OPTIMAL INBOUND/OUTBOUND PRICING MODEL FOR REMANUFACTURING IN A CLOSED-LOOP SUPPLY CHAIN

The paper presents a model for optimizing inbound and outbound pricing for closed-loop supply chains that remanufacture reusable products. Remanufacturers create reusable products from returned used products and sell the products “as new” to manufacturers or consumers. By implementing a return subsidy, remanufacturers can encourage the consumer to return used products. Demand for the as-new components often depends on the selling price and inventory. The available inventory increases as the subsidy increases and as the price decreases. Our model can determine the optimal subsidy and selling price for used and remanufactured products, respectively. Our model uses the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions to solve its nonlinear problem. Sensitivity analysis reveals how different parameters affect profit under model-optimized conditions

20 Years of Particle Swarm Optimization Strategies for the Vehicle Routing Problem: A Bibliometric Analysis

This study uses bibliometric analysis to examine the scientific evolution of particle swarm optimization (PSO) for the vehicle routing problem (VRP) over the past 20 years. Analyses were conducted to discover and characterize emerging trends in the research related to these topics and to examine the relationships between key publications. Through queries of the Web of Science and Scopus databases, the metadata for these particle swarm optimization (PSO) and vehicle routing problem (VRP) solution strategies were compared using bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis using the Bibliometrix R software package, and secondly with VOSViewer. The bibliometric study’s purpose was to identify the most relevant thematic clusters and publications where PSO and VRP research intersect. The findings of this study can guide future VRP research and underscore the importance of developing effective PSO metaheuristics

A sustainable vendor-buyer inventory system considering transportation, loading and unloading activities

The increasing amount of worldwide carbon emissions has caused global warming, instigating governments to implement carbon policies such as the carbon cap-and-trade policy to achieve sustainable environmental development. This study aims to determine an optimal policy for the integrated system, which minimizes the total integrated cost while keeping ecological issues in mind. It discusses the carbon emissions (direct and indirect) generated by both parties (vendor and buyer) that involve freight forwarding activities. Loading and unloading activities involved in the process of both parties are considered. Lead-time is considered as a function of the production time, loading and unloading time, transportation time, and in-transit time. Logistics costs are a function of the weight of a product, distance traveled, fuel price, and fuel consumption. A proper solution algorithm was developed to find the optimal decision variables (order quantity, number of shipments, safety factor, lead-time, and total emission quantity), which minimize the total cost. A numerical example and sensitivity analysis are performed to reveal the efficiency of the proposed model by using Matlab12a. The findings of the study revealed that the parameters impact the decision variables significantly. In addition, managerial insights have also been drawn for decision-makers.</p