Circular Economy, Recycling & Remanufacturing worked example

Teardown Cycle Time at 20% diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance to 20%, then walk the calculation through step by step. Estimate total teardown time for returned products, reusable assemblies, or end-of-life units.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Units queued for teardown: 180 units (held at the documented default)
  • Teardown completion rate: 0.42 units / min (held at the documented default)
  • Diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance: 20 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 28)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base teardown cycle time = units queued for teardown รท teardown completion rate.
  • Required teardown cycle time works out to 514 min at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Base teardown cycle time works out to 429 min at these inputs.
  • Diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance applied works out to 20 % at these inputs.
  • Teardown completion rate works out to 0.42 pieces / min at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance sits at 28% and the headline result is 549 min, this scenario comes in 6.25% below the baseline at 514 min.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. It assumes a representative average core condition; a batch with unusually seized or corroded units will exceed the modeled allowance.

Results at a glance

  • Required teardown cycle time: 514 min (headline result)
  • Base teardown cycle time: 429 min
  • Diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance applied: 20 %
  • Teardown completion rate: 0.42 pieces / min

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Teardown Cycle Time calculator, set diagnostics, fastener, cleaning, and staging allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.