University of Qom Journal of Engineering Management and Soft Computing 3116-0158 12 2 2026 04 01 Maximizing the flow of used goods by designing a reverse logistics network using meta-heuristic methods 184 203 4301 10.22091/jemsc.2026.14496.1324 EN Gholam Hassan Shirdel Department of Computer Sciences, University of Qom, Qom, IRAN. 0000-0003-2759-4606 Ali Fadhil Department of Mathematics, University of Qom, Qom, IRAN. 0000-0001-7341-2258 Journal Article 2025 11 12 In supply chains, the goal is usually to meet demand at the lowest cost. But there are cases where either the transportation costs are insignificant or, such as in critical situations, the supply of more goods has a much higher priority than the costs. In such cases, instead of minimizing the cost, we should maximize the transfer flow values. In this case, the supply chain network minimization problem (minimum cost flow) becomes a type of flow maximization problem (maximum flow). In this paper, we have addressed a type of flow maximization problem in supply chains. First, we have defined and modeled it, then, considering its complex structure, we have obtained a suitable approximate solution for it by using a meta-heuristic method. https://jemsc.qom.ac.ir/article_4301_1b201147bcf3c89ecf52fea1ba997dff.pdf