Capacitated facility location selection, using the weighted goal programming methodology.

Abstract

Compared to the past, companies have significantly changed their strategies regarding the location of their facilities to optimize their activities. Specifically, the numerous factors related to this fact include the geographical position of a network’s stakeholders, like suppliers and consumers, the availability and cost of the labor force, the various legislative factors like trade agreements and tax policies, and the minimization of CO2 emissions. In the present thesis, a weighted goal programming model is proposed to study the capacitated facility location selection problem. Specifically, to determine the optimal position for the installation of remanufacturing centers, the model aims at the simultaneous minimization of the deviations of the total cost and total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from a set of predetermined goals. Regarding the practical implementation of the model, we apply it to a reverse logistics network of ink and toner cartridges in Thessaly, Greece. In more detail, to indicate the optimal strategy for the reverse network, given its fifteen installed collection points in combination with five locations for the installation of remanufacturing centers, we develop a integer weighted goal programming model that takes into consideration the transportation costs, the installation costs, and the CO2 emissions as its variables. The proposed framework is applied using Excel Solver, concluding with a sensitivity analysis that indicates all the optimal strategies according to the changes in the weights of the cost and emission factors.