Modeling Sustainable Truck Rental Operations Using Closed-Loop Supply Chain Network

Moving industries consume numerous resources and dispose masses of used packaging materials. Proper sorting, recycling and disposing the packaging materials is necessary to avoid a sever pollution disaster. This research paper presents a conceptual model to propose sustainable truck rental operations instead of the regular one. An optimization model was developed to select the locations of truck rental centers, collection sites, maintenance and repair sites, and identify the rental fees to be charged for all routes that maximize the total closed supply chain profits. Fixed costs of vehicle purchasing, costs of constructing collection centers and repair centers, as well as the fixed costs paid to use disposal and recycling centers are considered. Operating costs include the truck maintenance, repair costs as well as the cost of recycling and disposing the packing materials, and the costs of relocating the truck are presented in the model. A mixed integer model is developed followed by a simulation model to examine the factors affecting the operation of the model.




References:
[1] https://www.smitherspira.com/industry-market-reports/packaging/global-world-packaging-industry-market-report. Accessed, May 2016.
[2] http://www.greenchoice.org/green-living/food-drink/packaging Accessed June 2016.
[3] Kroon, L. and Vrijens, G, "Returnable Containers: an Example of Reverse Logistics", International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1995, pp. 56-68.
[4] Stock, J., Reverse Logistics, Council of Logistics Management, Oak Brook, IL, 1992.
[5] Lutzebauer, M., "Systems for Returnable transport Packing" (in German), Deutscher Fachverlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, 1993.
[6] Elahi, B. and Franchetti, M., "A New Optimization Model for Closed Loop Supply Chain Networks", Proceedings of the IEEE, 2014.
[7] Hu, Z., Li, Q., Chen, X., and Wang, Y., "Sustainable Rent-based Closed Loop Supply Chain for Fashion Products", Sustainability, October 2014.
[8] Proper Automotive Waste Management: Resource Manual, Integrated Waste Management Board, State of California, 2013.