Integrated optimization and engineering application for disassembly line balancing problem with preventive maintenance

The current research on the disassembly line balancing (DLB) problem has not yet considered the preventive maintenance of workstation equipment. The lack of preventive maintenance can easily lead to sudden failure of the disassembly line equipment, which will affect the disassembly efficiency. Preventive maintenance is planned maintenance, which can effectively reduce the probability of equipment failure in actual disassembly line engineering applications. This study integrates preventive maintenance into the DLB. The objectives focus on optimizing both cycle times under the regular DLB scenario and the preventive maintenance DLB scenario, and the number of task adjustments between the two scenarios. A mixed integer linear programming model integrating preventive maintenance is established. Then an improved genetic simulated annealing (IGSA) algorithm based on the disassembly characteristics is designed. The exact solver and the proposed IGSA are used to solve a small-scale case simultaneously to verify the correctness of the model and algorithm. The performance of the proposed IGSA is verified by comparing the solution results of 21 benchmarks. Finally, the proposed model and algorithm are applied to a microwave disassembly line as the engineering application case. The results show that the integrated optimization can ensure the disassembly efficiency of the regular disassembly scenario, and can fully utilize workstations of unperformed maintenance during the preventive maintenance scenario. This can also effectively improve workstation utilization and reduce time costs.