A Robust Hybrid Multi-criteria Decision-Making Approach for Selection of Third-Party Reverse Logistics Service Provider

Author(s):  
Arvind Jayant ◽  
Shweta Singh ◽  
Tanmay Walke
Author(s):  
Shih-Ming Ou

Compared with general commercial reverse logistics operators, the recovery and treatment of expired drugs and medical waste is a complex and highly technically difficult project. The qualifications required by the relevant service providers are also more stringent. For medical institutions, the selection of reverse logistics operators is always a critical issue. On the perspective of sustainability, this paper aims to investigate and explore the critical factors of selecting a medical reverse logistics service provider. Through the process of the Delphi method, the experts’ assessments were collected, and 24 factors affecting the selection of medical reverse logistics service provider were screened and summarized. Then, Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) was employed to calculate the total influence values and net influence values between factors that could be used to draw the visual causal map. Referring the causal map, “Green process operation level” and “Recycling process greening degree” are significantly higher than other factors in terms of total influence value and net influence value. Therefore, they can be regarded as crucial factors. This finding implies that medical reverse logistics providers must have the ability to improve the greening of facilities, as well as equipment, integrating existing processes to make it greener and environmentally friendly.


Author(s):  
Arvind Jayant

<p>Activities in reverse logistics implementation are practiced extensively by lead acid battery manufacturing industries. One important problem faced by the management in the battery manufacturing industry is the regular supply of spent batteries/ lead from the end users in the supply chain management of battery production. The Analytic Network Process (ANP) based decision model presented in this work structures the problem related to options in selection of a reverse logistics service provider for supply of EOL lead acid batteries in a hierarchical form and links the determinants, dimensions, and enablers of the reverse logistics service provider with alternatives available to the decision maker. A reverse logistics service provider evaluation problem has been formulated that includes two primary tasks: preliminary screening of the RL service providers by a team of managers and an Analytic Network Process (ANP) based model for final selection. The proposed approach, therefore, links the financial and non-financial, tangible and intangible, internal and external factors, thus providing a holistic framework for the selection of an alternative for the reverse logistics operations for EOL batteries. The results of the present work indicate that acceptable cost between the user and the RL service provider companies is the most important determinant which influences the final selection process. This approach also enables the decision-makers to better understand the complex relationships of the relevant attributes in the decision making which may subsequently improve the reliability of the decision.</p>


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