Title: A fuzzy-based decision support framework for product recovery process selection in reverse logistics

Authors: Anil Jindal; Kuldip Singh Sangwan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani-333031, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani-333031, India

Abstract: Owing to the increasing attention to sustainability and green manufacturing as well as the legislations and competition, product recovery management has become an important issue to extend the product's life. It is an environmentally, economically and socially sound way to achieve many of the goals of sustainable development. In this paper, a fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision making framework has been proposed for the evaluation of alternate product recovery processes. The evaluation has been done based on the criteria of operating cost, value added recovery, environmental impact, market demand, technical/operational feasibility, and corporate social responsibility. The five alternative product recovery processes identified in the study are repair, refurbishing, remanufacturing, cannibalising, and recycling. The novelty of the framework is that it takes care of the inherent uncertainties in reverse logistics environment; and managers can provide different weights to different criteria depending upon the company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the business environment.

Keywords: flexible DSS; decision support systems; product recovery; fuzzy logic; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; modelling; fuzzy AHP; analytical hierarchy process; fuzzy TOPSIS; process selection; reverse logistics; environmental sustainability; economic sustainability; social sustainability; green manufacturing; product lifetime; sustainable development; operating cost; value added recovery; environmental impact; market demand; technical feasibility; operational feasibility; corporate social responsibility; CSR; repair; refurbishing; remanufacturing; product cannibalisation; recycling; uncertainty.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2016.080274

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2016 Vol.25 No.4, pp.413 - 439

Received: 21 Feb 2015
Accepted: 06 May 2015
Published online: 10 Nov 2016 *

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