Reverse production system infrastructure design for electronic products in the state of Texas

Rapid technology advances have shortened the lifecycle of electronic products, resulting in the increasing number of discarded products in recent years. Due to the growing environmental concerns, several state governments have passed new regulations in order to reduce the amount of waste stream, to divert the discarded products from landfills, and to dispose the retired electronic products properly. As a result, an effective reverse logistics infrastructure is required to support the product recovery activities. In this paper, we propose a solution methodology for designing the infrastructure of the reverse production system by utilizing the mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. A case study for designing the reverse production system in the state of Texas is also presented. Statistical analyses are carefully utilized to estimate design parameters in the case study from the available historical information from previous studies. Finally, discussions, recommendations, and insight information in designing and operating the reverse production system are presented. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.