Sustainable design of a closed-loop location-routing-inventory supply chain network under mixed uncertainty

• Published in: Transportation research. Part E, Logistics and transportation review Vol. 89; pp. 182 - 214
• Main Authors: Zhalechian, M., Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, R., Zahiri, B., Mohammadi, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Exeter Elsevier India Pvt Ltd 01.05.2016; Elsevier Sequoia S.A; Elsevier
• Subjects: Algorithms; Closed-loop supply chain; Computer Science; Discrete Mathematics; Economics; Environmental impact; Heuristic; Impact analysis; Inventory; Meta-heuristic; Networks; Operations Research; Queuing theory; Routing; Social impact; Stochastic models; Studies; Supply chains; Sustainability; Sustainable design; Transportation; Uncertainty; Routing; Queuing theory; Meta-heuristic; Closed-loop supply chain; Sustainability; Inventory
• ISSN: 1366-5545; 1878-5794
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2016.02.011

•Designing a novel sustainable closed-loop supply chain with routing and inventory.•Applying a stochastic-possibilistic programming method to cope with the uncertainty.•Developing a new hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm to efficiently solve the problem.•Applicability of the model is tested on a real case study. Considering economic, environmental and social impacts, this paper presents a new sustainable closed-loop location-routing-inventory model under mixed uncertainty. The environmental impacts of CO2 emissions, fuel consumption, wasted energy and the social impacts of created job opportunities and economic development are considered in this paper. The uncertain nature of the network is handled using a stochastic-possibilistic programming approach. Furthermore, for large-sized problems, a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm and lower bounds are developed and discussed. Finally, a real case study is provided to demonstrate the applicability of the model in real-world applications, and several in-depth analyses are conducted to develop managerial implications.