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Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 10345

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Tarik Aouam

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Guest Editor

Department of Business Informatics and Operations Management, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium
Interests: logistics; production planning; supply chain integration; inventory systems; incentive contracts; large-scale optimisation; robust optimisation; stochastic optimisation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

More and more organizations are increasing their commitment to responsible business practices, extending their scope from mere optimization of economic performance to sustainable development. Traditional methods for modeling and decision-aiding in production and logistics have focused on minimizing costs or maximizing profits subject to operational constraints. In the context of sustainable development, there is a growing interest from both practitioners and researchers to extend and adapt existing methods to design and plan production and logistics in a sustainable way, taking into account social, economic and environmental factors.

This Special Issue calls for submissions related to models, methods and decision-aiding tools that help planners and decision-makers address issues related to the design and planning of sustainable production and logistics systems. Sustainability-related issues may be addressed in the context of the following non-exhaustive list of topics:

Production planning;
Production scheduling;
Logistics;
Supply chain management;
Transportation;
Inventory management;
Capacity planning;
Facility location;
Procurement;
Outsourcing;
Forecasting;
Demand management.

Prof. Dr. Tarik Aouam
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1039 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimizing Vehicle Replacement in Sustainable Urban Freight Transportation Subject to Presence of Regulatory Measures

by Parisa Ahani, Amílcar Arantes, Rohollah Garmanjani and Sandra Melo

Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12266; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612266 - 11 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 731

Abstract

Since the 1990s, studies and pilot tests have been conducted to reduce traffic, accidents, and pollution due to urban freight transport (UFT). These ended up in several policies, regulations, and restrictions for UFT, such as low emission zones, delivery time windows, and vehicle size and weight restrictions. However, issues in UFT under regulatory measures still persist. This study introduces an optimization framework for deriving an optimal combination of various types of vehicles with different capacities for vehicle replacement with UFT. This framework allows an understanding of how an urban freight company with a limited budget efficiently satisfies its freight demand within an urban area in the presence of regulatory measures by urban administrators. The introduced formulation, which is mixed-integer linear programming, will assist the operator in choosing the best investment strategy for introducing new vehicles of certain types and sizes, for operation in different zones, into its fleet while gaining economic benefits and having a positive impact on the liveability of the urban area. Furthermore, an elasticity analysis is performed to consider the effects of specific uncertain parameters on the total cost. The numerical results show that the share of electric vehicles in the fleet increases, and they are more competitive than diesel vehicles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems)

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18 pages, 2718 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimization of Port Layout to Determine Greenhouse Gas Emission Gaps

by Claudia Durán, Ivan Derpich and Raúl Carrasco

Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13517; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013517 - 19 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1673

Abstract

Ports are of great strategic importance for a country. Nowadays, compliance with environmental requirements is required, forcing the migration towards clean energies. Therefore, it is necessary for emerging ports, as those in developed countries, to incorporate in their policies the use of electric power in the machinery that moves containers in the terminals. To learn how the problem is addressed in other countries, an extensive bibliographic review is presented. Then, the energy policies and criteria of a group of ports in an emerging country and a European port are studied. Subsequently, in order to determine the gaps between the ports investigated, the layout of the cargo yard of each of the terminals is optimized; the emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and other Greenhouse Gases (GHG) gases are calculated; and finally, the decrease in emissions when switching from diesel to electricity is estimated. The strategic and operational gaps related to energy management between the emerging and developed countries are discussed. It is concluded that research is needed to investigate how these initiatives impact the city and improve other sustainable aspects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems)

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14 pages, 1155 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Location of the Intermediate Echelon to Add Purchase Value and Sustainability Criteria in a Mining Supply Network

by Rodrigo Barraza, Juan M. Sepúlveda and Ivan Derpich

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12920; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912920 - 10 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1269

Abstract

This study presents an operational analysis to determine the location of an intermediate hub in a supply network for the mining industry, incorporating sustainability criteria through an optimization model. The sector of small, medium, and artisan mining enterprises (PAMMA), in Chile, has the same pressure as large mining to meet the demands of sustainability in the medium term, but the network of PAMMA facilities is precarious and requires government support for development. One strategy to improve the supply network is to locate intermediate points with limited capacities (called purchasing powers) to help the viability of the business model by incorporating sustainability objectives, such as diminishing the movement of minerals, as well as reducing the carbon footprint and gas emissions, all in support the promotion of the activity of small miners. In order to achieve the strategy above, a mathematical model of location and sustainable capacity is proposed. A grouping of suppliers was carried out to establish the number of mining suppliers in each cluster and the location of the intermediate hubs. Then, the prioritization of the parameters and classification of the processing plant alternatives was performed to define a vector of weights to rank the degree of sustainability. A sustainability matrix was calculated on the basis of the distances and transportation costs between the supplier hubs of the supply network and the processing plants. With each of these factors, a capacity model was developed to validate the mineral process flows in the supply network and estimate the expected productivity levels. The model is intended to support operational decision making when determining the location of an intermediate purchasing power that reduces the impact of transportation costs and emissions. The model was applied in a case study of the supply network in the small mining sector in Chile. The results recommend the location of hubs to add value and encourage investment in the PAMMA supply network. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems)

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30 pages, 6013 KiB

Open AccessArticle

To Share or Not to Share? The Optimal Technology Investment in a Virtual Product Supply Chain

by Yuan Fang, Bin Shen and Yifan Cao

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12858; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912858 - 9 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1307

Abstract

With the rapid rise of the virtual economy, the “brand + platform” virtual product distribution model led by virtual technology platforms has emerged, bringing a series of new virtual experiences to consumers. Considering that consumers have heterogeneous preferences for virtual technologies, we investigate a virtual product supply chain consisting of a brand owner, a virtual technology platform, and consumers (where the virtual technology platform has superior information about consumer preferences). We develop a signaling game model with preference information signaled by the virtual technology investment to study the optimal information-sharing strategy for the virtual product supply chain. We find that the virtual technology platform always prefers information sharing without paying any signaling cost. Moreover, we also observe that the brand owner and the platform can achieve alignment, that is, when consumers are more likely to prefer virtual technology, both the brand owner and the virtual technology platform are better off if the virtual technology platform chooses to share information with the brand owner. Finally, we analyze the consumer welfare and find that when consumers are moderately likely to prefer virtual technology, consumers can gain more benefits in the information-sharing scenario. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems)

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29 pages, 575 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intermodal Green p-Hub Median Problem with Incomplete Hub-Network

by El Mehdi Ibnoulouafi, Mustapha Oudani, Tarik Aouam and Mounir Ghogho

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11714; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811714 - 18 Sep 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1764

Abstract

In the literature, hub-networks have often been modeled such as only one mode is considered for all transportation. Also, the consolidated demand flows are assumed to be transferred directly between each origin-destination hub pairs. The previous assumptions impose restrictions on the practical applications of such hub-networks. In fact, various transport modes are usually retained for freight transport, and intermodal terminals (e.g., rail terminals) may not realistically be fully connected. Thus, to assist decision makers, we investigate if the appropriate use of more eco-friendly transportation modes in incomplete networks may contribute to the accomplishment of the significant global reduction goals in carbon emissions. In this paper, we study the intermodal green p-hub median problem with incomplete hub-network. For each p located hub nodes, the hub-network is connected by at most q hub-links. The objective is to minimize the total transportation-based CO

_{2}

emission costs incurred through the road- and rail-transportation of each o-d demand flows. We present a MILP formulation for the studied problem and propose a novel genetic algorithm to solve it. A penalty cost is considered on solutions where train capacity is exceeded. Additionally, we present a best-path construction heuristic to generate the initial population. Furthermore, we develop a demand flows routing heuristic to efficiently determine the partition of demand flows in the incomplete road-rail network. And we implement novel crossover and mutation operators to produce new off-springs. Extensive computational experiments show that the proposed solution approach outperforms the exact solver CPLEX. Also, we perform a comparison between the unimodal and intermodal cases, and offer a discussion on the tuning of freight trains. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems)

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18 pages, 1701 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Incentives to Enhance Production Reliability against Disruption: Cost-Sharing vs. Penalty

by Xiaodan Jin and Hong Zhou

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9003; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159003 - 22 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1110

Abstract

Two kinds of incentive strategies, cost-sharing and penalty, are examined in dealing with production disruption, with consideration of production process reliability as an endogenous factor for a two-echelon supply chain. Based on the Stackelberg game framework, we derive the optimal decisions of supply chain partners and compare their expected profits with different strategies. Considering the uncertain demand and the retailer’s preference against the risk, we further analyze how the partners’ decisions and the retailer’s expected profit are influenced by the feature of loss aversion. From theoretical analysis and numerical experiments, we find that: (1) overall, a penalty strategy dominates that of cost-sharing for the retailer, whereas the reverse applies with respect to the manufacturer; (2) a penalty strategy may outperform a cost-sharing strategy for the whole supply chain, depending on demand; and (3) a reasonable aversion against risk can help the retailer to achieve a more robust result when a penalty strategy is adopted under volatile and unpredictable demand. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems)

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17 pages, 1832 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Determining Optimal Locations of Postal Access Points Based on Simulated Annealing

by Katarina Mostarac, Petar Mostarac, Zvonko Kavran and Dragana Šarac

Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8635; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148635 - 14 Jul 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1330

Abstract

The development of a sustainable postal system depends on the sustainability of its postal network, especially the organization of the postal access points. Postal service providers around the world face great challenges due to changes in the service trends and in consumer behavior. In this paper, the authors argue the importance of the postal network and its significance in rural areas. Methodologies including advanced search algorithms such as brute force and simulated annealing are proposed for best determining the possible locations of postal access points with no or minimal decrease in service accessibility. To the best of our knowledge, these algorithms are scarcely used for determining postal service accessibility. The results show that the decline of the postal office could significantly affect service accessibility. An analysis of the numbers of access points and their impacts on the postal network is provided, as well as the scenario of an additional access point. This methodology could help postal service providers to better plan network organization and resources. For service users, the application of the methodology adds to better service accessibility that considers the distances traveled. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Production and Logistics Systems)

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