Integrating Pricing and Dispatching Decisions for Collection Centers in Reverse Supply Chains

Mehmet Alegöz

Collection centers play an important role in reverse supply chains by managing the collection of end-of-life (EOL) products and reintroducing them into the economy. In this study, we focus on a collection center that collects EOL products composed of multiple components, disassembles them, checks the quality of their components, and sends the reusable parts to a remanufacturer at a certain price. The collection center needs to decide when to dispatch the collected products to the remanufacturer as well as determine the optimal price to collect the right amount of EOL products from end users and maximize its profit. We develop a stochastic dynamic programming model to maximize the long-run average profit of the collection center per unit of time and analyze the optimal dispatching and pricing decisions. We examine quantity-based and time-based dispatching heuristics, which are widely used in practice, and compare their performance with the optimal dispatching decisions. We also compare static and dynamic pricing models. Computational results provide valuable managerial insights into how optimal decisions depend on system parameters.

Short Bio

Mehmet Alegöz currently works as an Associate Professor of Sustainable Systems & Supply Chain Management in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Eskisehir Technical University. His research interests lie in the area of sustainable supply chains ranging from emission policies to coordination and competition in supply chains. He primarily employs dynamic programming, stochastic programming, and game theory to develop solution approaches for the problems in this field.

Mehmet has led several research projects as a principal investigator, including TÜBİTAK 1001 projects, and his work has been published in leading journals such as the European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, Omega, and Computers & Industrial Engineering, among others.

Venue

Friday, October 9, 2026, 4.00 pm

IE Building, Halim Doğrusöz Auditorium (IE 03)