1st Edition

Design and Analysis of Closed-Loop Supply Chain Networks

By Subramanian Pazhani Copyright 2021
    98 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Closed loop supply chains and their management have become mandatory for firms to stay competitive and profitable. This book provides insights into designing supply chain networks by understanding and incorporating key return parameters into the network design, which will affect profitability.

    The book discusses how customer categories and their acceptance behavior are incorporated into the network design. It also shows how to analyze the interaction of parameters on supply chain network design and profitability, offers modeling framework for incorporating uncertainties in the return product parameters, and shows how to design a robust network.

    Invaluable for managers in designing a sustainable, robust, and profitable supply chain network and ideal for managers, practitioners, and researchers in the area of supply chain network design and optimization.

    1. Introduction to Closed-Loop Supply Chain Design. 2. Designing CLSC Network with Commercial Returns. 3. Characteristics of Commercial Return Products. 4. Network Design Incorporating Quality of Returns and Customer Acceptance Behavior. 5. Robust Network Design Incorporating Uncertainties in Demand and Return Parameters.

    Biography

    Subramanian Pazhani is currently working as Senior Operations Research Specialist with the Advanced Analytics and Optimization Services Group, SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina. He holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research from the Pennsylvania State University, University Park and MS in Supply Chain Management from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. His research areas include network design in closed loop supply chains, inventory optimization in supply chains, inventory routing problems, AGV scheduling in manufacturing and warehousing systems, dispatching and cycle time optimization in Semiconductor fabs. His work has been published in prestigious journals such as International Journal of Production Economics, Computers and Industrial Engineering, International Journal of Production Research, Applied Mathematical Modelling, Applied Soft Computing, and International Journal of Operational Research.

    "I found this book to be a through introduction to closed loop supply chain networks. The concepts are explained clearly and will be accessible to novice readers, while the details included in the models are advanced enough to satisfy experienced supply chain researchers and practitioners. The focus on recycling and refurbishment---which is often overlooked in supply chain network design and analysis—is becoming even more important today as the very serious issue of climate change leads consumers to look for more environmentally friendly practices, such as purchasing slightly used products when possible. The book uses examples to illustrate that recycling and refurbishing can also lead to increased profits for the retailer, which makes this a win-win situation."

    - Michelle Opp, SAS Institute

    "This book has the virtue of exposing the concepts related to CLSC in an affordable and orderly way. Starting from the general, it leads us to understand the importance of analyzing the return flows in the supply chains and going into detail about the importance of commercial returns in particular. From there, it shows us how to mathematically model a CLSC network. Moreover, it introduces two key elements to consider in the modeling of CLSC within the commercial returns, the quality of the returned products and the customer acceptance toward refusrbished product. Finally, to expand the applicability of the proposed models, the author presents a model that allows us to design robust CLSC networks incorporating uncertainty in the parameters of demand and return of products, situation that parallels real life scenarios. In each chapter the author presents an analysis to understand the effects of the variables and the managerial implications they would have in practice. For all this, it seems to me that this book has a very interesting balance for an audience of academics interested in exploring the subject in more detail and practitioners dedicated to the subject in real life and looking for solutions to design profitable and sustainable supply chains."

    - Abraham Mendoza, Ph.D., Vice President for Research & Professor, Universidad Panamericana

    "The author describes beautifully closed-loop supply chain (CLSS) use cases, focusing on realistic scoped problems, while walking the reader through all the relevant pieces of the CLSS network with a clear and intuitive flow. His deep academic research experience shows in the quality of the material coverage and modeling discussion while his experience from working in real-life implementations allows him to add significant benefit with sections focused on managerial implications."

    - Natalia Summerville, Ph.D., SAS Institute