The return plant location problem: Modelling and resolution

The formulation and analysis of a new plant location problem is presented. The problem studied, herein referred to as the Return Plant Location Problem, is that of cost minimization in a system of suppliers and customers in which there exists a return product from each customer. Lagrangian decomposition based heuristic and exact solution methods are given. The methods are applied to test problems with different structures and compared with the classical subgradient optimization approach.