Integrating sustainability and quality orientation in the disassembly line balancing operations

Abstract

PurposeThe main objective of this paper is to integrate quality with triple bottom line dimensions as well as economic social and environmental concerns within a disassembly line balancing problem.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents a new disassembly line balancing model to maintain the triple bottom line. This proposed model applies a hybrid MCDM considering social environmental quantitative and qualitative business and quality dimensions. In this research fuzzy AHP prioritizes the dimensions and fuzzy TOPSIS ranks the disassembly operations.FindingsThe findings show that the disassembly line's cycle time decreased from 36 s to 32 s with the main and sub-criteria considered. Therefore this study reveals that integrating sustainability dimensions with quality may not result in sacrificing cycle time.Originality/valueGlobalization the increase in demand the complexity of supply chains and the environmental economic and social dimensions should be examined together for these operations to be sustainable. Not only these dimensions but also the perception of quality an essential aspect of production must be reflected in the disassembly line balancing. There is a need for sustainability issues in disassembly line balancing which is becoming increasingly important due to environmental concerns resource conservation corporate social responsibility and potential cost savings. However a significant gap in the literature points to the need to cover all three dimensions of the triple bottom line and other production-related dimensions in the disassembly line balancing problem.