RFID-based integrated method for electromechanical products disassembly decision-making

Proper recovery of electromechanical products can prevent pollution, improve materials recycling rate and make economic benefits as well. However, a major obstacle is that the product lifecycle information essential for the recovery decision-making is difficult to be collected. This article shows how radio frequency identification (RFID) can be utilised to record and trace the lifecycle information, hence optimising disassembly process and improving recovery efficiency. The key factors of the integrated method are demonstrated: (1) an assembly–disassembly model is constructed purposefully due to characteristics of RFID; (2) a flexible encoding and storage approach using XML format is proposed uniquely for a universal usage of the limited memory space in RFID tags; and (3) a detailed iteration process for the automatic generation of a near-optimum disassembly sequence is illustrated. In addition, a set of related application programmes are developed, and the whole integrated method is verified by a case study. This integrated method is highly extensible, and it can be applied to various types of electromechanical products.