IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i24p16796-d1003598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modelling the Returnable Transport Items (RTI) Short-Term Planning Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Najoua Lakhmi

    (Université Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec, Laboratoire Génie Industriel, 3 rue Joliot-Curie, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France)

  • Evren Sahin

    (Université Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec, Laboratoire Génie Industriel, 3 rue Joliot-Curie, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France)

  • Yves Dallery

    (Université Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec, Laboratoire Génie Industriel, 3 rue Joliot-Curie, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France)

Abstract

Returnable transport items (RTI) are used for the handling and transportation of products in the supply chain. Examples of RTIs include plastic polyboxes, stillages or pallets. We consider a network where RTIs are used by multiple suppliers to deliver parts packed in RTIs to multiple customers. We address the short-term planning of empty-RTI flows (i.e., reverse flows) which consists of optimizing the transportation routes used to return empty RTIs from customers to suppliers. A transportation route consists of one or several trucks traveling from a customer to a supplier at a given frequency. The RTI short-term planning problem is critical because it impacts the continuity of loaded-RTI flows and affects the transportation and shortage costs of empty RTIs incurred at the very-short-term. We study a heterogeneous fleet of automotive parts RTIs, under two configurations: pool RTIs, which are standard RTIs shared between suppliers, and dedicated RTIs that are specific to each supplier. To solve the short-term planning problem, we develop a two-step approach using mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) and a greedy heuristic. For pool RTIs, our models enable a reduction of 30% in the number of trucks used and 20% in the distance traveled. Furthermore, if dedicated and pool RTIs are jointly planned, this would enable a 9% gain in terms of transportation costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Najoua Lakhmi & Evren Sahin & Yves Dallery, 2022. "Modelling the Returnable Transport Items (RTI) Short-Term Planning Problem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-23, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16796-:d:1003598
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16796/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16796/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eleonora Bottani & Giorgia Casella, 2018. "Minimization of the Environmental Emissions of Closed-Loop Supply Chains: A Case Study of Returnable Transport Assets Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Fabiana Tornese & Maria Grazia Gnoni & Brian K. Thorn & Andres L. Carrano & Jennifer A. Pazour, 2021. "Management and Logistics of Returnable Transport Items: A Review Analysis on the Pallet Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-23, November.
    3. Tanksale, Ajinkya N. & Das, Debabrata & Verma, Priyanka & Tiwari, Manoj Kumar, 2021. "Unpacking the role of primary packaging material in designing green supply chains: An integrated approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    4. Kim, T. & Glock, C. H., 2014. "On the use of RFID in the management of reusable containers in closed-loop supply chains under stochastic container return quantities," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 63689, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    5. Byungsoo Na & Min Kyu Sim & Won Ju Lee, 2019. "An Optimal Purchase Decision of Reusable Packaging in the Automotive Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-13, November.
    6. Xiangxiang Fan & Yeming Gong & Xianhao Xu & Bipan Zou, 2019. "Optimal decisions in reducing loss rate of returnable transport items," Post-Print hal-02312287, HAL.
    7. Riccardo Accorsi & Giulia Baruffaldi & Riccardo Manzini & Chiara Pini, 2019. "Environmental Impacts of Reusable Transport Items: A Case Study of Pallet Pooling in a Retailer Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-13, June.
    8. Fatima Ezzahra Achamrah & Fouad Riane & Evren Sahin & Sabine Limbourg, 2022. "An Artificial-Immune-System-Based Algorithm Enhanced with Deep Reinforcement Learning for Solving Returnable Transport Item Problems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-29, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yanqi Zhang & Xiaofei Kou & Haibin Liu & Shiqing Zhang & Liangliang Qie, 2022. "IoT-Enabled Sustainable and Cost-Efficient Returnable Transport Management Strategies in Multimodal Transport Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Fatima Ezzahra Achamrah & Fouad Riane & Evren Sahin & Sabine Limbourg, 2022. "An Artificial-Immune-System-Based Algorithm Enhanced with Deep Reinforcement Learning for Solving Returnable Transport Item Problems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-29, May.
    3. Liu, Guoquan & Li, Lei & Chen, Jianghang & Ma, Fei, 2020. "Inventory sharing strategy and optimization for reusable transport items," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    4. Hao Yu & Jiaqi Yang & Xipei Kang & Zhe Cong & Siwei Yao, 2022. "Empty Pallet Allocation Optimization in Shipbuilding Using a Pallet Pool System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, May.
    5. Fabiana Tornese & Maria Grazia Gnoni & Brian K. Thorn & Andres L. Carrano & Jennifer A. Pazour, 2021. "Management and Logistics of Returnable Transport Items: A Review Analysis on the Pallet Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-23, November.
    6. Lehner, Roland, 2023. "Cross-Supply Chain Collaboration Platform for Pallet Management," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 138753, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    7. Jianwei Ren & Chunhua Chen & Jian Gao & Chenxi Feng, 2020. "An optimization model for fleet sizing and empty pallet allocation considering CO2 emissions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, February.
    8. Alamri, Adel A. & Syntetos, Aris A., 2018. "Beyond LIFO and FIFO: Exploring an Allocation-In-Fraction-Out (AIFO) policy in a two-warehouse inventory model," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 33-45.
    9. Yi He & Qianqian Xu & Da Zhao, 2020. "Impacts of the BOPS Option on Sustainable Retailing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-16, October.
    10. Panagiotidou, Sofia & Nenes, George & Zikopoulos, Christos & Tagaras, George, 2017. "Joint optimization of manufacturing/remanufacturing lot sizes under imperfect information on returns quality," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 537-551.
    11. Liao, Haolan & Zhang, Qingyu & Li, Lu, 2023. "Optimal procurement strategy for multi-echelon remanufacturing systems under quality uncertainty," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    12. Sebastjan Škerlič & Robert Muha, 2020. "A Model for Managing Packaging in the Product Life Cycle in the Automotive Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-19, November.
    13. Suman Kalyan Sardar & Biswajit Sarkar, 2020. "How Does Advanced Technology Solve Unreliability Under Supply Chain Management Using Game Policy?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-16, July.
    14. Meherishi, Lavanya & Narayana, Sushmita A. & Ranjani, K.S., 2021. "Integrated product and packaging decisions with secondary packaging returns and protective packaging management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(3), pages 930-952.
    15. Iva Jestratijevic & Urška Vrabič-Brodnjak, 2022. "Sustainable and Innovative Packaging Solutions in the Fashion Industry: Global Report," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-14, October.
    16. Dapeng Yang & Daqing Wu & Luyan Shi, 2019. "Distribution-Free Stochastic Closed-Loop Supply Chain Design Problem with Financial Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-23, February.
    17. Ming Liu & Rongfan Liu & Zhanguo Zhu & Chengbin Chu & Xiaoyi Man, 2018. "A Bi-Objective Green Closed Loop Supply Chain Design Problem with Uncertain Demand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, March.
    18. Jan Pešta & Markéta Šerešová & Vladimír Kočí, 2020. "Carbon Footprint Assessment of Construction Waste Packaging Using the Package-to-Product Indicator," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-23, December.
    19. Zhang, Qinhong & Segerstedt, Anders & Tsao, Yu-Chung & Liu, Biyu, 2015. "Returnable packaging management in automotive parts logistics: Dedicated mode and shared mode," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 234-244.
    20. Julio C. Londoño & Rafael D. Tordecilla & Leandro do C. Martins & Angel A. Juan, 2021. "A biased-randomized iterated local search for the vehicle routing problem with optional backhauls," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 29(2), pages 387-416, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16796-:d:1003598. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.