Design and Optimization of Closed Loop Supply Chain

Abstract

Green manufacturing and sustainable development are two growing area where researchers and practitioners are paying attention. Without Closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) these concepts cannot be addressed. To create new profit opportunities and to raise the environmental performance CLSC entails combine forward supply chain and reverse supply chain activities into a single system. The effectiveness of CLSC depends on the network design and optimization of the underlying supply chain. The network becomes complicated when more factors like vehicle routing and environmental performance. Moreover, it becomes still complicated by uncertainty in its underlying variables viz. quantity, quality and time of product return. newlineDealing with uncertainty in CLSC network design has vital importance for the firms. Literature provides in detail about, green supplier selection, defective goods supply chain and different CLSC models considering product recovery, uncertain parameters, and environmental performance. Therefore, there is a need to design and optimize a generalized closed-loop supply chain model that considers the different costs, different product recovery options, uncertain parameters and environmental performance.