Lot sizing in reverse MRP for scheduling disassembly

Gupta and Taleb (1994. Scheduling disassembly. International Journal of Production Research, 32(8), 1857-1866) presented an algorithm for reverse MRP that can be applied to a product structure in which there is a certain demand for components and a need to know the number of products to disassemble in order to fulfil the demand for those components. However, that algorithm did not consider lot sizing at all. Incorporating lot sizing makes the problem a great deal more challenging in disassembly situations because of the disparity between the number of components present in the product and the demand of the components. This is because the demand for the components is often not in the same proportion as their existence in the product structure causing excess inventories for the components with low demand compared to their brother items. In this paper we present an algorithm for reverse MRP to facilitate the use of lot sizing. An example is presented and its implementation is analysed. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.