Sample average approximation for multi-vehicle collection–disassembly problem under uncertainty

Abstract

The implementation of the circular economy is increasingly supported by many governments. It is performed by integrating the activities of reverse supply chain (RSC) into those of forward supply chain. However, many companies that traditionally focus on the activities of forward supply chain have decided to collaborate with third-party reverse logistics providers to manage the RSC. This collaboration motivates the work presented in this paper to propose better decisions for decision makers in the providers under the fact that integrating decisions of the collection of End-of-Life products and their disassembly process proposes a RSC with better performance. In this paper, an integrated problem concerning those decisions is presented and formalised. It also deals with the uncertainty of the quality and the quantity of products as well as the demands of the associated components. Two approximate methods are developed to provide the solutions.