A reverse logistics supply chain model within a remanufacturing environment

Summary form only given. A recoverable product environment is one in which all, or as much as feasible, of the product is recovered and put back in use after the initial product life is over, rather than discarding the used product. Integral to the recoverable product environment is the recoverable manufacturing system which focuses on recovering the product and extending its life through remanufacture or repair. The flow of materials and products in this environment occurs both from the customer to the remanufacturer, and from the remanufacturer to the customer. Since most of the products and materials are conserved, this essentially forms a closed-loop logistics system. Acquisition of the used product from the consumer base, remanufacturing it at specified locations, and distributing it back to the consumer base are important activities which must be carefully coordinated if a remanufacturing firm is to remain profitable. We provide a mixed integer programming model to accomplish the coordination. The model seeks to minimize the total cost of this process. The model is solved using data generated on the basis of a real remanufacturing facility using the GAMS modeling package. The solution provides the location of the manufacturing/distribution facilities, the product types collected at each facility for remanufacturing from various collection zones, and the distribution of the remanufactured products to the various customer zones, so as to minimize the costs of distribution, inventory and remanufacturing