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. I. Reverse Logistics: An Introduction.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Reverse Logistics at IBM: An Illustrative Case.- 3. Structuring the Field.- II. Reverse Logistics: Distribution Management Issues.- 4. Product Recovery Networks.- 5. A Facility Location Model for Recovery Network Design.- Conclusions of Part II.- III. Reverse Logistics: Inventory Management Issues.- 6. Inventory Systems with Reverse Logistics.- 7. Impact of Inbound Flows.- 8. Impact of Multiple Sources.- Conclusions of Part III.- IV. Reverse Logistics: Lessons Learned.- 9. Integration of Product Recovery into Spare Parts Management at IBM.- 10. Conclusions.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.- References.
