Design of multi-product / multi-period closed-loop reverse logistics network using a genetic algorithm

Environmental impact has become a key issue in business management. Nowadays, the optimal design of supply chains has to deal with green management practices. Among the different components of the green supply chain management, reverse logistics play a crucial role. This paper studies the problem of designing a closed-loop reverse supply chain network. Since the problem in NP-hard, a solution approach based on genetic algorithm is proposed. A case study is employed to run the numerical experiments. Computational results show the positive impact of minimizing total operational costs.