Virtual enterprise in closed-loop supply chain and performance evaluation based on exergoeconomics

Abstract

Based on analyzing the difficulties of closed-loop supply chain operation management, considering the new environment as the economic society developing continuously and discussing the feasibility of virtual enterprise, an operation management mode for the closed-loop supply chain based on virtual enterprise is presented in this paper. The organization framework, the operational process, the dynamic durativc of virtual enterprise with traditional management mode is expounded in detail. Using the exergoeconomics theory, the closed-loop supply chain is regarded as a huge energy system with the new view, and the sustainability of the closed-loop supply chain system is discussed under the circumstance of exergoeconomics in this paper, and then the metric about "system negative environment effect" is introduced to measure closed-loop supply chain system performance from the point of energy. Finally a case study illustrates our conclusion. © 2008 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.