Multi-product reverse logistics network under uncertainty in quantity and quality of returned products: A simulation study

Reverse logistics is the process of moving goods from the final destination to another point, for the intention of capturing value or for the proper disposal of the products. The effect of uncertainty on the network has a dynamic nature and it generates the need for analyzing in long term to facilitate strategic decision making. This study aims to develop a simulation model for a multi product reverse logistics network considering uncertainty in quantity and quality of the returned products. And also a scenario analysis has been conducted for the developed simulation model to study the affect of uncertainty in quantity and quality of returned products and system configuration (number and capacity of sorting and processing centers) in this network. The simulation model was built using SIMIO software. Performance metrics were used for the comparison of network configurations which include both productivity as well as sustainability metrics. In the scenario analysis, the model takes system parameters and scenario factors to find the performance metrics for each scenario (system configuration). A single score of performance was calculated for each scenario based on the weight factor preferences and is compared.