Development and implementation of a green logistics-oriented framework for batch process industries : two case studies

In recent years, green logistics has received increasing interest due to the rise in greenhouse gases emission from transport operations. It is a promising approach to managing supply chain decisions to reduce environmental damages. Many models have been developed in the literature to study the environmental aspects of routing problems. However, these models have not been implemented in practice, particularly in batch processing industries. In this paper, we developed a two-stage stochastic model which integrates the tactical and operational decision levels to reduce the economic and environmental impacts of transport activities. This model generates optimum vehicle routes and their delivery velocities with the objective of minimizing the total distribution cost and the related emissions. We implemented the proposed model in two case studies drawn from the fast-moving consumer goods industry. This resulted in a cost reduction of up to 13 % of the total related economic and environmental costs compared to the actual situation at the test sites. These results also show the potential of green logistics-based models to improve the current modelling capabilities for batch distribution planning.