Abstract :
[en] Reducing environmental impact, related regulations and potential for operational benefits are
the main reasons why companies share their returnable transport items (RTIs) among the
different partners of a closed-loop supply chain. In this paper, we consider a producer, located
at a depot, who has to distribute his products packed in RTIs to a set of customers. Customers
define a time window wherein the service can begin. The producer is also in charge of the
collection of empty RTIs for reuse in the next production cycle. Each partner has a storage area
composed of both empty and loaded RTI stock, as characterized by initial levels and maximum
storage capacity. As deliveries and returns are performed by a homogeneous fleet of vehicles
that can carry simultaneously empty and loaded RTIs, this research addresses a pickup and
delivery inventory-routing problem within time windows (PDIRPTW) over a planning horizon.
A mixed-integer linear program is developed and tested on small-scale instances. To handle
more realistic large-scale problems, a cluster first-route second matheuristic is proposed.
Scopus citations®
without self-citations
101