Hierarchical Facility Location for the Reverse Logistics Network Design under Uncertainty

One of the most important concerns of reverse logistics network design is to locate interacting facilities in an efficient and cost effective manner, which forms a typical hierarchical system with multiple layer configuration. Considering the hierarchical relationship and flow of waste among the different facility types, both single-flow pattern and multi-flow pattern are discussed in this paper. In order to model the hierarchical facility location problem in an uncertain environment, two types of uncertain programming models, uncertain expected cost minimization model and uncertain α-cost minimization model, are proposed according to different decision criteria. It is shown that these models can be transformed into their deterministic counterparts and then be solved efficiently. Numerical examples are presented for illustration. Moreover, the optimal locations for the reverse logistics network with different flow patterns are compared as well. c ⃝2014 World Academic Press, UK. All rights reserved.