A Review of Structural Relationships in Closed-Loop Supply Chain Model

The acquisition strategy of returned products has become essential in the study of reverse supply chain.  There are three primary activities included in the process of a the reverse supply chain, the acquisition of returned products, the remanufacturing process, and redistribution. This literature review intends to study the existing relationship amongst supply chain players in a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) model. In the remanufacturing process performed by the company, returned products must be collected from consumers. Therefore, remanufacturing companies rely upon consumers as cores suppliers. This makes the good relationship between the two become  crucial in company operational sustainability successfully.  In this study, the identified journal articles were categorized into types of structural relationships between supply chain players and network structures of a reverse supply chain. Types of structural relationships are ownership-based, service-contract, direct-order, deposit-based, credit-based, buy-back, and voluntary–based. There are four types of returned product collector and remanufacturer: Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), a third party (3PL), retailer, and remanufacturer. Discussion of the journal articles was presented in each category. After that, the structural relationship was explored to find its advantage and disadvantage, so that CLSC can be managed effectively and efficiently. As a summary, suggestions for future research were described as the result of the literature review conducted

Analyzing Remanufacturability of Mobile Phones using DEMATEL Approach

The use of mobile phone has increased at a surprisingly high rate over these two decades. For many people, especially young generations, mobile phone has even become a primary need. As a consequence, the production of mobile phone has increased significantly and followed immediately by the disposal, as a result of its short life-cycle nature. Recently, there are substantial initiatives proposed in order to mitigate the effect of e-waste to the environment. Remanufacturing is one of recovery processes that could extend product�s useful life and provide a circular life-cycle instead of linear. However, there are many factors that can affect the success of remanufacturing engagement, and specifically remanufacturability of a mobile phone. There are numerous considerations of remanufacturability with regards to the short life-cycle nature of mobile phone, and these factors can be qualitative or quantitative, with conflicting potentials, and some of them may be uncertain. In this study, we use Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to identify the interrelationship among the factors and analyze those results to identify the prominent factors. Furthermore, an influential-relation map is provided to support visualization for managerial implications. The case results show that innovation-rate and obsolescence are factors that give highest impact while source-of-returns and pricing are factors that receive highest effects from other factors. Also, acquisition-of-used-product, pricing, and market-size are dominant factors as they significantly affect and affected by others