Green supply chain management using the queuing theory to handle congestion and reduce energy consumption and emissions from supply chain transportation fleet

Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management JIEM, 2017 – 10(2): 213-236 – Online ISSN: 2013-0953 – Print ISSN: 2013-8423 https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2170 Green Supply Chain Management Using the Queuing Theory to Handle Congestion and Reduce Energy Consumption and Emissions From Supply Chain Transportation Fleet Arvin Aziziankohan1 , Fariborz Jolai2 Roya Soltani1 1 , Mohammad Khalilzadeh1 , , Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam2 Department of Industrial Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran (Iran) School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, (Iran) 2 , , , , Received: November 2016 Accepted: February 2017 Abstract: Purpose: Nowadays, governments and people pay more attention to use green products due to environmental pollution, irreplaceable energy and shortage of resources. Green products are resulted from the application of green supply chain management strategies to the organizations’ performance strategies, so that we can reduce environmental pollutants and wastes and take a step towards saving energy with limited resources. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the effect of reducing energy consumption in green supply chain is examined by using queuing theory and transportation models. Data was generated and solved by a commercial optimization epackage. Findings: The findings indicate that suitable assignment of existing transportation fleet with specified capacity, and using queueing theory in a closed-loop network to reduce the queue length and handle congestion, can cause a reduction in energy consumption by optimizing transportation and waiting times in a green supply chain. Originality/value: Adopting investment strategy in improving the environmental performance of the supply chain, will yield in many advantages and benefits. This article investigates the effect -213- Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management – https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2170 of queuing theory on reducing waiting time and optimizing energy consumption in green supply chain. Keywords: green supply chain, green supply chain management, queuing theory, LINGO, closed-loop supply chain, congestion 1. Introduction Globalization, increased regulation of governmental and non-governmental organizations and pressure and demands of customers regarding environmental issues, has caused the reviewing required measures to use the green supply chain management by the organizations to improve environmental and economic performance. Green supply chain management integrates of supply chain management with environmental requirements at all stages of product design, selection and supply raw material, production and manufacturing, distribution and transmission processes, delivery to the customer and after consumption processes such as recycling and reuse management in order to maximize the amount of energy and resource efficiency, along with improved performance of the entire supply chain (Olfat, Khatami-Firouz & Khodaverdi, 2011). Green supply chain management (GrSCM), is a topic extracted from the perspective of the traditional supply chain (Fortes, 2009). Quality revolution in the late 1980s and revolution of supply chain in the late 1990s led businesses to the environmental sensitivity (Srivastava, 2007). This topic was popularized gradually in the community. Environmental efficiency and reproduction processes, are now important assets to achieve the best practices (Ashley, 1993; Srivastava, 2007). Kelle and Silver (1989) were among the researchers who examined green supply chain management as an applied issue and proposed a system for the products that are potentially reusable for the organizations. Navin-Chandra (1991) for the first time, proposed the need for green design concept to reduce the impact of product waste. Then Ashley (1993), Allenby and Richards (1994), Zhang, Kuo, Lu and Huang (1997) have developed green design. De Ron and Penev (1995), Beamon (1999) and Arena, Mastellone and Perugini (2003) considered the product life cycle analysis as a framework for green design. Reverse logistics, is another area of green marketing that many studies have been done about it. Among the scholars who conducted case studies in the field of green marketing, Pohlen and Farris (1992), Stock (1998), Carter and Ellram (1998), Shih (2001), Tibben-Lembke (2002), Srivastava and Srivastava (2006), Nagorney and Toyasaki (2005) and Min, Ko and Ko (2006) can be noted. -214- Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management – https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2170 Waste Management is another concept that lies at the heart of green supply chain management. Roy and Whelan (1992) were the first researchers who have worked in this field. They proposed a model for reduction of electronic waste. Other researchers such as Hannah and Newman (1995), Sarkis and Cordeiro (2001) and Nagorney and Toyasaki (2005) focused on the recovery and reproduction. Green manufacturing concept was introduced in 1993 by Crainic et al. they suggested a green supply chain model by sea freight containers (Fortes, 2009). The concept of green manufacturing was continued by Van Der Laan and Salomon (1997), Guide and Srivastava (1998) and White, Masanet, Rosen and Beckman (2003) research. Green supply chain is the set of firm’s internal and external actions throughout the supply chain, to improve the environment and prevent pollution (Nasseri-Taheri, 2006). In other words, green supply chain management includes green purchasing, green production, green distribution, green marketing and reverse logistics. Rao and Holt (2005) suggest that the concept of green supply chain management includes the following environmental initiatives: 1. Internal logistics; 2. Production or internal supply chain; 3. External logistics; Reverse Logistics which includes activities in which the raw material suppliers, service contractors, dealers, distributors and end users together, try to reduce or eliminate the harmful environmental effects of their work. According to Srivastava (2007) green supply chain, taking into account environmental issues in supply chain management, is defined including product design, selection and sourcing of materials, manufacturing process, the final product delivered to the customer and product management after consumption and elapsing useful life. Generally, it is inferred that green supply chain management, enhances the efficiency and synergy between commercial partners and their leader companies, to help increase environmental performance, minimizes waste and saves costs. It is expected that the synergy, improve the competitive advantage and marketing image and (Rao & Holt, 2005). Thus, supply chain management results in the certain financial and operating interests (Bowen, Cousins, Lamming & Faruk, 2001). The managers of green supply chain in leading companies are trying to use green logistics and satisfaction by creating environmental pers (...truncated)