Carbon-efficient closed-loop supply chain network: an integrated modeling approach under uncertainty

Area of Science:

• Operations Research
• Supply Chain Management
• Environmental Sustainability

Background:

• Circular economy principles drive policies for recycling, remanufacturing, and reuse to enhance economic value while protecting the environment.
• Designing sustainable business processes involves an inherent trade-off between environmental and economic factors.
• Supply chain management faces increased complexity when demand uncertainty is introduced.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the design of a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC).
• To evaluate competing objectives of cost minimization and environmental sustainability in CLSC operations under demand uncertainty.
• To develop a comprehensive model integrating cost and carbon emission reduction.

Main Methods:

• Employed Augmented Weighted Tchebycheff (AWT) and ε-constraint methods for multi-objective optimization.
• Applied a robust optimization approach to manage demand uncertainty.
• Integrated cost and sustainability objectives into a comprehensive CLSC design model.

Main Results:

• The proposed approach effectively addresses the trade-offs between cost and environmental sustainability in CLSC design.
• Efficient solutions were generated for designing green closed-loop supply chain networks.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of balancing economic and environmental goals under uncertain demand.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a robust framework for designing sustainable closed-loop supply chains.
• The integrated model successfully handles multi-objective decision-making in the presence of demand uncertainty.
• The findings support the adoption of circular economy principles in supply chain management for enhanced economic and environmental performance.