Metric for disassembly and reuse: Formulation and validation

Design for disassembly and reuse focuses on developing methods to minimize difficulty in disassembly for maintenance or reuse. These methods can gain substantially if the relationship between component attributes (material mix, ease of disassembly etc.) and their likelihood of reuse or disposal is understood. For products already in the marketplace, a feedback approach that evaluates willingness of manufacturers or customers (decision makers) to reuse a component can reveal how attributes of a component affect reuse decisions. This paper introduces some metrics and combines them with ones proposed in literature into a measure that captures the overall value of a decision made by the decision makers. The premise is that the decision makers would choose a decision that has the maximum value. Four decisions are considered regarding a component's fate after recovery ranging from direct reuse to disposal. A method on the lines of discrete choice theory is utilized that uses maximum likelihood estimates to determine the parameters that define the value function. The maximum likelihood method can take inputs from actual decisions made by the decision makers to assess the value function. This function can be used to determine the likelihood that the component takes a certain path (one of the four decisions), taking as input its attributes, which can facilitate long range planning and also help determine ways reuse decisions can be influenced.