Open-Loop Network Design Based on Reverse Logistics Recycling

In the early of 1990s, reverse logistics was beginning to be widely concerned by some developed countries, as the government and consumers were more attached importance to environment. China had paid more attention to forward logistics, but there is little concern about reverse logistics. As China entered WTO, companies will be confronted with fierce competition. It is necessary for Chinese companies to set up the product recovery and re-use network. This paper presents solutions to open-loop network designing based on the traditional designing for logistics facility location and capacity allocation model and combined with characteristics of reverse logistics. An optimization model is replied on non-linear programming and the objective is to minimize the sum of investment and operation costs of logistics facilities as well as transportation and environment protection costs of returned products among the facilities. To explain the method for the network of facility location and capacity allocation by the model, an example is presented.