E-Fulfillment and Multi-Channel Distribution – A Review

This review addresses the specific supply chain management issues of Internet fulfillment in a multi-channel environment. It provides a systematic overview of managerial planning tasks and reviews corresponding quantitative models. In this way, we aim to enhance the understanding of multi-channel e-fulfillment and to identify gaps between relevant managerial issues and academic literature, thereby indicating directions for future research. One of the recurrent patterns in today’s e-commerce operations is the combination of ‘bricks-and-clicks’, the integration of e-fulfillment into a portfolio of multiple alternative distribution channels. From a supply chain management perspective, multi-channel distribution provides opportunities for serving different customer segments, creating synergies, and exploiting economies of scale. However, in order to successfully exploit these opportunities companies need to master novel challenges. In particular, the design of a multi-channel distribution system requires a constant trade-off between process integration and separation across multiple channels. In addition, sales and operations decisions are ever more tightly intertwined as delivery and after-sales services are becoming key components of the product offering.Distribution;E-fulfillment;Literature Review;Online Retailing

Efficiency Improvement in Reverse Logistics and Examining the Relationships between Refund, Return Policy, Quality Policy and Pricing Strategy in E-Commerce Business.

Reverse Logistics (RL), the process of returning goods from a customer to a retail or manufacturing source, is an increasingly important yet undermanaged business function. The advent of internet and mobile technology and its rapid growth worldwide facilitates online shopping. Research shows that 54% of customers are already buying goods online. Online retail sales are expected to hit $ 4.5 trillion USD by 2020. This shift in buying pattern comes with a more worrying change in customer behaviour in the form of increasing returns, a number of that is surging at an alarming rate. In fact, statistics show that 30% of all the products ordered online are returned. Returns represent a growing cost of doing business today, and they represent unique challenges that are separate from traditional forward moving distribution channels. This thesis analyses the challenges in reverse logistics supply chain (RSLC) and provides a directional approach to overcome these challenges. The applications of emerging technologies for reverse logistics are discussed in this thesis. Also, this thesis discusses at length, return policy and its relevance in e-commerce business. A profit-maximization model is developed to obtain optimal values for refund, return policy, quality policy and pricing in terms of certain market reaction parameters. A numerical example is presented to show the applicability of the model given the parameters considered. The model provides valuable managerial insights for online apparel retailer in particular, to determine its strategic position under varying customer’s purchase and return decisions

Selection of return channels and recovery options for used products

Due to legal, economic and socio-environmental factors, reverse logistics practices and extended producer responsibility have developed into a necessity in many countries. The end results and expectations may differ, but the motivation remains the same. Two significant components in a reverse logistics system -product recovery options and return channels - are the focus of this thesis. The two main issues examined are allocation of the returned products to recovery options, and selection of the collection methods for product returns. The initial segment of this thesis involves the formulation of a linear programming model to determine the optimal allocation of returned products differing in quality to specific recovery options. This model paves the way for a study on the effects of flexibility on product recovery allocation. A computational example utilising experimental data was presented to demonstrate the viability of the proposed model. The results revealed that in comparison to a fixed match between product qualities and recovery options, the product recovery operation appeared to be more profitable with a flexible allocation. The second segment of this thesis addresses the methods employed for the initial collection of returned products. A mixed integer nonlinear programming model was developed to facilitate the selection of optimal collection methods for these products. This integrated model takes three different initial collection methods into consideration. The model is used to solve an illustrative example optimally. However, as the complexity of the issue renders this process ineffective in the face of larger problems, the Lagrangian relaxation method was proposed to generate feasible solutions within reasonable computational times. This method was put to the test and the results were found to be encouraging

Optimization of a Dual-Channel Retailing System with Customer Returns

A plethora of retailers have begun to embrace a dual-channel retailing strategy wherein items are provided to consumers through both an online store and a physical store. As a result of standards and competitive measures, many retailers provide buyers who are unhappy with their purchases with the ability to achieve a full refund. In a dualchannel retailing system, full reimbursements can be done through what is called a crosschannel return, when a buyer purchases a product from an online store and returns it to a physical store. They can also be done through what is called a same-channel return, when a buyer purchases a product from a physical store and returns it back to the physical store, or purchases a product from an online store and returns it back to the online store. No existing research has examined all common types of customer returns in the context of a dual-channel retailing system. Be notified that the practice of cross-returning an item purchased from the physical store back to the online store is not common. Thus, it is not considered in this dissertation. We first study the optimal pricing policies for a centralized and decentralized dual-channel retailer (DCR) with same- and cross-channel returns. We consider two factors: the dual-channel retailer’s performance under centralization with unified and differential pricing schemes, and the dual-channel retailer’s performance under decentralization with the Stackelberg and Nash games. How dual-channel pricing behaviour is impacted by customer preference and rates of customer returns is discussed. In this study, a channel’s sales requests is a linear function of a channel’s own pricing strategy and a cross-channel’s pricing strategy. The second problem is an extension of the first problem. The optimal pricing policies and online channel’s responsiveness level for a centralized and decentralized dual-channel retailer with same- and cross-channel returns are studied. Indeed, the online store is normally the distribution centre of the enterprise and is not limited to the customers in its neighbourhood. Also, the online store experiences a much higher return rate compared to the physical store. Thus, it has the capability and the need to optimize its responsiveness to customer returns along with its pricing strategy. A channel’s sales requests, in the second problem, is a linear function of a channel’s own price, a crosschannel’s price, and the online store’s responsiveness level. The third problem studies the dilemma of whether or not to allow unsatisfactory online purchases to be cross-returned to the physical store. If not properly considered, those returns may create havoc to the system and a retailer might overestimate or underestimate a channel’s order quantity. Therefore, we study and compare between four vi different strategies, and propose models to determine optimal order quantities for each strategy when a dual-channel retailer offers both same and cross-channel returns. Several decision making insights on choosing between the different cross-channel return strategies and some properties of the optimal solutions are presented. From the retailer’s perspective of outsourcing the e-channel’s management to a third party logistics and service provider, we finally study three different inventory strategies, namely transaction-based fee, flat-based fee, and gain sharing. For each strategy, we find both channels’ optimal inventory policies and expected profits. The performances of the different strategies are compared and the managerial insights are given using analytical and numerical analysis. Methodologies, insights, comparative analysis, and computational results are delivered in this dissertation for the above aforementioned problems

E-Fulfillment and Multi-Channel Distribution – A Review

This review addresses the specific supply chain management issues of Internet fulfillment in a multi-channel environment. It provides a systematic overview of managerial planning tasks and reviews corresponding quantitative models. In this way, we aim to enhance the understanding of multi-channel e-fulfillment and to identify gaps between relevant managerial issues and academic literature, thereby indicating directions for future research. One of the recurrent patterns in today’s e-commerce operations is the combination of ‘bricks-and-clicks’, the integration of e-fulfillment into a portfolio of multiple alternative distribution channels. From a supply chain management perspective, multi-channel distribution provides opportunities for serving different customer segments, creating synergies, and exploiting economies of scale. However, in order to successfully exploit these opportunities companies need to master novel challenges. In particular, the design of a multi-channel distribution system requires a constant trade-off between process integration and separation across multiple channels. In addition, sales and operations decisions are ever more tightly intertwined as delivery and after-sales services are becoming key components of the product offering

A systematic review of decision-making in remanufacturing

Potential benefits have made remanufacturing attractive over the last decade. Nevertheless, the complexity and uncertainties associated with the process of managing returned products make remanufacturing challenging. Since this process involves enormous decision-making practices, various methods/techniques have been developed. This review is to specify the current challenges and opportunities for decision-making in remanufacturing. To achieve this, we perform a systematic review over decision-making in remanufacturing by classifying decisions into different managerial levels and areas. Adopting a systematic approach which provides a repeatable, transparent and scientific process, 241 key articles have been identified following a multi-stage review process. Our review indicates that most studies focuses on strategic-level(48%) and tactical-level (34%)with only 5% focusing on operational-level and the rest on two levels(13%). Regarding decision-making methods, most studies propose mathematical models (60%) followed by analytical models (31%). Furthermore, only 36% of the studies address uncertainties in which stochastic approach is mostly applied. A total of 21 knowledge gaps are highlighted to direct future research work

Optimization modeling for the operation of closed-loop supply chains.

Environmentally conscious manufacturing and remanufacturing/recycling of endof- life products are steadily growing in importance. The problem of managing the waste generated due to the disposal of many types of products has many aspects. The main driving forces for solving this growing problem are the rapid diminishment of raw material resources, decreasing space in landfills and increasing levels of pollution. The drivers associated with these forces are governmental regulations which require that the manufacturers take back the end-of-life products and customer perspectives on environmental issues. This research considers the problem of increasing levels of electronic and electrical equipments waste. The implementation of closed-loop supply chains can be beneficial both economically and ecologically for these problems. Relevant literature to understand various issues involved in the operation of reverse logistics systems and closed-loop supply chains is reviewed. Upon reviewing the issues involved in closed-loop supply chains, the problem is considered as an ill-structured problem. A problem structuring technique called Why-What\u27s Stopping Analysis is used to analyze the problem from various perspectives. Also, since a closed-loop supply chain involves multiple objectives, two techniques for categorizing the objectives into fundamental and means objectives are presented: Fundamental Objective Hierarchy and Means Objective Network techniques, respectively. A Goal Program (GP) modeling approach is used to handle many of the objectives identified by the previously mentioned techniques. In this research a consolidated objective function is defined which includes all of the deviational variables considered in various goals defined in the model. The consolidated goal is to minimize the weighted sum of all deviational variables. A non preemptive goal programming approach has been used with goals being assigned different weights according to their priorities. The values of the deviational variables help the decision maker to see which of the different goals are satisfied with the existing values of parameters and which of the goals aren\u27t. The goal program has been run with both uniform and variable demand values in all the periods. In the absence of real data, all the parameter values considered for this research have been assumed. The major contributions of the research are as follows: each member of the supply chain has its own individual objective and the related constraints which is a more realistic approach, the model considers multiple products, and the model considers operations at the product, subassembly, part, and material levels. All the above contributions make this research as the first approach of its kind which has never been attempted (based on literature reviewed) and the goal programming methodology used is also a well accepted approach among all the multi-objective programming approaches. Results show the effect of varying the priority/weight associated with a goal. Results also show that values of the deviational variables (positive or negative) help a decision maker to analyze the model. The goal programming approach is considered to be the most effective approach in terms of defining the mathematical model, analyzing the output, and modifying the model (if needed)