Purpose: Reverse logistics (RL), an inseparable aspect of supply chain management, returns used products to recovery processes with the aim of reducing waste generation. Enterprises, however, seem reluctant to apply RL due to various types of risks which are perceived as posing an economic threat to businesses. This paper draws on a synthesis of supply chain and risk management literature to identify and cluster RL risk factors and to recommend risk mitigation strategies for reducing the negative impact of risks on RL implementation.Design/methodology/approach: The authors identify and cluster risk factors in RL by using risk management theory. Experts in RL and supply chain risk management validated the risk factors via a questionnaire. An unsupervised data mining method, self-organising map, is utilised to cluster RL risk factors into homogeneous categories.Findings: A total of 41 risk factors in the context of RL were identified and clustered into three different groups: strategic, tactical and operational. Risk mitigation strategies are recommended to mitigate the RL risk factors by drawing on supply chain risk management approaches.Originality/value: This paper studies risks in RL and recommends risk management strategies to control and mitigate risk factors to implement RL successfully.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of adopting lean manufacturing principles on operational efficiency by eliminating seven major lean wastes (or Muda) in a Malaysian stationery manufacturer. Much of the research on lean considers its application to larger organisations with stable demand patterns. This research examines a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) with a volatile demand pattern. A process activity mapping (PAM) methodology was utilized to identify the potential for waste elimination. PAM is a visual tool that considers every step in a production process. Value-added and non-value-added activities are therefore examined to understand hidden wastes and their sources. The results revealed that the adopted lean principles significantly reduce the waiting times. This time reduction resulted in savings (reduction of cycle time) and to a certain extent, can be a crucial driver in continuous improvement sustainability in the production process. The study focuses on a single case study and provides a springboard for further research. Future studies examining the results across a broader sample of organisations would develop the findings further. The extant literature cites mixed success for lean implementation programmes. The results demonstrate that lean is still recognised as a powerful approach to improving operations in SMEs. This paper reflects on the application of lean in a real case study showing the impact of lean on operational performance of an SME.

Environmental issues and governmental regulations have pushed companies to be more environmentally conscious and socially responsible. Sustainable production plays an important role in the global markets and companies practicing sustainable manufacturing processes for protecting the environment can increase their competitiveness. Reverse logistics is one of the sustainable approaches, which returns back used product from point of consumption to the point of origin due to recovery and product reuse. The identification of critical success factors for reverse logistics is essential to facilitate reverse logistics organization in implementing it. In this work, critical success factors (CSFs) in reverse logistics were identified based on the critical success factors in supply chain management. A survey was conducted among reverse logistics experts to identify the factors. Then, the factors were ranked by TOPSIS, showed that transportation as the most important factor followed by process planning and resource efficiency. However, innovation was the lowest ranked.

Reverse logistics (RL) is one of the manufacturing methods applied to recover used products; and return them back to the process of consumption in terms of decreasing wastes and landfills. Recovered products which are the outcomes of the RL are competing with new products in the market. This competition motivates RL companies to understand about critical success factors (CSFs). Critical success factors may help RL companies to identify the strengths and stimulate customers to buy recovered products. CSFs are identified in limited researches but classification of CSFs in RL is still unexplored. In this paper, identified CSFs are classified by importance-performance analysis (IPA) in four quadrants. The importance level of the CSFs was collected based on the previous research by Panjehfouladgaran et al. (in press) and performance level by a checklist in a RL company. The results indicate that transportation, culture, organisational strategy, top management commitment and logistics network design are critical success factors that must be focused for the organisational goals achievements in RL organisations.

Companies are trying to increase their market share due to globalisation in recent years. Various types of products and customers faced different challenges for companies to achieve market share. Hence, to accomplish this goal, successful companies have to concentrate on the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities. Supply chain involves all activities that fulfil customers' demands and transfer materials through downstream into upstream of the chain. Since, the supply chain creates value for customers and companies simultaneously, monitoring supply chain activities is essential. Numerous performance measurement systems and frameworks in the supply chain have been developed in recent years. This paper discusses on the development of a framework for measuring qualitative metrics in supply chain. Qualitative metrics in supply chain management were identified and then experts selected the most common metrics between them. Fuzzy logic controller was applied to translate verbal expression into numerical variables. Finally, a framework was programmed in the MATLAB® software for easy utilisation and evaluation of the qualitative performances in the supply chain.