Quantitative models for inventory and production planning in closed-loop supply chains

Abstract

The increased popularity of remanufacturing requires firms to rethink their supply chain systems and explore new avenues for the coordination of forward and reverse supply chains to transform existing supply chain systems into closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) systems. Several issues encountered in remanufacturing create unique operational challenges that must be taken into account in specifying guidelines for inventory and production planning (I&PP) for CLSC systems. These challenges provide a rich context for novel optimisation problems. Consequently, the literature on I&PP for CLSC systems has been growing continually. In this paper, we review the existing quantitative literature on I&PP for CLSC systems. We broadly categorise the present work into deterministic and stochastic problems according to the modelling of demand and return processes. Upon identifying the important relevant modelling parameters that influence the complexity of the underlying models, we provide a comprehensive classification of the current work according to these parameters. In addition, we highlight the solution methodologies used in the literature. Our goals are twofold: to provide a comprehensive exposition of the state-of-art in quantitative models for I&PP for CLSC systems, and to identify new avenues of research in I&PP that will aid in the practical implementation of remanufacturing.