Methodology for Study of Characteristics and Time Reduction in Reverse Supply Chain Using System Dynamics

Increasing pressure to improve market competitiveness has pushed companies to consider the reverse supply chain because of economic and environmental benefits. Besides, legislations and directives, consumer awareness and social responsibilities towards environment are also the drivers for reverse supply chain. The process of reverse supply chains are more complicated since return flows may include several activities such as collection, checking, sorting, disassembly, remanufacturing, disposal and redistribution. Moreover, the quality and the quantity of the used products are uncertain in the reverse channel. The complexity of reverse supply chain has motivated several researchers to use System dynamics (SD) modelling techniques in the search for better strategies and policies for integrating the forward and reverse supply chains by addressing the effects of uncontrollable factors such as uncertainty of returns. The paper aims at not only proposing a methodology that provides an understanding of the system structure as it identifies the important factors or variables influencing the system and to study the characteristics of the process but also it highlights the measurement and improvement of the reverse supply chain.