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Use Of Crystal Ball® To Predict Profitability Of A Reverse Supply Chain, Kishore K. Pochampally, Surendra M. Gupta, Tej S. Dhakar

Surendra M. Gupta

Traditionally, firms have been spending significant time and money in improving their forward supply chains while ignoring their potential reverse supply chains. However, in today’s competitive business environment, it is important that firms study the profitability and benefits of implementing a reverse supply chain while considering the uncertainties associated with the supply and composition of used products, disassembly time, recycling/remanufacturing time, and demand for recycled/remanufactured goods. In this paper, we demonstrate how a simulation software package, Crystal Ball®, can be used to help a firm predict whether investment in a reverse supply chain is profitable with respect to a given …