Analysing the barriers of reverse logistics implementation: A case study

Abstract

An increase in both consumers’ environmental awareness and government regulation related to the environment encourages industries to be more responsible for their products after consumption. As a result, a relatively new concept in logistics called reverse logistics (RL) is introduced. While the forward (or traditional) logistics refers to the process of distributing products from companies (or producers) to consumers, RL refers to the process of moving products from consumers to producers. This practice has attracted not only scholars but also practitioners in the field of supply chain and sustainability. A company could gain benefits from the implementation of RL since it can lead to higher profit. However, some barriers regard its implementation despite the benefits that make the company reluctant to implement it. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the barriers to implementing RL in a bottled drinking water company. Moreover, this study also analyses the interaction among the barriers to looking for the possible “root barrier”. The interpretative structural modelling and MICMAC analysis were used to accomplish the objective of the study. It is expected that the study could help the management to better formulate policies about the implementation of RL.