive Manufacturing by proposing the guidelines and requirements (Wang et al.
2018). The additive manufacturing is considered as one of the obligatory technologies in the
Industry 4.0 era because of its importance predicted in future years (Ivanov, Dolgui, and
Sokolov, 2018). On the other hand, Design for Disassembly (DfD) has gained popularity from
the perspective of design and manufacturing aspects. This concept has extended to Design for
Assembly/Disassembly (DfAD). DfAD is important because of repair, maintenance, and
recycling of a product. It further includes, restoration of parts from End of Life (EOL) or rejected
products for reducing the pollution (Johnson and Wang, 1998). The two processes of
disassembly, destructive disassembly and the non-destructive disassembly differ in that
destructive methods focus on materials rather than parts recovery and non-destructive methods
focus on parts rather than materials recovery (Kuo, Zhang, and Huang, 2000). The operations of
assembly and disassembly are opposite in nature and are differentiated by controlling the quality,
quantity, and reliability of parts. Therefore, design for disassembly plays a crucial role in
restoring and reusing the parts and components of a product as much as possible (Tiwari et al.
2002). A significant volume of research on Design for Disassembly exists because of the
challenge in developing a product that can be easily disassembled. Tools for measuring product
complexity for assembly and disassembly have been established. In this regard, mathematical
models have been developed and solved using heuristics, meta-heuristics, and exact methods
along with simulation and other hybrid approaches. The line balancing problems mainly
highlight the studies related to task assignment, workstation minimisation, machine allocation,
cycle time reduction, etc. (Battaïa and Dolgui, 2013). Researchers have also incorporated the
functional requirements focusing on product architecture for selection and assessment of
different types of mechanical joining methods in disassembly line balancing (Rai and Allada,
2003). To further analyze disassembly line balancing problems, mean, standard deviation, and
bounds have been included for task processing times, workstations, smoothening rate, and
maximum hazard. A hybrid production system has been developed with the layout of two
parallel lines of assembly as well as disassembly tasks using common workstations Mete et al.
(2018).
The implementation and development of many of these tools and software incurred a
significant cost and time along with an impact on the manufacturing layout (Derakhshan, Wong,
and Tiwari, 2016). Thus, cost estimation of DFA is an important economic strategy in the design
for manufacturing and assembly/disassembly system. In light of this, numerous studies have
been conducted by addressing the problems of assembly of helicopter blade, transportation fuel
systems, etc. To provide an accurate cost estimation in the design for assembly systems, several
time-based cost models have been proposed by using various level of automation on
workstations. To achieve the target of DFA and DFM, a proper setup planning is required by
connecting the general process planning and operations planning.
This special issue includes seventeen papers which address several topics categorised in
six sections, (1) Design for Assembly and Disassembly (2) Design for Manufacturing (3) Design
for Additive Manufacturing (4) Disassembly Line Balancing (5) Cost Estimation, and as
depicted in fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Topics covered in this special issue
The remainder of this article explains the topics in each section as covered in the special issue.
Design for Assembly and Disassembly
Importance of disassembly has grown over the years because of the economic and environmental
benefits that it brings. It primarily aims at salvaging valuable materials and parts from the End of
Life (EOL) or discarded products which otherwise proceed to landfills and pollute the water
bodies and air. It further helps in saving the resources and reduce the need for fresh materials
(Brennan, Gupta, and Taleb 1994; Agrawal and Tiwari, 2008).
Even though it seems that disassembly line is just a reversed assembly line, it has a
relatively higher complexity as compared to the latter. One obvious difference between the
converging assembly lines and disassembly lines is the divergence where End of Life (EOL)
products are separated into their constituent components. However, in disassembly lines, quality,
quantity, and reliability of parts and subassemblies are not considered as in an assembly line
(Bentaha et al. 2015a). Disassembly could be a partial process as it could be left incomplete
because of technical and economic factors. Technical limitations could include factors such as
irreversible connection of parts while economic restrictions could include factors such as low
revenue from retrieved parts. Though disassembly takes place at the end of the product life cycle,
its planning must be embedded in the design of the product itself. Design for disassembly could
help in creating a product in a way that enables a high percentage of reuse and recycle. However,
products are traditionally designed only for improved assembly and to improve productivity at
the production facility (Zhang et al. 1997).
In recent decades, a major challenge that has captured the attention of researchers is the
design of a product such that it could be disassembled easily. Easy assembly and disassembly,
however, does not go hand in hand. Some of the issues that have to be kept in mind during the
design stage include ease of separation, better and improved fastening to avoid permanent
integration, modular design for ease in handling and minimising variation in use of material
(Zhang et al. 1997; Agrawal et al. 2013). The widely-used approach of design for assembly as
well as disassembly was proposed by Boothroyd and Alting (1992) that aimed at reducing the
cost of assembly and establishes principles to improve the sustainable performance of the
product through disassembly. In line with this, special issue article by Mesa et al. (2017b)
described metrics that can measure the complexity of assembly and disassembly in case of open
architecture products. Designers can use the tools proposed by the authors for assessing the
product’s complexity for assembly and disassembly of different modules while the product is
under use. Two case studies are used to present the calculations involved in the metrics (Mesa,
Esparragoza, and Maury, 2017b). The first case study is related to a photographic camera and the
second case was related to 3 in 1 machine tools. The authors mention that apart from assembly
and disassembly tasks, adjustment tasks must be considered to generate variants of the product in
the future.
Disassembly itself has received sufficient focus, and both deterministic and stochastic
problems for complete disassembly without any target component have been considered in the
literature. For example, Boothroyd and Alting (1992) discuss the complete deterministic case,
Gungor and Gupta (1998) discussed the disassembly sequencing when uncertainty is involved
when there is no specific target component. Taking the research forward, the paper by Kim,
Park, and Lee (2018) dealt with selective disassembly where the aim is to extract one or more
target components from the discarded product. Random operation time was considered in a
parallel disassembly environment when the problem was to determine the order of disassembly
operation. With the objective to minimise the sum of disassembly and penalty costs, the authors
develop a stochastic integer programming model. The possible disassembly sequences are
represented using an extended process graph (Kim, Park, and Lee, 2018). The authors propose a
solution algorithm that is based on sample average approximation technique and illustrate its
efficacy using the case of handheld flashlight torch.
Another aspect of design for assembly and disassembly includes design and balancing of
the line. Taking up the problem of disassembly line design, the paper by Bentaha et al. (2018)
considers the impact of partial disassembly, uncertain time for task processing, and the presence
of hazardous parts on overall profit maximisation. The authors argue that most of the articles in
the literature focus on complete disassembly while ignoring revenue potentials from an
incomplete exercise. Therefore, the authors use AND/OR graph for modelling the precedence
relationship between tasks (Bentaha et al. 2018). Stochastic programming models are developed
and solved using an exact-solution approach that combines an algorithm with Monte Carlo
sampling using Sample Average Approximation (SAA). The efficacy of the proposed technique
is established by solving problem instances present in the disassembly literature.
Similarly, Jiao and Xing (2017) have developed a new heuristic-based sequential
optimisation model for a sheet-metal clamping activity. Initially, they analyze the parts, clamps
and supporting locators to fulfil the purpose of assembly deformation. Then, they evaluate the
effectiveness of the clamping plan based on using the proximity of the actual geometry.
Design for Manufacturing
Design for Manufacturing (DFM) has been an important topic in product or process development
for the past three decades. Researchers have extensively explored this domain and presented
numerous variants of DFM including Design for Manufacturability, Design for Production
(DfP), Design for Environment (DfE), Design for Variety (DfV), Design for Additive
Manufacturing (DFAM), and so on. The basic idea of DFM is to develop the connection or
integration between product design and manufacturing (Xie et al. 2003). Hague, Mansour, and
Saleh (2004) consider DFM as a mindset or philosophy to make the production process simple
and economical by providing the manufacturing input at the initial phase of design of
components or whole products. Ramana and Rao (2005) consider DFM as one of the vital
elements of Concurrent Engineering. In the research community, the term DFM was initially
coined by Stoll (1986) by extending the concept of Design for Assembly (DFA). DFA was
invented, implemented, and exercised by Boothroyd and Dewhurst (1983) with the development
of the software packages such as Design for Automatic and Manual Assembly (DFA) and Design
for Manufacturing (DFM) in 1981 and 1985, respectively. To investigate the utilisation of DFM
tools and techniques, Dean and Salstrom (1990) conducted a survey in industries near the San
Francisco Bay area. The findings of the research suggest to both industry and academia a
refinement of DFM agenda and provide training by analyzing the benefits and effectiveness of
DFM techniques. Reducing the manufacturing cost, product complexity, and production time are
the targets of DFM as reported by ElMaraghy et al. (2012). According to Dereli, Filiz, and
Baykasoglu (2001), DFM is also used for inspecting the critical regions among the component’s
features to determine their possibility of manufacturing under the given machining operations.
Giachetti (1998) creates a decision support system for material and manufacturing process
selection (MAMPS) with a database of material characteristics. Chang, Rai, and Terpenny (2010)
adopt the concept of Ontologies in DFM to structure the design knowledge and manufacturing
guidelines for developing the decision support system in this domain. In the development of
Computer Integrated Manufacturing System, the DFM methods have been used for incorporating
the design, bending feasibility analysis, process planning, manufacturing, and automatic
inspection in tube bending (Ding et al. 2012). To resolve the conflict among product
functionality and environmental impact at conceptual design phase, the DFM is further extended
to Design for Environment (DfE). Fitzgerald, Rai, and Terpenny (2010) have introduced an
approach for generating and organising the knowledge relevant to DfE tools for handling the
tradeoff between product design, and its environmental impact by analyzing few successful
products and designs. The discussed strategies and methods highlight the collective effort of
designers and their interconnected tasks of designing the products as well as systems to reduce
the design time, production cost, and product complexity along with system agility for achieving
market competitiveness. Therefore, it is required to further explore the concept of DFM by
publishing a collection of research articles focusing on product complexity, manufacturability,
environmental concerns, variety, and variability. In this section of the special issue, a total
of four papers have been accepted as briefly described below.
The paper by Goswami (2017) focuses on mainly two vital competitive factors – time to
market (TTM) and market share while addressing the problem of modular engineering. The
goal of this work is to support the industries for redesigning the current product line with
consideration of product functionality, modularity, and market sharing. The author captures the
background of the problem in the literature section and identifies research issues related to TTM,
mathematical modelling for product line design, and multiple attributes of the products. A
constrained multi-objective optimisation model has been developed for minimising the market
time and maximising the product premium. For creating a real-life scenario in the proposed
work, the author has adopted a case example of a power drill useful in concrete, metal, and wood
works. The insights of the article are demonstrated by forming four assertions related to
competitive TTM performance, enlarged product functionality, redesigning effort, and
competitive offerings. The author has also presented the future scope with consideration of
probabilistic demand, supplier integration in the value chain, and consumer reviews.
The paper by Modrak and Soltysova (2018) presents operational complexity measures
(OCM) of a layout design. It proposes a method to measure the operational complexity with
consideration of mainly two complexity features: variability of partial complexity and process
complexity equilibrium point. In developing the OCM methodology, machine complexity
indicator (MCI), balanced complexity indicator (BCI), process complexity indicator (PCI), and
complexity equilibrium points (CEPs) are defined and calculated. For an extensive illustration of
the work, the authors have presented one theoretical and two real-life case studies in the article.
In their findings, the authors highlight the significance of PCI during comparison of two or more
dissimilar types of manufacturing processes. The PCI also helps in the classification of the
manufacturing processes in size groups. The measurement of deviations among CEPs indicates
the economic benefits of the presented method.
The third paper of this section authored by kkegaard, Mortensen, and Hvam (2018)
introduces a novel approach for developing new architecture using business-critical design rules
(BCDRs). The purpose of the article is to tackle the issues of miscellaneous customers demands,
short product lifecycle, minimum market to time, and improvement of flexibility. The authors
present the visualisation of Products Lines (PLs) and Manufacturing Lines (MLs) in three levels
- portfolio, architecture, and module as depicted on the radar plots. To show the efficiency of the
work, the BCDRs have been applied on large and global original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) who design, produce, and deliver the electrical control units with consideration of
product family design and commonality among variants. The authors state that the proposed
methodology is able to help the companies in reducing the time-to-market while launching a new
item.
Another article in this special issue by Keivanpour and Ait Kadi (2017) fulfils the gap of
environmental concerns by proposing a tactical eco-design map for handling the product
complexity under the Design for Environment (DfE). A phase-wise systematic flowchart is
presented to explain the methodology of eco-design in complex products. The phases include
eco-design assessments, database preparation, visualisation of eco-design map, and identification
of insights and discussion. To show the implementation of the developed approach, a product of
five modules from 20 components and 500 parts is analyzed. The authors use a Self-organizing
Map (SOM) in MATLAB environment for applying Clustering Method. Furthermore, the Stock
Market Metaphor is utilised for comparing the eco-design features of complex products and
financial data of the companies. The authors mention that the presented DfE tools enhance the
environmental performance, technical features, and strategic objectives by offering visualisation
techniques. However, the adoption of the approach is not easy because of the integration
of information from engineers, experts, and managers. The future scope of this work is
a 3D extension of treemaps, consideration of multi-criteria methods, and joint application of DfE
tools.
Design for Additive Manufacturing
The concept of Additive Manufacturing was introduced in the 1980’s with Stereolithography
(Gardan, 2016), but it is still considered a relevant topic in academia as well as industry. Per
traditional DFA and DFM guidelines, minimising the number of parts in an object is the highest
priority, and Additive Manufacturing (AM) is the most suited approach amongst the available
manufacturing technologies. Hague et al. (2004) develop a tool to enable the ‘Design for Rapid
Prototyping’ with consideration of material and design. Similarly, by adding the DFM concept in
additive manufacturing, Kerbrat, Mognol, and Hascoët (2011) propose combing machining with
additive manufacturing. Wang et al. (2018) present the concept of Design for Additive
Manufacturing (DFAM) in the IoT-based cloud manufacturing system. The researchers have
mainly considered the shape complexity, hierarchical complexity, material complexity, and
functional complexity while addressing the problems of Design for Additive Manufacturing.
Under this category of the special issue, one paper has been accepted related to material
properties.
The paper ‘Mechanical properties of biocompatible functional prototypes for joining
applications in clinical dentistry’ authored by Singh, Mognol, and Hascoët (2017) mainly
contribute to the additive manufacturing with the development of biocompatible fused deposition
modelling (FDM). The study emphasises the impact of three parameters of FDM, infill
percentage, layer thickness, and speed of nozzle and examines their mechanical
properties. A thermal analysis also carried out on infill percentage, layer thickness, and speed of
the nozzle for verifying the results.
Disassembly Line Balancing
Today, there is renewed focus on product recovery due to the government regulations and
consumer awareness about environmental factors. Landfill waste can be curbed by recovering
materials using disassembling, recycling, refurbishing and sorting to achieve the preferred
product quality level. The disassembly line balancing problem is one of the major sub-problems
arising in the disassembly operations in addition to the planning, scheduling, and sequencing
(Agrawal and Tiwari, 2008). This problem is utilised to allocate a set of tasks to every
workstation for every product to be disassembled (Özceylan et al. 2018). The number of
researchers and practitioners working in the field of environmentally conscious manufacturing
has grown up in the last few decades. The operational complexities of products and
uncontrollable nature of quality, quantity, and reliabilities of parts and subassemblies are some of
the challenges in DLB problem. Due to these challenges, the balancing phase of DLB needs
special attention and efficient tools to optimise performance and effectiveness (Bentaha et al.
2014).
On the basis of different characteristics and properties of DLB problem models, several
authors have addressed various sub-problems in DLB. These authors have considered different
criteria such as product types, parameter types, objectives, line types, disassembly levels, models
and solution approaches, complication, disassembly process, and disassembled product. The
single, multiple or mixed product can be disassembled on the disassembly line. Straight, U-
shaped, parallel and two-sided layouts are generally utilised for disassembling the products. The
minimisation of a number of workstations, eliminating hazardous parts early, minimisation of
idle or cycle times, removing high demand parts only, maximisation of line efficiency,
maximisation of profit and revenue, and smoothing workload are some of the objectives of DLB
problem models. In the case of parameter types, deterministic, stochastic or fuzzy parameters are
observed in most of the articles. The disassembly level is an important aspect of DLB and a
product may be disassembled partially or completely. Non-destructive disassembly and the
destructive disassembly are two processes used for disassembly. Many authors have developed
various mathematical models based on linear programming, non-linear programming, stochastic
programming, and fuzzy programming (Mishra et al. 2011, Bratcu and Dolgui, 2009). These
models have been solved by means of heuristics and metaheuristics, exact methods, multi-criteria
decision making, simulation, and hybrid approaches. In the following section, papers relevant to
the aforementioned criteria are discussed.
Özceylan et al. (2018) present a critical and in-depth analysis of the DLB problems and
provided various future directions. In order to tackle the different structure of returned products
and task-time variability, Agrawal and Tiwari (2008) proposed a mixed model U-Shaped
disassembly line with stochastic task times and employed a novel collaborative ant-colony
optimisation algorithm considering bilateral colonies of ants. Altekin (2017) presented two
second-order cone programming and five piecewise linear, mixed-integer programming models
for stochastic disassembly line-balancing problem with complete disassembly to minimise the
number of workstations. The uncertainty of task processing times has been taken into
consideration while developing a decision tool to select the best disassembly process for end-of-
life product and assignment of disassembly tasks to workstations (Bentaha et al. 2015b). Hezer
and Kara (2014) introduce the parallel DLB problem with single product U-type layout and
present a network-based shortest route model for tackling the parallel DLB problem.
In order to balance a mixed-model disassembly line, Ilgin, Akçay, and Araz (2017)
propose a linear physical programming-based disassembly line balancing methodology which
allows the decision makers to express their preferences using physically meaningful preference
ranges. In the domain of profit maximisation of DLB problem, Ren et al. (2017) examine a
profit-oriented partial disassembly line-balancing problem and formulate a mathematical model
which aims to maximise the profit for dismantling a product in the DLB problem. Bentaha et al.
(2018) address a profit-oriented disassembly line design and balancing problem with partial
disassembly, existence of hazardous components and uncertain task processing times.
Disassembly is an essential process for retrieving the components from a product. Most of the
disassembly processes are manually performed because automation has a high investment cost.
Often, disassembling a product manually incurs significant labour cost because of the inefficient
disassembly design of several products (Duflou et al. 2006). Therefore, several researchers are
working in the domain of Design for Disassembly (DFD) to simplify and improve the
disassembly process. DFD is the process of designing products such that they can be effortlessly,
cost-effectively and quickly be retrieved at the end of the product lifecycle. Disassembly
processes are closely related to the design specifications of a product. Thus, designers should
include the disassembly considerations at the initial stage of product design to make the
disassembly process easier (Harivardhini et al. 2017). In this special issue of ‘Design for
manufacturing and assembly/disassembly: Joint design of products and production systems’, five
papers related to DLB problem are included.
Mesa et al. (2017a) propose a functional characterisation in the form of a framework
focusing on open architecture products for the robust selection and assessment of different types
of mechanical joining methods. They also suggest a taxonomy of joining methods, a joint
complexity metric evaluation and a selection process for the conceptual design. Disassembly line
design with the assumption of known mean, standard deviation and an upper bound of task
processing times is investigated and a distribution-free model for the DLB problem is proposed
by Zheng et al. (2018). They also introduce a decomposition colour graph for better
understanding the disassembly process of end-of-life products. A multi-objective mathematical
model is formulated to minimise the number of workstations, maximise the smoothening rate and
minimise the average maximum hazard involved in the disassembly line (Zhu, Zhang, and Wang,
2018). A Pareto firefly algorithm using a random key encoding method based on the smallest
position rule is proposed and the algorithm is employed to solve a refrigerator disassembly line
problem. A hybrid production system with the layout of two parallel lines with common
workstations and assembly as well as disassembly tasks is studied by Mete et al. (2018). The
conventional product flow in assembly lines and the reverse flow in the disassembly line are
incorporated in this paper. A novel mathematical model to design a hybrid production system
and an approximate approach based on ant colony optimisation to solve practical instances is
also proposed. Feng, Li, and Sethi (2018) consider an assembly system consisting of two
suppliers and a manufacturer, and illustrate the problem as a Stackelberg game where the
manufacturer is considered as a leader deciding the wholesale price and the suppliers act as a
follower determining production quantity under the pull contract.
Cost Estimation
Cost estimation of DFA is an important business level strategy in a changing market
environment. Target costing has been applied as a cost management tool in conjunction with the
value engineering and other operations management tools (Zengin and Ada, 2010). A set of
constraints related to manufacturing cost and time need to be considered for estimating the cost
of a production system (H’mida and Vernadat, 2009). Tuli and Shankar (2015) have delivered a
cost estimation model for lean product and process development by developing a decision
support system for estimating the product cost and related values. Furthermore, this model
eliminates the errors at initial phase and enables the designers to take a right decisions from the
alternative solutions. In addition, Lin, Lee, and Bohez (2014) present an integrated
manufacturing cost estimation method and implement it at the conceptual design stage of the
helicopter blade assembly. Mukherjee and Ravi (2005) develop cost estimation model for mould
and die with consideration of feature-based method, activity-based costing, and parametric
costing approaches (Mukherjee and Ravi, 2005). Fiorentino (2014) create a cost-driver based
approach using several cost drivers at manufacturing phases of die. In addition, James, Spisak,
and Colella (2014) conduct a case study of transportation fuel cell systems (FCS) based on the
design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) technique. In the literature, it is observed that cost
estimation models have significant importance as per the DFM and DfAD equipped systems.
In this special issue, Salmi et al. (2018) incorporate a time-based cost structure for
providing the approximate cost estimation in the early stage design of assembly systems using
level of automation (LoA). Ho (2018) estimates the cost for a manufacturing system in
collaborative environment of supply chain partners during production of a new product in the
competitive market. The study presents cost distribution rate for the competitive market within
the product lifecycle. A collaboration among the supply chain partners is considered to realise
the final product from an incumbent manufacturer and assembly plant.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Olga Battaïa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5367-7846
Alexandre Dolgui http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0527-4716
Sunderesh S. Heragu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6824-9353
Semyon M. Meerkov https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1564-623X
Manoj Kumar Tiwari https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8564-1402
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... However, challenges such as the variability of remanufacturing processes and the need for specialized cleaning and inspection steps highlight areas for improvement in product design and process integration. To address these challenges, future efforts should focus on developing products that are easy to disassemble and remanufacture, using smart Connections between barriers to remanufacturing, solution approaches, and product properties (own representation, based on input from Bagalagel & ElMaraghy, 2002;Battaïa et al., 2018;Blömeke et al., 2020;Colledani & Battaïa, 2016;Hanafy & ElMaraghy, 2017;Liu et al., 2013;Mesa et al., 2018;Paul et al., 2021;Rickert et al., 2021;Shu & Flowers, 1999;Tolio et al., 2017;Westkämper et al., 1999). ...
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This study proposes a manufacturing system for the production of a new product, which is achieved by optimum collaboration between members of the supply chain. From the perspective of an incumbent firm, the behaviours of randomly occurring competitors could significantly affect order quantities, and the resultant profitability could diminish competitiveness in the product market. An effective method is therefore required to quantitatively evaluate the influence of competitive companies on the incumbent’s profitability. The objective of this study is to minimise the incumbent’s cost for a new product under competition through an economical cost distribution. Considering the whole life of a product in the market, the Bayesian approach is used to analyse the behaviours of competitors, the work efficiency of employees, in addition to the related costs of the incumbent firm. The adequate cost strategy for manufacturing a new product under competition can be then available.
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When introducing new architectures to an industrial portfolio, counting multiple existing product and manufacturing solutions, time-to-market and investments in manufacturing equipment can be significantly reduced if new concepts are aligned with the existing portfolio. This can be done through component sharing, or sharing critical design principles. This alignment is not trivial, as extensive design knowledge is needed to overview a portfolio with many, often highly different products and manufacturing lines. In this paper, we suggest establishing a frame of reference for new-product introduction based on several ‘game rules’, or Business Critical Design Rules (BCDRs), which denote the most critical features of the product and manufacturing architectures, and should be considered an obligatory reference for design when introducing new architectures. BCDRs are derived from the portfolio, architecture and module levels, including modelling of the most critical links between the product and manufacturing domains. The suggested modelling principle has been tested as a frame for new-architecture introduction, capturing critical modularisation principles in a large and global OEM. Application of the suggested method revealed a potential for reducing time-to-market and potentially cutting 35% off investments in new manufacturing equipment when introducing new products in the portfolio.
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Selective disassembly sequencing is the problem of determining the sequence of disassembly operations to extract one or more target components of a product. This study considers the problem with random operation times in the parallel disassembly environment in which one or more components can be removed at the same time by a single disassembly operation. After representing all possible disassembly sequences using the extended process graph, a stochastic integer programming model is developed for the objective of minimising the sum of disassembly and penalty costs, where the disassembly costs consist of sequence-dependent set-up and operation costs and the penalty cost is the expectation of the costs incurred when the total disassembly time exceeds a threshold value. A sample average approximation-based solution algorithm is proposed that incorporates an optimal algorithm to solve the sample average approximating problem under a given set of scenarios for disassembly operation times. The algorithm is illustrated with a hand-light case and a large-sized random instance, and the results are reported.