Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
facilities, then suitable components can be re-used in such facilities to obtain new
products that can be sold to the secondary market.
The RLND problem under the WEEE Directive focuses on determining the
locations and capacities of collection and inspection centers, on deciding if it is
profitable to establish remanufacturing facilities, on setting the amount of products
or components to send to different recovery options, to recycling and disposal, and
on fixing the flow of products and components through the facilities in the network
(see e.g., Alumur et al. 2012 ).
16.5
Conclusions
This chapter highlighted the importance of integrating location decisions with
other decisions relevant to the design of forward and reverse logistics networks.
Although much work has been published addressing LND problems, emphasis has
been mostly given to a subset but not all of the features that such comprehensive
projects often require. Hence, several research directions still require intensive
research. In particular, models addressing the design of multi-commodity, multi-
echelon networks through determining the timing of facility locations, expansions,
contractions, and relocations over an extended time horizon have received less
attention than their static counterpart.
Traditionally, LND has been dominated by economic aspects leading to the
network configuration that either minimizes total cost or maximizes total profit.
The generic models presented in Sects. 16.2.2 and 16.3.2 illustrate these features.
Sustainable LND is an emerging research area that aims at capturing the trade-offs
between costs on facility location and logistics functions and their environmental
footprint. Due to the growing awareness on environmental issues, companies
have recognized the need to create environmentally friendly logistics systems
to mitigate the negative environmental impact of their business activities. This
calls for the development of models with multiple and conflicting objectives. For
example, Chaabane et al. ( 2012 ) formulate a bi-objective LND model involving the
minimization of network design costs and the minimization of green gas emissions.
The latter criterion is part of a longer list of environmental factors that should be
considered, according to Chen et al. ( 2014 ), together with social and economic
factors when deciding on the location of manufacturing facilities.
Humanitarian logistics has also become a new research field involving LND.
Döyen et al. ( 2012 ) integrate facility location decisions with transportation, inven-
tory management, and shortage policies in a two-echelon model. Uncertainty on the
location and intensity of a natural disaster is explicitly incorporated into the model.
The integration of different sources of uncertainty (e.g., customer demand, product
return in the context of reverse logistics) with network design decisions is also a
research direction requiring further attention.
Finally, it goes without saying that LND has given rise and will continue to pro-
vide a rich variety of problems. LND presents a challenging area for future research
Search WWH ::




Custom Search