Environment and economic analysis of reverse supply chain scenarios for remanufacturing using discrete-event simulation approach

Mahadharsan Ravichandran; K E K Vimal; Vikas Kumar; Onkar Kulkarni; Sundaramali Govindaswamy; Jayakrishna Kandasamy

doi:10.1007/s10668-023-03141-z

Environment and economic analysis of reverse supply chain scenarios for remanufacturing using discrete-event simulation approach

Environ Dev Sustain. 2023 Mar 22:1-42. doi: 10.1007/s10668-023-03141-z. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mahadharsan Ravichandran¹, K E K Vimal², Vikas Kumar^{3

4

5}, Onkar Kulkarni⁶, Sundaramali Govindaswamy¹, Jayakrishna Kandasamy¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632 014 India.
² Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu 620015 India.
³ Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK.
⁴ Department of Management Studies, Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, India.
⁵ Adjunct Faculty, Woxsen School of Business, Woxsen University, Hyderabad, India.
⁶ School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA.

Abstract

The study covers the concepts involved in reverse supply chain modeling using the case of a manufacturing company. The purpose of this study is to build a sustainable reverse supply chain model for resource conservation through remanufacturing of stator shafts by using a discrete-event simulation approach. The simulation studies in the reverse supply chain have taken up cases of either plastic or electronic waste remanufacturing, while very limited studies deal with simulation of sustainable reverse supply chains using a manufacturing industry case study from international customers. In this study, reverse supply chain using simulation study in manufacturing sector is carried out using Arena Rockwell simulation software. The simulation model is built using discrete-event simulation for returns from customers of two developed countries, i.e., Germany and the USA to Chennai, India. The study emphasizes full container load and less than container load modes of shipment scenarios and multiple return cases. The comparative analysis suggests that the value-added and non-value-added time of the reverse supply chain is slightly greater in the less container load scenario. The wait time per entity in remanufacturing processes similar for both shipment scenarios varies significantly based on return cases. The cost and carbon emission associated with transportation, in the reverse supply chain inclusive of social carbon cost, have also been estimated. Therefore, the study proposes a possible sustainable reverse supply chain framework that could be adopted by different manufacturing industries and yield opportunities for performance improvement.

Keywords: Discrete-event simulation; Economics; Environment; Remanufacturing; Reverse supply chain; Supply chain modeling.

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