Measuring the Time for Extracting Components in End-of-life Products: Needs for a Standardized Method and Aspects to be Considered

Methodsto optimize the dismantling of products have been widely explored in the last decades in the scientific literature. In particular, they have been developed to improve the ability of products to be dismantled at the design stage (e.g. Design for Dismantling) and also to identify the best sequences of dismantling for process planning purposes. Moreover, time for dismantling has often been used as a good proxy to assess the easiness of dismantling. However, no standardized method to consistently measure the time for dismantling products or components has been proposed. Meanwhile, environmental product policies are worldwide under discussion and development in order to promote the improvement of environmental performances of products during their life cycle, including at the end-of-life. This paper aims at demonstrating why a standardized method for measuring time for extracting components out of products is required in order to better address recyclability of products in product policies. It also presents main aspects that should be considered in such standardized method. These aspects are illustrated on an exemplary case-study: an electronic display.