A multistage decision-making model for green reverse logistics

Reverse Logistics (RL) has an increasing impact on corporate image. In order to increase the competitive advantage and recapture the value of returns in the RL, companies have to develop a holistic strategy and efficient techniques. Besides,legislative policies with respect to the environment and sustainability have enforced manufacturers to accept the responsibility of taking back their returns. Nonetheless,many companies are not capable of applying the current tools to satisfy their requirements. To address this issue, a multi stage decision-making model by combining the concept of Green and RL has been proposed in this research. This model consists of three stages: quality inspection, cost calculation and analysis, and green environmental factors. In the first stage, the model proposes the quality level of returns by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). In the second stage, the total cost of each possible decision option would be calculated based on the traditional costing system. And in the final stage, the environmental impacts of RL on the environment would be measured by employing the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) technique. The output of the proposed model would be the best decision option in dealing with the returns in terms of quality, cost, and green areas. In order to verify and validate the proposed model, an expert opinion elicitation and a case study in the computer industry, which is called the ABC Company, (e.g. Hard Disk) have been conducted, respectively. In the verification phase, the sixteen qualified experts from both academia and industry have approved the terms, contents, criteria and the methods which have been used in each stage of the model via interviews. Ultimately, in order to analyze and test the validity of the whole model in a real world, a case study in a computer industry and specifically the Hard Disk product as a return has been carried out. In this case study, the two quality problems including the pin contamination and the yoke height of the Hard Disk have been considered as the two main problems to study. The five qualified experts from the three departments (quality management, accounting, and logistics and HSE) have expressed their technical views in each stage of the model. The results in the first stage of the model have represented that, the quality level of returns according to the AHP model is low quality and is equal to 0.2843. The findings in the second stage of the model have shown that the recycling and disposal options with RM2359.4, and RM2354.75 for the understudy returned batch (48 PC of Hard Disk), have the two lowest costs, respectively. And, in the final stage of the model, the results based on the VIKOR method has demonstrated that the recycling with Qrec = 0.3843 compare to the disposal recovery option with Qdis = 1 has the minimum impact on the environment and therefore the recycling would be the best and final proposed recovery option for the returned Hard Disk.

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