Online platform-based reverse logistics network design for mobile phones with resilience capability: Stochastic programming and Benders decomposition

Abstract

In the context of global market volatility, natural disasters and human-induced disruptions have intensified supply chain uncertainty. Online recycling, leveraging third-party courier services and platform-based information matching, has emerged as an effective solution for managing e-waste recovery. However, its sustainability and resilience performances remain limited due to the lack of advanced supply chain design methods. To fully capitalize on the residual value of used mobile phones, we propose a quality-based cascading material efficiency strategy and design an online platform-based reverse logistics network that integrates consumers, operation centers, third-party logistics, and cascading processing facilities. A two-stage mixed-integer stochastic programming model is developed to minimize total costs, including carbon emission costs, while enhancing sustainability and resilience. We develop an enhanced Benders decomposition algorithm with acceleration strategies, incorporating effective inequalities, induced constraints, and Benders adaptive-cuts. A clustering-based method is further applied to improve cut selection efficiency. Extensive computational experiments confirm the algorithm’s superiority in both baseline and scalability tests. Finally, we conducted a case study on a leading internet recycling platform in China to evaluate the performance of the reverse network design and resilience strategy. Our results positively indicate that the combined effect of disruption events and carbon tax policies can promote a balance between sustainability and resilience in reverse logistics networks. The implementation of resilience strategy combinations can improve both economic and carbon emission performance. We also confirm the feasibility of supply chain restructuring or strengthening partnerships to enhance low-carbon performance in the event of disruptions. A well-designed combination of complementary resilience strategies prevents simultaneous failures and ensures adaptability to a wide range of disruption risks. These findings are significant for understanding how optimizing resilience strategy combinations and partnerships can improve supply chain sustainability and resilience.