TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to identify all the feasible disassembly sequences for a multi‐component product and to find an optimal disassembly sequence, according to specific criteria such as cost, duration, profit, etc.Design/methodology/approach– Taking into account topological and geometrical constraints of a product structure, an AND/OR disassembly graph is built. Each graph node represents a feasible subassembly. Two nodes i and j are connected by an arc (i, j), called a transition, if the subassembly j can be obtained from the subassembly i by removing one or several connectors. Constraint programming approach is used to generate the feasible subassemblies and related transitions.Findings– If a cost zijis incurred to perform a transition (i, j), an optimal disassembly sequence can be generated for a given subassembly, using the shortest path algorithm or a linear programming model.Research limitations/implications– The proposed approach performs very well compared to other approaches published in the literature, even when applied to products requiring parallel disassembly and including a large number of parts.Practical implications– This approach has been successfully applied to assess the wheelchair maintainability at the design stage and will be implemented in CAD systems. One other application, regarding the disassembly process and total revenue maximization for product recycling, is now under consideration.Originality/value– Applying constraint programming to efficiently generate the set of the feasible subassemblies constitutes the main contribution in this paper. This process is the hardest step in the disassembly sequencing problem. VL - 14 IS - 1 SN - 1355-2511 DO - 10.1108/13552510810861932 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/13552510810861932 AU - Zwingmann Xavier AU - Ait‐Kadi Daoud AU - Coulibaly Amadou AU - Mutel Bernard ED - Abdelhakim Artiba ED - Philippe Castagliola PY - 2008 Y1 - 2008/01/01 TI - Optimal disassembly sequencing strategy using constraint programming approach T2 - Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 46 EP - 58 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -