Use of sensor embedded products for end of life processing

Sensors embedded into products during the production process have a potential to decrease disassembly yield uncertainty by detecting non-functional or missing components prior to the actual disassembly process. The aim of this study is the quantitative evaluation of the impact of sensor embedded products (SEPs) on the performance of an appliance disassembly line. First, separate design of experiments studies based on orthogonal arrays are performed for the cases with and without SEPs. Discrete event simulation models of both cases were developed to calculate various performance measures under different experimental conditions. Then, the results of pair-wise t-tests comparing the two cases, based on different performance measures, are presented. The results show the superiority of SEPs over conventional products for all performance measures considered in the study.