Application of Design for Disassembly from Remanufacturing Perspective

With the emphasis on environmental sustainability, remanufacturing has become a major aspect of life cycle engineering with the intention to bring a product or part back to its useful life. In order to retrieve essential elements within a product for remanufacturing, disassembly is a necessary process to begin with. Increasing the efficiency for disassembly can be feasible if the disassembly perspective is taken into consideration during the product design stage. Design for disassembly (DFD) guidelines have been established to provide suggestions to product designers on the various design considerations that could be incorporated to aid disassembly. However, these guidelines may be difficult to implement due to the conflicting issues found within a product itself. A conceptual framework based on practical considerations is proposed to aid the product designer in prioritising the relevant DFD guidelines that could be used to increase the efficiency of retrieving a high value core of a product for remanufacturing.