Supporting disassembly processes through simulation tools: A systematic literature review with a focus on printed circuit boards

Several strategies have been detected in the extant literature to understand how Circular Economy (CE) can be pursued. Considering all the End-of-Life (EoL) management practices detected, disassembly processes have been identified as strategic. However, only scattered attempts have explored how digital technologies (specifically, simulation) can support the CE adoption, by focusing on disassembly processes. This research detects, through a systematic literature review, how so far simulation approaches have been proposed and applied in the extant literature to foster the disassembly process with a focus on Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). At this purpose, the main roles played by simulation to ease the disassembly process, also through the support of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, have been detected. Based on the results obtained, two roles of simulation to support the disassembly process (Sequence planning and process optimization and Training) seem the most interesting from the twofold CE/I4.0 perspective, combining up to date technologies with traditional simulation approaches. Discussed in a deeper and sector-independent way, results provide directions about the lifecycle phases to be explored through simulations, the technologies to be involved, and both the final purpose and the type of simulation approach to be adopted. Finally, the gaps needing for further contributions, raised from the adoption of a Digitized Disassembly, are listed, and the main technologies so far employed to cope with them, through a Virtual/Augmented Disassembly-oriented Simulation perspective, have also been detected and provided as a guide for those who want to approach the hybrid simulation/disassembly research context.