Intelligent Information Management, 2014, 6, **-**
Published Online May 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/iim
doi
How to cite this paper: Author 1, Author 2 and Author 3 (2014) Paper Title. Intelligent Information Management, 6, **-**.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/***.2014.*****
Literature Review on Network Design
Problems in Closed Loop and Reverse
Supply Chains
Muthusamy Aravendan
1
, Ramasamy Panneerselvam
2
1
Department of Leather Design (Footwear & Products), National Institute of Fashion Technology,
Chennai, India
2
Department of Management Studies, School of Management, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, India
Email: m_aravendan@rediffmail.com , panneer_dms@yahoo.co.in
Received **** 2014
Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Abstract
The productivity of an organization is very much affected by non-value adding activity like logis-
tics, which moves the resources from suppliers to factory, raw materials/semi-finished items
within the factory and finished goods from factory to customers via a designated distribution
channel called as forward logistics. In some cases, parts of the products such as automobiles,
computers, cameras, mobile phones, washing machines, refrigerators, garments, footwear and
empty glass bottles of beverages, etc. will be brought back to the factories as a product recovery
strategy through reverse logistics network which is integrated in a sustainable closed loop supply
chain network. So, it is highly essential to optimize the movement of the items in the reverse logis-
tics network. This paper gives a comprehensive review of literature of the design of networks for
the reverse logistics as well as for the reverse logistics coupled with forward logistics. The contri-
butions of the researchers are classified into nine categories based on the methods used to design
the logistics network.
Keywords
Supply Chain, Network Design, Closed-Loop, Reverse Logistics, Models, Heuristics, Algorithms
1. Introduction
Supply Chain Management is an integrating function with primary responsibility for linking major business
functions and business processes within and across companies into a cohesive and high-performing business