Modelling Remanufacturing Process of End-of-Life Batteries Using Discrete Event Simulation

This paper focuses on developing a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model using WITNESS for the process of remanufacturing End of Life (EoL) batteries. This study shows how the DES model could be used to understand the dynamics of the process flow for identifying the bottlenecks and finding feasible solutions based on Fit Remanufacturing principles in order to improve the performance of the whole remanufacturing process. The DES model was run using an iterative process to reduce idle times, increase utlisation times and minimize blockages and waiting times for the processes involved leading to an increase in the throughput of remanufactured battery packs/day from 10 to 30 after four weeks of continuous operation. Further, the blockage times were eliminated and reduced to less than 4% in all but two machines used in the remanufacturing of EoL batteries.