Network Design Based on Closed-Loop Reverse Logistics Recycling

With the people´s attention to the product quality and the environmental protection consciousness enhancement, the reverse logistics start to cause continuously attention of people. More and more scholars research the origin, the concept, the classification of the reverse logistics. At present there are some researches of the reverse logistics, however, these researches are restricted only in the theory, and are few to the practical application research. In the process of the engineering to the implementation of enterprise reverse logistics, we must grasp its essence, carry on the analysis and the design based on this foundation, so it can guarantee the reverse logistics system running highly effectively and accurately. This paper presents solutions to closed-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 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.