An efficient Reverse Distribution System for solving sustainable supply chain network design problem

This paper deals with a sustainable supply chain network design problem (SSCNDP) arising in the public sector. In the considered SSCNDP, given a manufacturer, a set of m potential distribution centers (DCs) having a given distinct capacity, and a set of n customers, each one with a particular demand, we have to select the number and the location of the DCs necessary to supply demands to all the customers and the allocation of the customers to these DCs such that the installation and transportation costs integrated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are minimized. Due to the complexity of the problem, an efficient Reverse Distribution System (RDS) consisting of several improved classical heuristic algorithms is proposed. The developed approaches were tested and promising results were obtained on benchmark instances based on the literature, involving between 10 and 50 distribution centers and between 10 and 100 customers.