An Optimization Method for Coordinating Supplier Selection and Low-Carbon Design of Product Family

New stricter environmental regulations and consumer rising issues are making greenhouse gases (GHG) emission an increasing and urgent concern for manufacturing companies. Companies and researchers are seeking appropriate methods to reduce GHG emission of the manufactured products. Previous studies on low-carbon product design mainly concern on a single product. Currently, it is common to design a product family instead of a single product for increasing varieties to satisfy customers’ requirements. Owing to the difference in design methods, the low-carbon design method for a single product cannot handle a product family. In addition, nowadays, the sourcing strategy is widely adopted by companies. A key problem of the procurement is supplier selection. The supplier selection affects not only profit but also GHG emission. However, it has not been simultaneously considered in low-carbon product design. In this article, an optimization model for coordinating low-carbon design of product family and supplier selection is proposed. In the model, the profit and the GHG emission of a product family are taken into consideration at the same time. Moreover, a genetic algorithm is developed to solve the established model. Finally, a case study is performed to verify the validity of the proposed approach.