Interference probability matrix for disassembly sequence planning under uncertain interference

Disassembly of end-of-life products is a common step in remanufacturing and recycling. Disassembly sequence planning is the process that automatically finds the optimal sequence of components being removed. A key element of disassembly sequence planning is a suitable mathematical representation that describes the interference of any two components in a product. Previous studies on disassembly sequence planning have tended to focused on the interference that is fixed and known. However, the interference may be uncertain due to complex end-of-life conditions such as deformation, corrosion and rust. To deal with uncertain interference, this paper proposes an interference probability matrix as a new mathematical representation that uses probability to indicate uncertainty in the interference, and establishes a multi-threshold planning scheme to generate the optimal disassembly sequence plans. Three case studies are given to demonstrate the use of the proposed approach. It is also tested the performance of four multi-objective optimization algorithms that can be adopted in the proposed multi-threshold planning scheme.