Component commonality in closed-loop supply chain

Abstract

Many literatures in forward supply chain management point out the importance of product design. In this research, we follow the same concept and apply it to closed-loop supply chain. We consider two closed-loop supply chain structures, Parallel and Mix. In the Parallel structure, the assembly and disassembly lines are separated while in Mix structure they are performed by the same production line. We study how the usage of component commonality, location of common component, and degree of delayed differentiation impact the mean and variance of the cycle time for forward supply chain under these two structures. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.