Recycling of lifetime dependent deteriorated products through different supply chains

Abstract

Conservation of natural resources in order to protect the environment, support the economy, and offer a better life to living beings has become an urgent need of modern business so that future generations can survive within available resources and in a healthy environment. Recycling of used products plays an important role in the conservation of natural resources and the development of sustainable business for deteriorating products because the number of these items increases with time, which creates economic loss and environmental pollution. This paper considers the production and cycle time as decision variables to design a forward and reverse supply chain system that produces two different types of products, which are subject to deterioration. Rate of deterioration is time-varying and depends on the maximum lifetime of products. Used products of a forward supply chain are collected and treated as raw materials in a reverse supply chain to produce other products. The system involves three types of inventory stocks, i.e., product 1, 2, and returned inventory. The objective of this research is to minimize total cost per unit time for two types of systems, one in which products of both the supply chains deteriorate and the second in which the products of the first supply chain deteriorate. Kuhn−Tucker method is employed to solve the model and a solution algorithm is proposed to obtain optimal solution. Application of the model is supported with numerical examples and sensitivity analysis. Some managerial insights are provided to help managers while applying the proposed models in real situations. Results of numerical experiments suggest for deteriorating products to plan short replenishment cycles of inventory.