Abstract
This paper investigates and compares the bene?ts of sensor embedded cell phones (SECPs) over conventional cell phones (CCPs) in product recovery. Sensors embedded into cell phones during the production process are important data acquisition tools for condition monitoring during the product life cycle. SECPs provide reduction in the costs of disassembly, inspection, inventory, and stock-outs. With the data captured from sensors, the recovery system is able to detect failed or missing components in SECP before disassembling it. In addition, the captured data can be used to estimate the remaining lives of components and cell phones. In order to ascertain the impact of sensors on the performance of processes involving disassembly and remanufacturing, two separate and detailed discrete event simulation case studies with experiments based on orthogonal arrays (OAs) are carried out for the CCPs and the SECPs. The results are then compared for the two cases. Results con?rm that sensors are greatly bene?cial in reducing the processing costs. The paper concludes by determining the extent of the bene?t of using sensors which provide an upper limit of the cost of the sensors for the SECPs to remain viable.
