Application of Work-Measurement Analysis to Product Disassembly for Recycling

Abstract

A method for evaluating the ease of disassembly of products is introduced Its primary use is in designing products for recycling and making environmentally-related decisions, but it is also relevant to servicing and maintenance The evaluation procedure is centered around a spreadsheet-like chart and uses a catalog of task difficulty scores The scores were derived from work-measurement analyses of standard dis assembly tasks and provide a means of identifying weaknesses in the design and comparing alternatives quantitatively The procedure of apply ing work-measurement analysis to disassembly tasks is described and demonstrated in detail A relatively simple example of disassembly evalua tion of a computer drives assembly illustrates the use of the method and its implementation as a design tool