ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the assembly line and the disassembly line and compares qualitatively and quantitatively for both similarities and differences. Assembly and disassembly have many obvious similarities. Alternatively, while sequencing on a paced disassembly line has often been seen as simply the reverse of assembly sequencing, research has revealed a wide range of, sometimes subtle, differences. Disassembly-line heuristics and metaheuristics are detailed by Seamus M. McGovern and Surendra M. Gupta, while a range of researchers continue to extend the state of the art in disassembly-specific search algorithms. The assembly line is often considered to be the most efficient way to produce many identical or near-identical products. Quantitative similarities include the presentation of a single set of unified metrics for mathematically evaluating assembly and disassembly sequences for application to a paced line. The disassembly line has existed for over a century, attributed to the Chicago slaughterhouses of the nineteenth century.
