Title: Optimising end-of-life laptop remanufacturing decisions using meta-heuristics

Authors: Gurunathan Anandh; Shanmugam PrasannaVenkatesan; Mark Goh; Gyan Chandra Kushwaha

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Analytics and Operations, National University of Singapore, Singapore ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: As the lifecycle of a laptop gets shorter, the world should expect more end-of-life (EOL) laptops. Remanufacturing of laptops is viewed as the best EOL alternative for environmental and societal reasons. This research uses a multi-period nonlinear integer programming model to decide the best EOL options for the remanufactured laptop parts based on their quality. Discrete particle swarm optimisation (DPSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) are implemented as a decision support tool in Microsoft Excel to yield the near-optimal solution. Numerical tests are conducted to compare the effectiveness of the two algorithms. For small-sized problems, the solution of the algorithms is compared with the global optimal solution obtained by the full enumeration method. For large problem instances, the solution obtained using the algorithms is compared with each other. A sensitivity analysis is performed to study the impact of the shortage and repair costs and demand on profit.

Keywords: WEEE; end of life laptop; remanufacturing; discrete particle swarm optimisation; DPSO; genetic algorithm; GA; nonlinear integer programming.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2025.147789

International Journal of Operational Research, 2025 Vol.53 No.4, pp.525 - 555

Received: 31 Jan 2023
Accepted: 11 Jul 2023
Published online: 01 Aug 2025 *

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