Barriers Analysis for Reverse Logistics Implementation in Indian Electronics Industry using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process

A pathway to involve consumers for exchanging electronic waste: a deep learning integration of structural equation modelling and artificial neural network

The pandemic of COVID-19 has disrupted every human life by putting the global activities at halt. In such a situation, people while staying at home tend to have an increased consumption which also leads to an increased level of waste generation. The case of electronic waste is also not different; however, it has severe repercussions while comparing it with other general household wastes. The application of reverse logistics by the manufacturers though serve the purpose but its success is highly dependent on the participation of the consumers. Hence, the present study is an attempt to gauge the level of participation of the consumers in the reverse exchange programs. Because of the predictability limitations of the typical Structural-Equation-Modelling models, the present study employs the deep learning of the dual-staged partial least squares-structural equation modelling artificial neural network approach. The findings of the study confirms the individual's attitude as the most significant determinant of the intention to exchange, followed by level of awareness and norms, whereas perceived behavior control was found to be least important though significant. Based on these findings, the manufacturers have been recommended to improve the consumers' involvement in reverse exchange programs, whereas government institutions are also recommended to encourage public-private partnerships in channelizing the product returns.

Prioritizing the Solutions to Reverse Logistics Barriers for the E-Commerce Industry in Pakistan Based on a Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS Approach

In the past few years, reverse logistics practices have successfully managed to gain more attention in various industries and among supply chain researchers and experts. This is due to globalization, environmental concerns, and customer requirements, which have asserted industries’ concerns for reverse logistics management. In E-commerce, the process of reverse logistics originates with parcel refusal, undelivered goods, and exchanges. In developing countries like Pakistan, the adoption and implications of reverse logistics are still at their early stages. E-commerce companies give more attention to forward logistics and ignore logistics’ upstream flow in the supply chain. This study aims to identify, as well as list, the barriers and obtain the solutions to those identified barriers, and rank the barriers and their solutions so that logisticians and experts can solve them as per their priority. From the extensive literature review and experts’ opinions, we have found 14 barriers in implementing effective reverse logistics. Eight solutions to those barriers were also found from the literature review. This paper proposed the methodology based on fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (fuzzy-AHP), which used to get the weights of each barrier by using pairwise comparison, and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (fuzzy-TOPSIS) method, which was adopted for the final ranking of solutions to reverse logistics. The case of the Pakistan E-commerce industry is used in the proposed method.

End-of-use and end-of-life medicines-insights from pharmaceutical care process into waste medicines management

End-of-use and end-of-life medicines waste management has been a challenge for public and private managers in different countries. Reverse logistics is a waste management strategy whose application to public pharmaceutical care processes faces legal restrictions and incertitude. Nevertheless, reverse logistics of end-of-use and end-of-life medicines may be both a saving and an environmental strategy in developing countries that manage health under limited resources. How to overcome restrictions to reverse logistics mainly in the context of primary health level? This study aims to investigate the most relevant critical factors for implementing medicine waste management in pharmaceutical care process. The unit analysis is the primary health level process in a developing country capital. Considering the characteristics of the issue at hand, it was designed a qualitative study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviewees were key individuals who work directly with the process-from administering medicine to patients to managing waste at the end of the medicine's lifespan or after its use. Results indicated that despite reverse logistics arising from end users is legally forbidden, another type of reverse flow emerged from process analysis. The reverse flow, named reassignment flow, consists of still useful end-of-use medicines exchanged among the 10 government-ran pharmacies and over 140 health centers, where healthcare professionals administer and offer guidance on how to use them correctly. Another result was the identification of the most critical factors in implementing reverse logistics strategies in the public management context. The factors mentioned included aspects pertaining to management, information technology, infrastructure, and government, but they differ from the private context management, in which decision-makers has more freedom. Due to the barriers named by interviewees, the political barriers and complexity of primary health system, results of this investigation point to (i) reinforcing the reassignment flows inside pharmaceutical care logistics cycle, for saving purposes, and (ii) further development of a specific management unit to perform reverse logistics of end-of-use medicines arising from consumers, for environmental purposes. In times of shortage or resources caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, to know the critical factors is a step necessary in overcoming the current restrictions in direction of a well-succeeded medicines reverse logistics, either of reassignment or from final consumers. These results clarify the literature on end-of-use and end-of-life medicines reverse logistics. It also provides managers of 5000 municipalities in the country a perspective on the most relevant critical factors involved in their decision-making process, concerning the reuse of end-of-use medicines or the adequate disposal of end-of-life medicines in the environment.

Analyzing the Barriers to Reverse Logistics (RL) Implementation: A Hybrid Model Based on IF-DEMATEL-EDAS

Recently, manufacturing companies aspire to implement reverse logistics in response to stakeholders’ requirements to reduce negative environmental consequences, improve organizational sustainable performance and ultimately increase competitive advantage. However, implementing reverse logistics can be impeded by a criteria framework, and necessitates the careful analysis of how such criteria interact with each other in the presence of uncertainty. Thus, in this study, we propose an integrated multi- criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodology that leverages the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) under Intuitionistic Fuzzy (IF) environment and Evaluation Based on Distance to Average Solution (EDAS). Within the proposed methodology, firstly, the IF-DEMATEL is applied to obtain the interrelationships between the criteria/barriers and then, the EDAS method is applied to prioritize the criteria based on the appraisal scores evaluation. An application case within the Nigerian manufacturing sector was utilized to illustrate the viability of the proposed methodology. The study results indicate that the highly prioritized barriers to implementing reverse logistics within the Nigerian manufacturing sector include low product quality, risk of storing hazardous materials and low technical expertise. Consequently, this study makes a profound contribution to the theory and practice of reverse logistics by presenting an integrated MCDM methodology that can effectively address the criticality of barriers in the way of reverse logistics progression in a complex and uncertain scenario.

Mapping Interactions among Green Innovations Barriers in Manufacturing Industry Using Hybrid Methodology: Insights from a Developing Country

Recent years have witnessed continuous rise in adopting green innovations which is considered as an important organizational instrument to achieve profits by reducing environmental deterioration. However, green innovation in developing countries, especially in Pakistan, is surprisingly scant as compared to developed countries. This paper empirically investigated obstacles to green innovations in Pakistani manufacturing firms. Specifically, a novel three phase methodological framework was applied to investigate significant barriers and filtration by integrating Delphi method (DM), interpretive structural modeling (ISM), and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC). Our results highlighted that lack of enforceable laws regarding returned goods and recycled products, lack of rules and regulations for green practices, and lack of collaboration with government and environmental institutions are most critical barriers. However, fear of failure about green innovation is least important barriers to green innovations adoption. This study offers interesting clues to promote green innovation in manufacturing industry.

Understanding consumer participation in managing ICT waste: Findings from two-staged Structural Equation Modeling-Artificial Neural Network approach

For environmental management, the role of consumers is extremely important in the settings of reverse logistics. Though it is a manufacturer's extended responsibility to handle the waste however by becoming the supplier of the end of life products, consumers' participation needed to be encouraged and hence require proper attention. For the said purpose, the present study is conducted whereby crucial determinants of consumer reversing behavior were identified and analyzed by the help of a unique two-staged methodology of partial least square-structural equation modeling and artificial neural network. The data comprised of 746 collected by the survey from ICT users whereby the findings reported to have significant relationships of return intention and reversing behavior with their determinants. Moreover, the aforementioned unique methodology helps in generating more robust results as findings from ANN reported to have moral norm as most important variable which according to PLS-SEM was second most significant construct, whereas attitude was found to be second most important as per ANN which according to PLS-SEM is the most significant construct. Nevertheless, the study offers insights which contributes in the literature of environmental management, reverse logistics, and consumer behavior. Lastly, based on the findings, the managerial implications and recommendations are accordingly discussed.

A grey-DEMATEL approach for analyzing factors critical to the implementation of reverse logistics in the pharmaceutical care process

There is an increasing interest in product recovery, closed-loop supply chains, and reverse logistics (RL) for mitigating environmental impairment. Although RL is becoming a mandatory policy in developed countries, it is still in an embryonic stage in some industrial sectors of emerging economies. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) identify the critical factors to the successful implementation of RL in the Brazilian pharmaceutical care process (PCP) and (2) determine the cause-and-effect relationships among them. We use snowball sampling to select the relevant RL studies and deductive reasoning and classification to identify the critical factors and a grey decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationships among them. The study revealed management, collaboration, information technology, infrastructure, policy, financial and economic, end-of-life management practices, and logistic performance factors as the most relevant factors to the successful implementation of RL in the Brazilian PCP. The end-of-life management practices were identified as the most critical factor, and information technology was identified as the least critical factor. We further determined the end-of-life management practices and policy have the strongest casual relationship. The municipal PCP coordinators can use the findings of this study to formulate mitigating strategies to identify and eliminate barriers to the successful implementation of RL in the Brazilian PCP.

Conceptualizing reverse logistics to plastics recycling system

Purpose

Plastics waste management is a critical agenda for the global community. Recycling is the most important strategy option for recovering plastics wastes. This study aims to review reverse logistics (RL) implementation practices and conceptualizing it to the plastic recycling system.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is organized after evaluating the studies related to plastics waste recycling and analyzing the available frameworks to use RL as a strategic tool.

Findings

The paper has investigated that previous research on RL implementation focused on a few stages of RL activities and did not include the most important issues. However, for successful RL implementation, taking into account the whole stage and including the most important factors is very important. To elaborate on this finding a new conceptual framework is developed.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is fully based on literature review and international reports. The developed framework is required for further empirical validation in the plastics sector.

Practical implications

The paper has considered the important issues and the applications of those factors that can improve plastics recycling performances.

Social implications

This study can enhance the active involvement of main actors (plastics producers, users, municipal and recyclers) in the plastics recycling system.

Originality/value

This paper deliberates on how RL can be conceptualized and implemented in plastics recycling systems in considering the most important factors for plastics recycling.

Critical Barriers to Implementation of Reverse Logistics in the Manufacturing Industry: A Case Study of a Developing Country

Globalization policies are encouraging manufacturing companies to produce environment-friendly products that offer a sustainable competitive advantage. Currently, product recovery and zero-waste supply chains have caught the attention of manufacturers and professionals. Reverse logistics (RL) is considered as the most significant part of supply chain management in developed countries; unfortunately, its implementation in developing countries is in the initial stages due to certain barriers. This study aims to identify and verify the barriers to implementation of reverse logistics using a two-stage methodology: the Delphi Method and Structural Equation Modeling. A comprehensive literature review was considered to identify a primary set of barriers. Using the Delphi Method, a team of experts screened out barriers after performing three iterations. A survey-based questionnaire was then sent out to supply chain and logistics employees in the manufacturing industry and relevant government authorities. Five hundred and forty-seven useful responses were analyzed in the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) & AMOS 21 softwares using Structural Equation Modeling to verify barriers, and ranked according to their severity. The most critical barriers with respect to each category are: high cost of reverse logistics adoption (finance and economics), lack of skilled professionals (knowledge and experience), lack of government supportive policies (law and regulation), poor organizational culture (management), lack of human resources (infrastructure and technology), lack of environmental law awareness (environment), lack of community pressure (market) and company policies (reverse logistics in policy). Overall, the top five barriers found in this study include lack of initial capital, lack of skilled professional in RL, companies’ policies against RL, lack of new technologies and information systems, and lack of community pressure. Knowledge about barriers to reverse logistics allows manufacturing companies to prepare a priority list of actions for better implementation of the reverse logistics system.

Evaluating sustainable supply chain indicators using fuzzy AHP

Purpose

Sustainability in supply chain is gaining attention in recent years due to environmental concern, enforced legislation, green issues, social responsibility, etc. Sustainable supply chain (SSC) has revolved around the various dimensions including economy, environment and societal factors since its inception. The purpose of this paper is to identify, prioritize and evaluate the indicators of SSC so that organizations can cultivate strategies to implement them on priority.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper proposes a methodology based on fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to prioritize the indicators of SSC. A numerical analysis of Indian automotive industry is presented to demonstrate the use of the proposed method. This proposed method considered fuzzy framework that can handle impreciseness and uncertainty. Sensitivity analysis is also performed to test the robustness of the proposed model.

Findings

Potential indicators are identified from relevant literature and validated by industry experts. This research finalizes the SSC indicators under three dimensions so that prioritization of identified indicators can be developed and the insights relationship of factors would be explored. The results of the study found that environmental and social dimensions of sustainability contribute more toward the sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to identify evaluation factors and other factors have not been identified and categorized. Evaluation is done by experts in this area so it is natural that views of decision makers may be subjective and vary with regard to industry type, priorities, resources, etc.

Practical implications

This study will help industry to identify, evaluate and prioritize factors for successful implementation of sustainability in their supply chain. Automotive companies could device these factors by applying the outcome of the study in their operations with higher priority to integrate sustainability in their supply chain.

Originality/value

These factors are identified to implement sustain ability into supply chain practices for automotive industry.