Ant colony optimization for disassembly sequencing with multiple objectives

Product disassembly takes place in remanufacturing, recycling, and disposal. The disassembly line is the best choice for automated disassembly, so it is essential that it be designed and balanced to work efficiently. The multi-objective disassembly line balancing problem seeks to find a disassembly sequence which provides a feasible disassembly sequence, minimizes the number of workstations, minimizes idle time, balances the line (ensures similar idle times at each workstation), as well as addressing other disassembly-specific concerns. However, finding the optimal balance is computationally intensive due to exponential growth, with exhaustive search quickly becoming prohibitively large. In this paper, an ant colony optimization metaheuristic is presented for obtaining optimal or near-optimal solutions to the disassembly line balancing problem. Examples are considered to illustrate implementation of the methodology. Conclusions drawn include the consistent generation of near-optimal solutions, the ability to preserve precedence, the superior speed of the metaheuristic, and its practicality due to its ease of implementation.