Decision Support for Flow Management in a Recycling Network

This paper describes a decision support system which has been developed for a company operating in the area of waste and raw material management. The system consist of two complementary components that help the company to improve its core business of buying recyclable waste materials from waste collection companies that are sold to recycling companies. Upstream, a real-time component for mobile devices supports procurement representatives during price negotiations with suppliers and thus helps to tighten profitable relationships. Downstream, a model-based optimization component maximizes the revenue generated by selling the purchased waste materials to paper mills and hence helps to improve the distribution network. The system has become a vital tool that helps the company to increase profits and trade volume while the duration of the planning process could be cut by more than half.