Supply Chains For Reusable Items

In reverse logistics, the design, control, and operation of a recovery value system will reflect the whole life cycle of a product. This is the concept of closed-loop supply chains, in which zero-waste is achieved in the “forward flows of materials (from suppliers to end customers) and the reverse flow of products (post consumption) back to the manufacturing or distribution supply chains” (Book p.151-152). Reverse logistics supports closed-loop supply chains and coordinating the chains to achieve (or maintain) competitive advantage. A fragmented chain, where each member is only focused on its own processes, is considered a key Supply Chain Management problem. It is not wise for Sandvik to fragment, or decouple the forward and reverse supply chains.

Supply chains are an integral part of global quality and cost management initiative, because a typical company’s supply chain cost can represent more than 50% of assets and more than 80% of revenues. (Ball, 2010), in other word, the ABC, Inc should reduce the inventory of chain supply to reduce the cost. In order to do that the Board of Directors of ABC Inc. has to expresses reconsiderations for management across business functions in supply chain management. Managing the flow of raw materials, supplies as well as finished products are equally important as the management

Supply chains represent the procurement, production and distribution activities of an organisation. Within a supply chain, these activities are viewed as linked and reliant on one another to produce the final outcome. It is believed that if one component of the chain fails, the whole chain is broken and product/service delivery goals will not be achieved.

Finances are one of the most crucial parts of any business. Every business has to be aware of what type of resources, especially financial resources, it has available to work with. The financial aspect of a business determines almost every other aspect of that business. Being able to utilize budgets, in order to reduce costs and make profit, is imperative.

This book reflects the shift in interest to supply chain. We have included a chapter on MRP, but have not included scheduling in the book. Further we have included chapters on “strategic sourcing” and “logistics” in the book. Detailed “internal”

4. In a service supply chain, the (explicit) cost of information is higher than in a product

This research thesis results from my Masters studies carried out at the Logistics and supply chain Department of the University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom. It is my long term desire and great pleasure to offer my sincere thanks to all those who have contributed, in whatever way, to the completion of this work of mine.

Managing inventory, the order process, is a difficult task and if not handled properly leads to high inventory costs. It has always been tricky to manage and predict the perfect amount of inventory. Hence the most commonly known question arises, ‘Is Inventory Evil?’ Too much inventory will increase the inventory holding cost while too little can result in a shortage. To avoid such impasse, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is used. Vendor managed inventory is defined as the technique in which the vendor/supplier takes the responsibility of managing or optimizing the inventory of the distributor. This enables a mutually advantageous relationship in which both sides can manage the flow and availability of goods with

Jayaraman et al. (1999) developed a 0-1 MIP model to design the closed-loop supply chain of an electronic equipment remanufacturing company in the US. The supply chain includes collection of end-of-life products (core) from customers, remanufacturing and distribution of remanufactured products. In this setting, the optimal number and locations of remanufacturing plants and the number of cores collected are determined based on investment, transportation, processing, and storage costs. In addition, the stocking level of the remanufactured products is also optimised. Fleischmann et al. (2001) developed a MILP model for the design of a closed-loop supply chain. This model combines two models: one for a forward supply chain connecting factories to customers through warehouses, and the other for a reverse supply chain connecting customers to factories, through disassembly centres. The two chains are integrated by means of a balance constraint that assures for each factory that its total return is not greater than its total production. The authors discuss the main difference between traditional supply chains and combined forward and reverse supply chains. Two case studies (i.e. end-of-life copier and paper recovery) already published were used to explore model applications and their analysis concludes that, for some cases, the reverse supply chain must be accounted for simultaneously with the forward supply chain, but for other cases,

Originality/value – The literature review has explored the main differences between the two types of supply chains and also bridged the connection to their inherent characteristics. It is anticipated that this will trigger more in-depth researches into that topic.

In this study, the functional unit has been chosen under assumption that study will be used internally only, in which case the engineers and operators are concerned with assessing and improving the reverse supply chain performance on the basis of its actual operation. Therefore, interest here lies in analysing the effect of marginal changes around an existing state of the supply chain. Hence, the functional unit has been defined as “operation of the reverse supply chain for a certain period of time.

The three major phases of the production network, acquisition, generation and circulation, have been overseen freely, cushioned by extensive inventories. Expanding focused weights, and business globalization are constraining firms to create supply chains that can rapidly react to client needs. To stay focused, these organizations must decrease working expenses while persistently enhancing client administration. With late advances in correspondences and data innovation, and a quickly developing show of logistics choices, firms have a chance to lessen working expenses by arranging the arranging of these stages.

The aim is to develop an effective and efficient system of supply chain to enhance service delivery. This section will discuss the research design developed to explore the aim of this study. Firstly, a justification for the research design and a description of the research setting will be provided. Next, the data collection method including measures and the research instruments employed will be discussed. Finally the procedure employed for the analysis of data collected using the various research instruments will be provided.

Earlier companies did not pay much attention to reverse logistics. However, now due to consumer awareness, law enforcement on disposal of certain goods makes it very important for companies to manage an efficient reverse logistics. Now-a-days, companies are even getting ISO certification for their returns process.

One of the most important aspects to consider when comparing the current purchasing strategy with the proposed one is the impact of direct deliveries from external suppliers to the central warehouse on the lead times of spare parts which are ordered by the warehouse planners. Lead times have a big influence on inventory planning and replenishment policies and lead time savings can be very beneficial for the business of a warehouse and the performance of a SPSC (de Treville et al. 2004). Hiller and Liebermann (2001) regard unnecessarily long lead times as a form of waste and minimizing or avoiding waste as a key component of superior inventory management. In the current setting, three stages of the SPSC are involved in the purchasing