Disassembly time evaluation for enhancing the reusability of automotive components

Recovery of products including reuse, remanufacture and recycle is now emerging as an important strategy for reducing wastes to the environment. Among others, the automotive industry is the leading industry in this environmental consciousness manufacture. Research and development on automotive component design and manufacture as well as tools and methods to facilitate reuse are under way in several countries. To enable reuse, the determinant factors must be studied including the disasssemblability of the product. This study focuses on disassembly time evaluation of a locally produced car door using MOST Measurement System method. The existing design of the car door was evaluated and design changes were proposed to improve the ease of disassembly design of the car door. Significant improvements to the design and disassembly time is presented and discussed in this paper.