Supply Chain Lot-Sizing Problem Under Low Carbon Emission Constraint

In response to global climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions, many governments have already launched carbon emission cap-and-trade systems to lower carbon emission in their countries. China announced that it will launch a national-wide carbon emission cap-and-trade system that covers the main carbon emission intensive industry in 2017. Low-carbon operation has become one of the most important subject for industries and companies worldwide. This paper discusses supply chain production and distribution problem with consideration of low carbon emission constraint. Supply chain planning models are built to analyze the impacts of carbon emission cap-and-trade system on total operation costs and emission of manufacturer, transporter and supply chain. We use real data that published by previous researches and commercial solver Cplex to conduct numerical experiments, which help us better understand the potentials and strategies of companies to reduce carbon emission through operation management. Furthermore, we look at the problem from point view of international supply chain. We discuss the influence of two different cap-and-trade systems on an international production network.The main content of the thesis are the followings:(1) Analysis of carbon emission cap-and-trade system on operation cost and emission of companies. The thesis illustrates the impact of different emission cap settings and emission allowance prices on operation costs and carbon emission of companies. Several models are proposed to help company decide how much carbon emission should be reduced through operation and make concrete low carbon operation plans.(2) Analysis of the contribution of supply chain collaboration on carbon emission reduction. Based on supply chain planning models, the thesis builds models that discuss the potentials of reducing carbon emission through supply chain transportation collaboration. Furthermore, the thesis discusses how integrated supply chain can achieve the lowest emission level compared to other supply chain structures.(3) Analysis of influences of cap-and-trade systems on international supply chain operation. We extend traditional supply chain planning model to incorporate two cap-and-trade systems, one with fix carbon emission price and another with variable carbon emission price. We analyze the impact of different carbon emission price mechanisms on supply chain planning and carbon emission.We hope that this thesis can enrich the research on low carbon operation management and provide useful insights for companies and carbon emission cap-and-trade system designers.