The boomerang returns? Accounting for the impact of uncertainties on the dynamics of remanufacturing systems

Recent years have witnessed companies abandon traditional open-loop supply chain structures in favour of closed-loop variants, in a bid to mitigate environmental impacts and exploit economic opportunities. Central to the closed-loop paradigm is remanufacturing: the restoration of used products to useful life. While this operational model has huge potential to extend product life-cycles, the collection and recovery processes diminish the effectiveness of existing control mechanisms for open-loop systems. We systematically review the literature in the field of closed-loop supply chain dynamics, which explores the time-varying interactions of material and information flows in the different elements of remanufacturing supply chains. We supplement this with further reviews of what we call the three ‘pillars’ of such systems, i.e. forecasting, collection, and inventory and production control. This provides us with an interdisciplinary lens to investigate how a ‘boomerang’ effect (i.e. sale, consumption, and return processes) impacts on the behaviour of the closed-loop system and to understand how it can be controlled. To facilitate this, we contrast closed-loop supply chain dynamics research to the well-developed research in each pillar; explore how different disciplines have accommodated the supply, process, demand, and control uncertainties; and provide insights for future research on the dynamics of remanufacturing systems

The Future of Retail Operations

Retailing consists of all the activities associated with the selling of goods to the final consumer. In this article, we review the research on retail operations published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Research (M&SOM) since 1999. We then discuss the current retail landscape and the new research directions it offers, in which M&SOM can play a prominent role

Effective medical surplus recovery

We analyze not-for-profit Medical Surplus Recovery Organizations (MSROs) that manage the recovery of surplus (unused or donated) medical products to fulfill the needs of underserved healthcare facilities in the developing world. Our work is inspired by an award-winning North American non-governmental organization (NGO) that matches the uncertain supply of medical surplus with the receiving parties’ needs. In particular, this NGO adopts a recipient-driven resource allocation model, which grants recipients access to an inventory database, and each recipient selects products of limited availability to fill a container based on its preferences. We first develop a game theoretic model to investigate the effectiveness of this approach. This analysis suggests that the recipient-driven model may induce competition among recipients and lead to a loss in value provision through premature orders. Further, contrary to the common wisdom from traditional supply chains, full inventory visibility in our setting may accelerate premature orders and lead to loss of effectiveness. Accordingly, we identify operational mechanisms to help MSROs deal with this problem. These are: (i) appropriately selecting container capacities while limiting the inventory availability visible to recipients and increasing the acquisition volumes of supplies, (ii) eliminating recipient competition through exclusive single-recipient access to MSRO inventory, and (iii) focusing on learning recipient needs as opposed to providing them with supply information, and switching to a provider-driven resource allocation model. We use real data from the NGO by which the study was inspired and show that the proposed improvements can substantially increase the value provided to recipients

Strategic Remanufacturing Decision in a Supply Chain with an External Local Remanufacturer

This paper develops a model for remanufacturing decisions in a two-stage supply chain with one manufacturer, one retailer and one external local remanufacturer, who collects used products and then reproduces them into a new one if the manufacturer does not join in remanufacturing process. This paper is different from most of the extant studies about remanufacturing because they consider decisions of firms rather than supply chains. We mainly focus on the remanufacturing strategy of the manufacturer when there is a local remanufacturer. We derive the equilibrium results for all players and do some comparative studies under different cases. We find that product substitutability can invert the effect of manufacturer’s extension decision on the retailer’s profit. We also consider the effect of channel structure by comparing the decentralized channel with the centralized channel. We find that the manufacturer has a higher incentive to extend its product line in the centralized channel than the decentralized channel; and the competition can strengthen its motivation to extend the line

Channel Management and differentiation strategies: A case study from the market for fresh produce

The paper analyses the current differentiation strategies in the market for fresh produce. First a short review of the literature on channel structure and product differentiation is presented, in order to identify, on a theoretical grounding the incentives for differentiation strategies. Second, a case study is drawn of a UK channel intermediary organisation carrying out differentiation policies in the fresh produce category (on behalf of UK multiple retailer customers) supplied by a dedicated Italian grower. Results show that in the fresh produce industry there is room for product differentiation, but with contradictory welfare effects.fresh produce, product differentiation, channel structure and management, Agribusiness, Marketing,

On how the acquisition of recoverable parts influences the profitability of spare parts management for durables

In the management of spare parts for durables OEMs often face a sharp decline in sales of spare parts when the warranty period of their products ends. One reason for this effect is given by the high profitability of the after sales market which attracts competitors. If the competitors’ main sourcing option consists of repairing used or broken parts, an acquisition of those parts by the OEM might lower competition and increase sales. The purpose of this paper is to provide a case-based framework to offer insights on the opportunity of recovering parts. We consider a two-stage supply chain, where independent repair shops are responsible for handling the repair process. There are two options to meet spare parts demand: repair shops may replace the part with a new one (ordered from the OEM) or they may use a part that they repaired before. While repair shops achieve a larger profit by repairing parts, the OEM would prefer the use of new parts. However, he has no control on demand which might be obtained through buyback of broken parts. Furthermore, the OEM could recover these parts on a higher level, thus reducing production/procurement of new parts. The main contribution of this paper is to elaborate the important effects of recoverable items acquisition on spare parts demand by using a simple deterministic framework thus outlining the impact of different parameters on the profitability of spare parts management.Closed-Loop Supply Chains, Spare Parts, Competition in Product Recovery, Case Study

Inefficiencies in Digital Advertising Markets

Digital advertising markets are growing and attracting increased scrutiny. This article explores four market inefficiencies that remain poorly understood: ad effect measurement, frictions between and within advertising channel members, ad blocking, and ad fraud. Although these topics are not unique to digital advertising, each manifests in unique ways in markets for digital ads. The authors identify relevant findings in the academic literature, recent developments in practice, and promising topics for future research