A genetic algorithm approach for solving a closed loop supply chain model: A case of battery recycling

Due to the implementation of government legislation, social responsibility, environmental concern, economic benefits and customer awareness the industries are under a great pressure not only to provide environmentally friendly products but also to take back the product after its use. The issue in reverse logistics is to take back the used products, either under warranty or at the end of use or at the end of lease, so that the products or its parts are appropriately disposed, recycled, reused or rennanufactured. In order to overcome this issue, it is necessary to setup a logistics network for arising goods flow from end users to manufacturers. In this study, the optimum usage of secondary lead recovered from the spent lead-acid batteries for producing new battery is presented. The disposal in surface or sewage water or land of liquid content of the lead-acid batteries is strictly restricted. Because of the need for environmental protection and the lack of considerable lead resources, the spent batteries treatment and lead recovery are becoming crucial now-a-days. The objective of this paper is to develop a multi echelon, multi period, multi product closed loop Supply chain network model for product returns and the decisions are made regarding material procurement, production, distribution, recycling and disposal. The proposed heuristics based genetic algorithm (GA) is applied as a solution methodology to solve mixed integer linear programming model (MILP). Finally the Computational results obtained through GA are compared with the solutions obtained by GAMS optimization software. The solution reveals that the proposed methodology performs very well in terms of both quality of solutions obtained and computational time. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.