Heuristic approach for a pessimistic robust closed loop supply chain network considering commercial, end-of-use and end-of-life returns and quality constraint

Nowadays, due to the environmental issues, governmental regulations and economic benefits, focus on collecting and recovery of products has increased. Recovered products can be reused or sold in secondary markets. In this paper, we consider a given structure for a closed loop supply chain, including a manufacturer, distributer and retailer in the forward logistic; the original products are given to the primary market. In the reverse logistic of the given structure, the returned products are disassembled and some obtained parts are used in the manufacturer. We assume that the produced products from returned parts can be given to a secondary market. A minimum quality level is considered for the returned parts. A collection site, and a repair site is added to the initial structure and it is assumed that the disassembled parts to be categorized into end-of-use, end-of-life and disposals. Some products called commercial returns are not assembled and can be given to the secondary market after a simple repair. Furthermore, uncertainty on the demand and return rates are considered and the operational decision variables of the models which are mainly the flow values in the chain and opening some facilities are determined. Electronic devices such as mobile phones and printers are suitable examples for the studied supply chain. The robust counterpart of the model is developed and a solution approach based on the Lagrangian relaxation is developed for solving the problem. Two heuristics based on partial derivations are developed to solve the sub problems and results are analyzed.