An Integrated Model for Collection Network Design and Capacity Planning in Reverse Logistics

This study considers the problem of determining the locations of collection points, their capacities and the allocations of the refuses at demand points to the opened collection points while satisfying the capacity and the maximum allowable collection distance constraints at each collection point. As one of beginning studies on the integrated collection network design and capacity planning problem, we consider a static version of the problem in which the refuse demand at each demand point remains the same over a planning horizon. Also, the capacity planning is done by selecting a capacity level among those associated with each collection point. The integrated problem is formulated as an integer programming model, and then two heuristics are suggested due to the complexity of the problem. Computational experiments were done on various test instances, and the results are reported.