Mobile robots and evolutionary optimization algorithms for green supply chain management in a used-car resale company

Abstract

To ensure environment friendly products in the international supply chain scenario, an important initiative is reverse supply chain (RSC). The benefits (environmental and financial) from a RSC are influenced by disposal of reusable parts, cost factors and emissions during transportation, collection, recovery facilities, recycling, disassembly and remanufacturing. During designing a network for reverse supply chain, some objectives related to social, economic and ecological concerns are to be considered. This paper suggests two strategies for reducing the costs and emissions in a network of RSC. This research work considers design of RSC for a used-car resale company. First strategy outlines the design of a mobile robot—solar-powered automated guided vehicle (AGV) for reducing logistic cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The second strategy proposes a new multi-objective optimization model to reduce the costs and emissions of GHG. Strict carbon caps constraint is used as a guideline for reducing emissions. The proposed strategies are tested for a real-world problem at Maruti True Value network design in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry region of India. Two algorithms namely Elitist Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) and Heterogeneous Multi-Objective Differential Evolution algorithm (HMODE) are proposed. HMODE is a new improved multi-objective optimization algorithm. To select the best optimal solution from the Pareto-optimal front, normalized weighted objective functions (NWOF) method is used. The strength or weakness of a Pareto-optimal front is evaluated by the metrics namely ratio of non-dominated individuals (RNI) and solution spread measure (SSM). Also, Algorithm Effort (AE) and Optimiser Overhead (OO) are utilized to find the computational effort of multi-objective optimization algorithms. Results proved that proposed strategies are worth enough to reduce the GHG emissions and costs.

Appendix

Survey Form about Maruti True Value Center

General details

Employee Name:

Company/Showroom Name:

Address:

Questionnaire (Give details in brief)

• 1. Works undertaken (Put a tick mark):

  Used car Collection- Major/Minor, Repair- Major/Minor, Resale- Major/Minor.

• 2. Rent of the centre/year (in Rs):

• 3. Number of labors and their total salary details:

• 4. Energy conservation details (Electricity bills)—energy cost/year:

• 5. Transportation facilities available:

  • a. Car carrier truck details:

  • b. Transportation cost/truck(in Rs):

• 6. GHG emissions from this center/year:

• 7. GHG emissions from a car carrying truck/km:

• 8. Nearby used car collection centre:

• 9. Nearby used car Major Repair workshop:

• 10. Nearby used car Major resale centre:

• 11. Carbon Strict Cap (CSC) allowable:

• 12. Allowed GHG emissions stated by Government agencies:

  Used cars’ collection details

• 13. Car models:

• 14. Maximum weight of a car (in kg):

• 15. Customers’ opinions about car resale requirements:

• 16. Average Retrieval cost/car (in Rs):

• 17. Maximum capacity to collect used cars:

• 18. Space available for collection of used cars (in sq.m):

  Used cars’ repair works details

• 19. Major problems associated with Maruti Suzuki cars:

• 20. Facilities available for doing repair works:

• 21. Maximum capacity to repair cars:

• 22. Total space for repairing cars (in sq.m):

  Used cars’ resale details

• 23. Demand of resale cars:

• 24. Resale capacity:

• 25. Total space for resale of cars (in sq.m):

• 26. Total resale cost:

• 27. Shortage cost per car:

• 28. Any other details willing to share:

Employee Signature.