Green and reverse logistics management under fuzziness

Abstract

Green supply chain management (GrSCM) has its roots in supply chain management (SCM) and environmental management. In fact, adding "green" concept into traditional SCM leads to studying environmental impact of SCM-related processes. Logistics activities which form the main part of SCM-related processes belong to the most influential sources of environmental pollution and greenhouse emissions which may cause harmful impacts both on human health and ecosystem quality. In order to reduce hazardous environmental impacts of logistics activities, the concept of green logistics (GrLog) and reverse logistics (RL) was introduced. Similar to traditional supply chain, uncertainty plays an important role in GrSCM; however, considering the environmental factors beside the quantity and quality of end-of-life products elevates the degree of uncertainty in GrLog and RL problems. In this chapter, designing and planning problems in GrLog and RL are investigated in a fuzzy environment via a systematic review and analysis of recent literature. Three selected fuzzy mathematical models from the recent literature are elaborated. A real industrial green logistics case study is described and investigated and a number of avenues for further research are finally suggested.© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.