Fuzzy inventory model for new and refurbished deteriorating items with cannibalisation in green supply chain

Abstract

Most green supply chain models focus on manufacturing and remanufacturing, but do not consider the refurbishing activities. Refurbished products are those that are slightly damaged or have some technical glitch and are quickly repairable. In this study, we research on electronic industry that utilises reverse logistics to collect used products and refurbish them. These products are then sold in the market at a reduced price. Cannibalisation effect of sale of refurbished products on the new product sales is taken into account. A crisp integrated model is developed for manufacturing and refurbishing cycle assuming demand, deterioration, collection and cannibalisation parameters are precisely known with the objective is to minimise total cost. However, in the real world, these parameters are seldom known accurately. To account for this, the model is further enhanced by considering various parameters as imprecise in nature. These parameters are represented as triangular fuzzy numbers and signed distance method is used to defuzzify the cost function. The contribution of this study is multifold. The study highlights the importance of green supply chain in electronic industry and establishes a comprehensive integrated model in green supply chain. Computational simulations and sensitivity analyses are carried out to offer managerial insight.