Optimal Design Of Remanufacturing Logistics Networks

Remanufacturing is the transformation of used products into products, which satisfy exactly the same quality and other standards as new products. Remanufacturing is accomplished through necessary disassembly, examination and repair as well as replacement of components and parts. It is applicable to many kinds of products such as automobile, computer, printer, photocopier, mobile telephone, TV set, refrigerator, air-condition, washing machine, tire, printed circuit board and etc. In the face of limited natural resources and the disposal capacity of waste, remanufacturing being one of advanced forms of product recovery can realize efficiently the synthetical goal of optimal utilization of natural resources, environmental protection and sustainable development of economics. So it has received extensive attention from industrially advanced countries and become one of the most efficient approaches that realize the sustainable development. However, the efficient implement of remanufacturing needs appropriate logistics network structures. Whether the design of remanufacturing logistics network is reasonable or not decides fundamentality the efficiency of logistics management for remanufacturing. Although important contributions have been made to research in the field of the design of traditional production/distribution networks, research on the logistics network design for remanufacturing is still in the initial phase. There are many similar aspects between remanufacturing logistics networks and traditional production/distribution networks, but the former is more complicated owning to its inherent characteristics. Therefore, it is essential to do an in-depth study about the design problem of remanufacturing logistics networks.Based on the existing literatures and aiming at the characteristics of remanufacturing logistics networks, the optimal design of remanufacturing logistics networks under certainty and uncertainty are studied respectively. The main contents of this dissertation are as follows:(1) Based on summarizing the relative literatures, the developing progress of...