http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/560/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39733/ 2013-03-01T00:00:00Z In this article, we explain how Internet retailers can learn from proven revenue management concepts and use them to reduce costs and enhance service. We focus on attended deliveries as these provide the greatest opportunities and challenges. The key driver is service differentiation. Internet retailers have strong levers at their disposal for actively steering demand, notably the offered delivery time windows and their associated prices. Unlike traditional revenue management, these demand management decisions affect both revenues and costs. This calls for a closer coordination of marketing and operations than current common practice. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25987/ 2011-08-01T00:00:00Z Many e-tailers providing attended home delivery, especially e-grocers, offer narrow delivery time slots to ensure satisfactory customer service. The choice of delivery time slots has to balance marketing and operational considerations, which results in a complex planning problem. We study the problem of selecting the set of time slots to offer in each of the zip codes in a service region. The selection needs to facilitate cost-effective delivery routes, but also needs to ensure an acceptable level of service to the customer. We present a fully automated approach that is capable of producing high-quality delivery time slot offerings in a short amount of time. Computational experiments reveal the value of this approach and the impact of the environment on the underlying trade-offs. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25988/ 2011-08-01T00:00:00Z Many e-tailers providing attended home delivery, especially e-grocers, offer narrow delivery time slots to ensure satisfactory customer service. The choice of delivery time slots has to balance marketing and operational considerations, which results in a complex planning problem. We study the problem of selecting the set of time slots to offer in each of the zip codes in a service region. The selection needs to facilitate cost-effective delivery routes, but also needs to ensure an acceptable level of service to the customer. We present a fully automated approach that is capable of producing high-quality delivery time slot offerings in a short amount of time. Computational experiments reveal the value of this approach and the impact of the environment on the underlying trade-offs. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22767/ 2011-03-01T00:00:00Z Many of the challenges in spare parts logistics emerge due to the combination of large service networks, and sporadic/slow-moving demand. Customer heterogeneity and stringent service deadlines entail further challenges. Meanwhile, high revenue rates in service operations motivate companies to invest and optimize the service logistics function. An important aspect of the spare parts logistics function is its ability to support customer-specific requirements with respect to service deadlines. To support customer specific operations, many companies are actively maintaining and utilizing installed base data during forecasting, planning and execution stages. In this paper, we highlight the potential economic value of installed base data for spare parts logistics. We also discuss various data quality issues that are associated with the use of installed base data and show that planning performance depends on the quality dimensions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15183/ 2009-03-12T00:00:00Z In this paper, we consider a make-to-stock production system with known exogenous replenishments and multiple customer classes. The objective is to maximize profit over the planning horizon by deciding whether to accept or reject a given order, in anticipation of more profitable future orders. What distinguishes this setup from classical airline revenue management problems is the explicit consideration of past and future replenishments and the integration of inventory holding and backlogging costs. If stock is on-hand, orders can be fulfilled immediately, backlogged or rejected. In shortage situations, orders can be either rejected or backlogged to be fulfilled from future arriving supply. The described decision problem occurs in many practical settings, notably in make-to-stock production systems, in which production planning is performed on a mid-term level, based on aggregated demand forecasts. In the short term, acceptance decisions about incoming orders are then made according to stock on-hand and scheduled production quantities. We model this problem as a stochastic dynamic program and characterize its optimal policy. It turns out that the optimal fulfillment policy has a relatively simple structure and is easy to implement. We evaluate this policy numerically and find that it systematically outperforms common current fulfillment policies, such as first-come-first-served and deterministic optimization. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14529/ 2009-01-13T00:00:00Z Many of the challenges in spare parts logistics emerge due to the combination of large service networks, and sporadic/slow-moving demand. Customer heterogeneity and stringent service deadlines entail further challenges. Meanwhile, high revenues rates in service operations motivate companies to invest and optimize the service logistics function. An important aspect of the spare parts logistics function is its ability to support customer-specific requirements with respect to service deadlines. To support customer specific operations, many companies are actively maintaining and utilizing installed base data during forecasting, planning and execution stages. In this paper, we highlight the potential economic value of installed base data for spare parts logistics. We also discuss various data quality issues that are associated with the use of installed base data and show that planning performance depends on the quality dimensions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14330/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z Recent years have seen great revenue management successes, notably in the airline, hotel, and car rental businesses. Currently, an increasing number of industries, including manufacturers and retailers, are exploring ways to adopt similar concepts. Software companies are taking an active role in promoting the broadening range of applications. Additionally technological advances, including smart shelves and radio frequency identification (RFID), are removing many of the barriers to extended revenue management. The rapid developments in supply chain planning and revenue management software solutions, scientific models, and industry applications have created a complex picture, which is not yet well understood. It is not evident which scientific models fit which industry applications and which aspects are still missing. The relation between available software solutions and applications as well as scientific models appears equally unclear. The goal of this paper is to help overcome this confusion. To this end, we structure and review three dimensions, namely applications, models, and software. Subsequently, we relate these dimensions to each other and highlight commonalities and discrepancies. This comparison also provides a basis for identifying future research needs. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13211/ 2008-08-21T00:00:00Z We study the disposition decision for product returns in a closed-loop supply chain. Motivated by the asset recovery process at IBM, we consider two disposition alternatives. Returns may be either refurbished for reselling or dismantled for spare parts. Reselling a refurbished unit typically yields higher unit margins. However, demand is uncertain. A common policy in many firms is to rank disposition alternatives by unit margins. We show that a revenue management approach to the disposition decision which explicitly incorporates demand uncertainty can increase profits significantly. We discuss analogies between the disposition problem and the classical airline revenue management problem. We then develop single period and multi-period stochastic optimization models for the disposition problem. Analyzing these models, we show that the optimal allocation balances expected marginal profits across the disposition alternatives. A detailed numerical study reveals that a revenue management approach to the disposition problem significantly outperforms the current practice of focusing exclusively on high-margin options, and we identify conditions under which this improvement is the highest. We also show that the value recovered from the returned products critically depends on the coordination between forward and reverse supply chain decisions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13556/ 2008-06-01T00:00:00Z This review addresses supply chain management issues specific to Internet fulfillment in a multi-channel environment. It provides a systematic overview of managerial planning tasks and corresponding quantitative models. Our objective is to twofold, namely to enhance the understanding of multi-channel e-fulfillment by documenting the current state of affairs, and to inspire fruitful future research by identifying gaps between relevant managerial issues and available academic literature. One of the recurrent patterns in today’s e-commerce operations is the combination of ‘bricks-and-clicks’ – the integration of e-fulfillment into a portfolio of multiple alternative distribution channels. From a supply chain management perspective, multi-channel distribution provides opportunities for serving different customer segments, creating synergies, and exploiting economies of scale. However, in order to successfully exploit these opportunities companies must master novel challenges. In particular, the design of a multi-channel distribution system requires a constant trade-off between process integration and separation across multiple channels. In addition, sales and operation decisions are ever more tightly intertwined as delivery and after-sales services are becoming key components of the product offering. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/12244/ 2008-04-25T00:00:00Z In this paper, we explain how Internet retailers can learn from proven revenue management concepts and use them to reduce costs and enhance service. We focus on attended deliveries as these provide the greatest opportunities and challenges. The key driver is service differentiation. Revenue management has shown that companies can do much better than a one-size-fits-all first-come-first-serve strategy when selling scarce capacity to a heterogeneous market. Internet retailers have strong levers at their disposal for actively steering demand, notably the offered delivery time windows and their associated prices. Unlike traditional revenue management, these demand management decisions affect both revenues and costs. This calls for a closer coordination of marketing and operations than current common practice. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/12245/ 2008-04-16T00:00:00Z Many e-tailers providing attended home delivery, especially e-grocers, offer narrow delivery time slots to ensure satisfactory customer service. The choice of delivery time slots has to balance marketing and operational considerations, which results in a complex planning problem. We study the problem of selecting the set of time slots to offer in each of the zip codes in a service region. The selection needs to facilitate cost-effective delivery routes, but also needs to ensure an acceptable level of service to the customer. We present two fully-automated approaches that are capable of producing high-quality delivery time slot offerings in a reasonable amount of time. Computational experiments reveal the value of these approaches and the impact of the environment on the underlying trade-offs. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10464/ 2007-08-23T00:00:00Z Recent years have seen great successes of revenue management, notably in the airline, hotel, and car rental business. Currently, an increasing number of industries, including manufacturers and retailers, are exploring ways to adopt similar concepts. Software companies are taking an active role in promoting the broadening range of applications. Also technological advances, including smart shelves and radio frequency identification (RFID), are removing many of the barriers to extended revenue management. The rapid developments in Supply Chain Planning and Revenue Management software solutions, scientific models, and industry applications have created a complex picture, which appears not yet to be well understood. It is not evident which scientific models fit which industry applications and which aspects are still missing. The relation between available software solutions and applications as well as scientific models appears equally unclear. The goal of this paper is to help overcome this confusion. To this end, we structure and review three dimensions, namely applications, models, and software. Subsequently, we relate these dimensions to each other and highlight commonalities and discrepancies. This comparison also provides a basis for identifying future research needs. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7901/ 2006-08-22T00:00:00Z This review addresses the specific supply chain management issues of Internet fulfillment in a multi-channel environment. It provides a systematic overview of managerial planning tasks and reviews corresponding quantitative models. In this way, we aim to enhance the understanding of multi-channel e-fulfillment and to identify gaps between relevant managerial issues and academic literature, thereby indicating directions for future research. One of the recurrent patterns in today’s e-commerce operations is the combination of ‘bricks-and-clicks’, the integration of e-fulfillment into a portfolio of multiple alternative distribution channels. From a supply chain management perspective, multi-channel distribution provides opportunities for serving different customer segments, creating synergies, and exploiting economies of scale. However, in order to successfully exploit these opportunities companies need to master novel challenges. In particular, the design of a multi-channel distribution system requires a constant trade-off between process integration and separation across multiple channels. In addition, sales and operations decisions are ever more tightly intertwined as delivery and after-sales services are becoming key components of the product offering. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7124/ 2005-11-29T00:00:00Z Recent years have seen advances in research and management practice in the area of pricing, and particularly in dynamic pricing and revenue management. At the same time, researchers and managers have made dramatic improvements in operations and supply chain management. The interactions between pricing and operations/supply chain performance, however, are not as well understood. In this paper, we examine this linkage by developing a deterministic, finite-horizon dynamic programming model that captures a price/demand effect as well as a stockpiling/consumption effect – price and market stockpile influence demand, demand influences consumption, and consumption influences the market stockpile. The decision variable is the unit sales price in each period. Through the market stockpile, pricing decisions in a given period explicitly depend on decisions in prior periods. Traditional operations models typically assume exogenous demand, thereby ignoring some of the market dynamics. Herein, we model endogenous demand, and we develop analytical insights into the nature of optimal prices and promotions. We develop conditions under which the optimal prices converge to a constant. In other words, price promotion is suboptimal. We also analytically and numerically illustrate cases where the optimal prices vary over time. In particular, we show that price dynamics may be driven by both (a) revenue effects, due to nonlinear market responses to prices and/or inventory, and (b) cost effects, due to economies of scale in operations. The paper concludes with a discussion of directions for future research. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1806/ 2004-11-17T00:00:00Z Product flows in today’s supply chains do not end once they have reached the customer. Many products lead a second and even third or fourth life after having accomplished their original task at their first customer. Consequently, a product may generate revenues multiple times, rather than a single time. Capturing this value requires a broadening of the supply chain perspective to include new processes, known as ‘reverse logistics’, as well as multiple interrelated usage cycles, linked by specific market interfaces. Coordinating the successive product uses is key to maximizing the value generated. In this chapter, we review the field of reverse logistics. We discuss its opportunities and its challenges and indicate potential ways for companies to master them. We highlight what makes reverse logistics different from ‘conventional’ supply chain processes, but also point out analogies, and explain how both views can be integrated into an extended supply chain concept. We illustrate our discussion with examples of reverse logistics practice at IBM. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11388/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z This article provides an overview of several studies on the linkage between pricing and operations and highlights different drivers for dynamic pricing strategies. Revenue management is concerned with pricing a perishable resource in accordance with demand from multiple customer segments so as to maximize revenue or profit. Research in revenue management has been impressive. A 1999 study provide a review of the literature and directions for future research, and a 2003 study present an updated review with a focus on electronic commerce applications. Revenue management has been the driving force behind many attempts to integrate pricing and operations. A 2001 study on Internet sales, generated a number of hypothesis about how consumers will react to dynamic pricing, both on the Internet and in physical stores. This paper explicitly considers the effects of consumer learning, reference price effects and consumer price expectations. Research that integrates pricing with management of lead time and production capacity can be divided into two segments. One integrates pricing concerns into the capacity-procurement decision, which reflects a long time horizon. The other focuses on a shorter time horizon, using pricing to make the best use of available capacity. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2297/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2298/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11397/ 2003-12-16T00:00:00Z Sustainability has become a major issue in most economies, causing many leading companies to focus on product recovery and reverse logistics. This research is focused on product recovery, and in particular on production control and inventory management in the remanufacturing context. We study a remanufacturing facility that receives a stream of returned products according to a Poisson process. Demand is uncertain and also follows a Poisson process. The decision problems for the remanufacturing facility are when to release returned products to the remanufacturing line and how many new products to manufacture. We assume that remanufactured products are as good as new. In this paper, we employ a “push” policy that combines these two decisions. It is well known that the optimal policy parameters are difficult to find analytically; therefore, we develop several heuristics based on traditional inventory models. We also investigate the performance of the system as a function of return rates, backorder costs and manufacturing and remanufacturing lead times; and we develop approximate lower and upper bounds on the optimal solution. We illustrate and explain some counter-intuitive results and we test the performance of the heuristics on a set of sample problems. We find that the average error of the heuristics is quite low. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1114/ 2003-12-12T00:00:00Z The past decade has seen a virtual explosion of information about customers and their preferences. This information potentially allows companies to increase their revenues, in particular since modern technology enables price changes to be effected at minimal cost. At the same time, companies have taken major strides in understanding and managing the dynamics of the supply chain, both their internal operations and their relationships with supply chain partners. These two developments are narrowly intertwined. Pricing decisions have a direct effect on operations and visa versa. Yet, the systematic integration of operational and marketing insights is in an emerging stage, both in academia and in business practice. This article reviews a number of key linkages between pricing and operations. In particular, it highlights different drivers for dynamic pricing strategies. Through the discussion of key references and related software developments we aim to provide a snapshot into a rich and evolving field. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11393/ 2003-11-16T00:00:00Z To a growing extent companies take recovery of used products into account in their material management. One aspect distinguishing inventory control in this context from traditional settings is an exogenous inbound material flow. We analyze the impact of this inbound flow on inventory control. To this end, we consider a single inventory point facing independent stochastic demand and item returns. This comes down to a variant of a traditional stochastic single-item inventory model where demand may be both positive or negative. Using general results on Markov decision processes we show average cost optimality of an (s,S)-order policy in this model. The key result concerns a transformation of the model into an equivalent traditional (s,S)-model without return flows, using a decomposition of the inventory position. Traditional optimization algorithms can then be applied to determine control parameter values. We illustrate the impact of the return flow on system costs in a numerical example. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19886/ 2003-11-01T00:00:00Z IBM is among the pioneers recognizing the benefits of closed-loop supply chains that integrate product returns into business operations. We worked on a project exploiting product returns as a source of spare parts. Key decisions concern what recovery opportunities to use, the channel design, and coordinating alternative supply sources. Our analytic inventory-control model and a simulation model showed that procurement-cost savings largely outweigh reverse logistics costs and that information management is essential. These findings provide a basis for significantly expanding the usage of the novel parts supply source, thereby cutting procurement costs. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11390/ 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z Costs related to tires are about three percent of the operating costs of a transport fleet. Fleet operators have been trying to reduce these costs by extending the tires' useful life and by increasing their use of retreaded tires. A program to reduce tire wear can pay off only if the fleet operator and the retreader cooperate. However, the typical contract between the two leads to conflicting incentives. We devised a service contract with shared savings and cautiously chosen parameters for McGriff Treading Company, Inc., that better aligns the incentives for reducing tire costs. Apart from the optimal choice of contract parameters, managerial performance metrics and information technology systems to monitor and track costs were the key factors in the company's transition from a product to a service company. McGriff Treading now successfully uses such contracts for its intermodal and trucking clients. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/258/ 2002-11-25T00:00:00Z Ever more companies are recognizing the benefits of closed-loop supply chains that integrate product returns into business operations. IBM has been among the pioneers seeking to unlock the value dormant in these resources. We report on a project exploiting product returns as a source of spare parts. Key decisions include the choice of recovery opportunities to use, the channel design, and the coordination of alternative supply sources. We developed an analytic inventory control model and a simulation model to address these issues. Our results show that procurement cost savings largely outweigh reverse logistics costs and that information management is key to an efficient solution. Our recommendations provide a basis for significantly expanding the usage of the novel parts supply source, which allows for cutting procurement costs. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2287/ 2002-04-01T00:00:00Z Environmental legislation and customer expectations increasingly force manufacturers to take back their products after use. Returned products may enter the production process again as input resources. Material management has to be modified accordingly. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/188/ 2002-03-21T00:00:00Z Sustainability has become a major issue in most economies, causing many leading companies to focus on product recovery and reverse logistics. This research is focused on product recovery, and in particular on production control and inventory management in the remanufacturing context. We study a remanufacturing facility that receives a stream of returned products according to a Poisson process. Demand is uncertain and also follows a Poisson process. The decision problems for the remanufacturing facility are when to release returned products to the remanufacturing line and how many new products to manufacture. We assume that remanufactured products are as good as new. In this paper, we employ a "push" policy that combines these two decisions. It is well known that the optimal policy parameters are difficult to find analytically; therefore, we develop several heuristics based on traditional inventory models. We also investigate the performance of the system as a function of return rates, backorder costs and manufacturing and remanufacturing lead times; and we develop approximate lower and upper bounds on the optimal solution. We illustrate and explain some counter-intuitive results and we test the performance of the heuristics on a set of sample problems. We find that the average error of the heuristics is quite low. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/113/ 2001-09-19T00:00:00Z Logistics network design is commonly recognized as a strategic supply chain issue of prime importance. The location of production facilities, storage concepts, and transportation strategies are major determinants of supply chain performance. This chapter considers logistics network design for the particular case of closed-loop supply chains. We highlight key issues that companies are facing when deciding upon the logistics implementation of a product recovery initiative. In particular, we point out differences and analogies with logistics network design for traditional 'forward' supply chains. Moreover, we discuss the strategic fit between specific supply chain contexts and logistics network structures. Conclusions are supported by a quantitative analysis. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11394/ 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z Efficient implementation of closed-loop supply chains requires setting up appropriate logistics structures for the arising flows of used and recovered products. In this paper, logistics network design in a reverse logistics context is considered. A generic facility location model is presented and differences with traditional logistics settings are discussed. The model is used to analyze the impact of product return flows on logistics networks. The influence of product recovery is very much context dependent. While product recovery may efficiently be integrated in existing logistics structures in many cases, other examples require a more comprehensive approach redesigning a company's logistics network in an integral way. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11403/ 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z Recovery of used products is an issue of growing importance due to customer expectations and environmental regulation. As a consequence, companies need to adapt their material management taking into account inbound flows of used products. Corresponding inventory control models have been proposed in literature. In this paper we address the issue of planning stability in a product recovery context. To this end, we consider rolling horizon planning for a stock point facing stochastic demand and product returns. We analyze the impact of the return flow on planning stability and compare the system behaviour with a traditional production environment. We show that structural results derived for traditional inventory models remain valid in a product recovery context. Moreover we discuss counterintuitive effects resulting from interaction between planning stability and stock levels. Zusammenfassung. In den letzten Jahren besteht aufgrund gesetzlicher Bestimmungen und gestiegenem Umweltbewußtsein in der Bevölkerung zunehmend die Tendenz, daßUnternehmen ihre Produkte nach deren Gebrauch vom Kunden zurücknehmen. Die Produktionsplanung und -steuerung der Unternehmen muß diesen Produktrückflüssen angepaßt werden. In der Literatur sind für verschiedene kreislaufwirtschaftliche Probleme optimale Lagerhaltungspolitiken abgeleitet worden. Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Planungsstabilität in einem kreislaufwirt- schaftlichen Basismodell, wo alle zurückkommenden Produkte aufgearbeitet werden müssen. Insbesondere wird der Einflußder Produktrückflüsse auf die Stabilität untersucht und ein Vergleich mit der Stabilität eines traditionellen Lagerhaltungsmodells durchgeführt. Es wird aufgezeigt, daß beide Modelle im wesentlichen dieselben strukturellen Eigenschaften besitzen. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2285/ 2000-12-01T00:00:00Z Recovery of used products is receiving much attention recently due to growing environmental concern. Efficient implementation requires appropriate logistics structures to be set up for the arising goods flow from users to producers. We investigate the design of such logistics networks. As a basis for our analysis we review recent case studies on logistics network design for product recovery in different industries. We identify general characteristics of product recovery networks and compare them with traditional logistics structures. Moreover, we derive a classification scheme for different types of recovery networks. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1044/ 2000-10-05T00:00:00Z Economic, marketing, and legislative considerations are increasingly leading companies to take back and recover their products after use. From a logistics perspective, these initiatives give rise to new goods flows from the user back to the producer. The management of these goods flows opposite to the traditional supply chain flows is addressed in the recently emerged field of Reverse Logistics. This monograph considers quantitative models that support decision making in Reverse Logistics. To this end, several recent case studies are reviewed. Moreover, first hand insight from a study on used electronic equipment is reported on. On this basis, logistics issues arising in the management of "reverse" goods flows are identified. Moreover, differences between Reverse Logistics and more traditional logistics contexts are highlighted. Finally, attention is paid to capturing the characteristics of Reverse Logistics in appropriate quantitative models. For further details about this dissertation, please visit the website of Springer Verlag, the publisher of this dissertation. http://www.springeronline.com Series: Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems , Vol. 501, Fleischmann, Moritz, 1st ed. 2001. 2nd printing, 2004, XI, 181 p., Softcover , ISBN: 3-540-41711-7 http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2271/ 1999-05-01T00:00:00Z This paper is on production planning and inventory control in systems where manufacturing and remanufacturing operations occur simultaneously. Typical for these hybrid systems is, that both the output of the manufacturing process and the output of the remanufacturing process can be used to fulfill customer demands. Here, we consider a relatively simple hybrid system, related to a single component durable product. For this system, we present a methodology to analyse a PUSH control strategy (in which all returned products are remanufactured as early as possible) and a PULL control strategy (in which all returned products are remanufactured as late as is convenient). The main contributions of this paper are (i) to compare traditional systems without remanufacturing to PUSH and to PULL controlled systems with remanufacturing, and (ii) to derive managerial insights into the inventory related effects of remanufacturing. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2275/ 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z The recovery of used products and materials is receiving growing attention as a result of depleted landfill and incineration capacities. From a logistical point of view these reuse opportunities give rise to a goods flow from the user back to the sphere of the producers. "Reverse logistics" is concerned with the management of this "reverse" goods flow. In this paper issues in reverse logistics are addressed from an operational research perspective. Recent contributions related to the areas of distribution planning and inventory management are discussed, and compared with traditional logistical settings. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2244/ 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z This article surveys the recently emerged field of reverse logistics. The management of return flows induced by the various forms of reuse of products and materials in industrial production processes has received growing attention