REVERSE LOGISTICS AND ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY IN

MANUFACTURING AND E-COMMERCE SECTOR

MSC. SUPPLY CHAIN AND LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

WORD COUNT: 14824 WORDS

A DISSERTATION

DM932: POSTGRADUATE INDIVIDUAL PROJECT

SUBMITTED TO DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN, MANUFACTURING

AND ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE, GLASGOW

1
Declaration

2
Acknowledgement

3
 Table of Contents

1 introduction ......................................................................................................................... 10

1.1 AIM ................................................................................................................................. 11

2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 12
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 12
2.2 Difference between reverse logistics and direct logistics ............................................ 12
2.3 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 14
2.3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 14

2.3.2 study design ...................................................................................................... 14

2.3.3 LITERATURE IDENTIFICATION............................................................................. 14

2.3.4 Inclusion and exclusion criteria........................................................................ 15
2.3.5 Selection process and data management .......................................................... 15
2.3.6 Data output ....................................................................................................... 16
2.4. Implementation of reverse logistics ............................................................................. 20
2.5. Why there is need to implement reverse logistics? ...................................................... 20
2.6. Challenges in reverse logistics..................................................................................... 21
2.7. Technology .................................................................................................................. 22
2.8. Technology in reverse logistics ................................................................................... 23
2.9. Case study of groupon goods…………………………………………………………24
2.10 Returning of product ................................................................................................... 26
2.11. Sustainability ............................................................................................................. 26
2.12. Social sustainability in reverse logistics .................................................................... 28
2.13. Reverse logistics processes ........................................................................................ 30
2.14. Circular economy in reverse logistics........................................................................ 31
2.15. Reverse logistics in E-commerce ............................................................................. 33
2.16. Achieving sustainability in E-commerce ................................................................... 33
2.17. Recycling plastics packaged material and corrugated boxes ..................................... 35
2.18. Challenges in E-commerce ........................................................................................ 36
2.19. Reverse logistics in manufacturing sector ................................................................. 37
2.20. some of the barriers of reverse logistics in terms of manufacturing sector .............. 37
2.21. Types of waste in manufacturing ............................................................................... 38
2.22. Lean manufacturing ................................................................................................... 39
2.23. Defining research problem ....................................................................................... 42

4
3. Survey design methodology .............................................................................................. 43
3.1. Study Design ............................................................................................................... 43
3.2. Data collection method ............................................................................................... 43
3.3. Sample characteristics ................................................................................................. 43
3.4. Administration ............................................................................................................. 43
3.5. Ethical considerations .................................................................................................. 44
3.6. Statistical analysis........................................................................................................ 44
3.7. Sensitivity analysis ...................................................................................................... 44
3.8. Handling missing data ................................................................................................ 44
3.9. Interview Design methodology .................................................................................. 45
3.9.1. Study Design..................................................................................................... 45
3.9.2. Data collection method ..................................................................................... 45
3.9.3. Inclusion and exclusion ................................................................................... 45
3.9.4. Administration .................................................................................................. 45
3.9.5. Analysis ........................................................................................................... 45
3.9.6. Ethical considerations ...................................................................................... 46
3.9.7. Research validation .......................................................................................... 46
4. Survey results .................................................................................................................... 47
4.1. Participants characteristics.......................................................................................... 47
4.2. Sensitivity analysis ...................................................................................................... 47
4.3. Missing data ................................................................................................................. 48
4.4. Reasons to return the product ...................................................................................... 49
4.5. Return policy ............................................................................................................... 49
4..6. Involvement of plastic in purchased product ............................................................... 50
4.7. Packaging material used for product ........................................................................... 50
4.8. Validation of research ................................................................................................... 51
4..9. Interview results........................................................................................................... 52
4.9.1. Participants characteristics ............................................................................. 52
4.9.2. Analysis .......................................................................................................... 52
4.9.3. Themes ............................................................................................................ 53
4.9.3.1. Main theme- implementation issues ............................................................ 54
4.9.3.2. Main-theme: technology……………………………………………55
4.9.3.3. Main theme-social sustainability ...................................................... 56
4.9.3.4. Main-theme: reasons to return ........................................................... 57
4.9.3.5 Main-theme: Circular economy’s motivation……………………….57
4.9.3.6. Main-theme: lean manufacturing ....................................................... 58
4.10 Research validation ..................................................................................................... 59
5 Discussion and conclusion .................................................................................................. 60

5
 5.1. Reverse logistics’ implementation issues .................................................................... 61
5.2. Technology .................................................................................................................. 61
5.3. Social sustainability ..................................................................................................... 62
5.4. Reasons to return the product ...................................................................................... 62
5.5. Circular economy......................................................................................................... 63
5.6. Lean manufacturing and thinking ............................................................................... 63
5.7. Reasons to return the product ...................................................................................... 63
5.8. Involvement of plastic material in bought product ...................................................... 64
5.9. Return policy ............................................................................................................... 64
5.10. Packaging material used for product ......................................................................... 64
5.11. Advantages of research .............................................................................................. 65
5.12. Limitations ................................................................................................................. 65
5.13. Future directions ........................................................................................................ 65
5.14. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 65
6. References .......................................................................................................................... 66
7. Appendix............................................................................................................................. 79
Appendix A ............................................................................................................... 79
Appendix B ............................................................................................................... 80
Appendix C ............................................................................................................... 82
Appendix D ............................................................................................................... 88
Appendix E ................................................................................................................ 98

List of Figures
Figure 1: Difference between RL and DL and RL processes
Figure 2: PRISMA diagram for systematic review of literature
Figure 3: Number of articles published year wise
Figure 4: Literature flow diagram
Figure 5: Technologies in Industry 4.0
Figure 6: Traditional reverse supply chain in retail
Figure 7: Technology of RL to achieve sustainable goals
Figure 8: Wastage due to return and extra inventory
Figure 9: Number of items resold to secondary customer
Figure 10: Number of items resold to secondary customer
Figure 11: Different dimensions of sustainability
Figure 12: Circular Economy model
Figure 13: Plastic waste produced by nations
Figure 14: Commonly packed material for online delivery
Figure 15: Waste generated due to packaged plastic

6
 Figure 16: Collection of plastic trash in EU in 2010 to 2018 and different trash treat-
ment options
Figure 17: Challenges when returning product
Figure 18: RL in manufacturing
Figure 19: Lean manufacturing
Figure 20: Advantages of lean manufacturing
Figure 21: Reasons to return products by customers
Figure 22: Customer’s expectations from return policy
Figure 23: Involvement of plastic in product
Figure 24: Packaging material utilized for product bought from E-commerce
Figure 25: Thematic analysis
List of Tables
Table 1: Inclusion & exclusion criteria for SRL
Table 2 (a): Number of journals
Table 2 (b): Number of journals
Table 3: type of wastages and their impact on environment
Table 4: Different lean manufacturing practices and positive impact on environment
Table 5: Companies put positive impact on environment
Table 6: Summary from literature
Table 7: Survey missing data

7
 Abbreviations

DL: Direct Logistics

RL: Reverse Logistics

EOL: End of life

IT: Information Technology

OEMS: Original equipment manufacturer’s

ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning

CRM: Customer Relationship Management

WMS: Warehouse Management Systems

GSCM: Green supply chain management

HR: Human Resources

RLSS: Reverse logistics social sustainability

CE: Circular Economy

DC: Distribution centre

LCA: Life cycle assessment

LM: Lean manufacturing

SLR: Systematic literature review

VSM: Value stream mapping

PRISMA: Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses

8
 Abstract

Introduction
The research focuses on achieving sustainability with respect to reverse logistics. Mostly peo-
ple talk about forward logistics and hardly we see adopting reverse logistics in smaller compa-
nies except bigger organization. The purpose of research is small step towards achieving net
zero by 2040 by adopting reverse logistics techniques and processes, also incorporating lean
techniques, and thinking for betterment of future and making our planet green.

Methodology
From customer perspective, survey was conducted and distributed to people who bought any
product through e-commerce platform and circulated via LinkedIn, social media (WhatsApp)
and on emails. And from organization point of view, semi-structured interview was conducted
of individual who works in manufacturing sector as supply chain operation manager, logistics
specialist.

Results
We have findings from customer point of view, it was clear that most of the products were
returned from end users due to poor quality and followed by product was looking different than
the original ordered product. Most of the Participants reported that they need hassle free and
free shipping return policy. Also, material use for packaging of product is not environmentally
friendly as there is usage of plastic tape, bubble plastic sheet, plastic bag
Results with regards to organization (manufacturing sector), reverse logistics is difficult to
implement mostly due to cost. People reported that some technologies such as blockchain,
ERP, sophisticated tool, RFID can be used to attain sustainability with respect to reverse lo-
gistics. Social sustainability is quite related to reverse logistics, and it can be included by cre-
ating some value system, giving training to people in firms, making people aware and encour-
aging them. Circular economy is the future driver for achieving sustainability. Participants re-
ported CE is the mindset change that we need inculcate within ourselves and recycling is way
to achieve sustainable goals. Most of the interviewees stressed more on defects and quality
issues that were the most overserved reasons to return the products from customers. Also, lean
manufacturing links positively to sustainability.

Conclusion
Overall, CE, some technologies or industry 4.0 can give more holistic view about achieving
sustainability in reverse logistics.

9
 Chapter- 1
1. Introduction

Supply chain has emerged as concept in managerial science and different sectors (Pettil et al.,
2019). Moreover, owing to changes in the ecological attitudes of stakeholders and legal envi-
ronmental restrictions, every company must expand its monitoring system to incorporate sus-
tainability aspects (Koplin et al., 2017). The environmental benefits of SCM cannot be re-
stricted to the forward movement of resources and goods (S.M, 2013). For instance, the route
back is more vital than ever, and SCM has evolved to closed-loop system management by
including reverse logistics techniques (S.M, 2013).

Reverse logistics has become a crucial element of every effective, optimized supply chain
(Dyckhoff et al., 2013). Reverse logistics is essential because it ensures a smooth flow of items.
The process lowers costs, generates value, reduces risk, and concludes the product's life cycle
and reverse logistics offers the ability to retain business value that might otherwise be lost
(Rajagopal et al., 2015). By recycling things that would have otherwise been discarded, com-
pany might earn unexpected inflow of finance, therefore increasing total revenue (Matsui,
2022).

Reverse Logistics has expanded globally, including all levels of supply chain in several indus-
tries such as retail, process, service, e-commerce (Correa and Xavier, 2013). To be competitive,
companies must now use different practices of RL involved in supply chains (S.M, 2013). To
achieve sustainability, it is important to cut down waste in manufacturing sector that can be
done by giving priority to reducing waste to help manufacturing companies achieve lean pro-
duction processes (AlainFeroq et al., 2016).

The trend is shifting towards e-commerce and customers are expanding to digital shopping
platforms like Amazon and numerous goods are returned and return policies are crucial for e-
commerce enterprises to meet customer expectations (M. Nisar and GuruPrabhakar, 2017).
Adopting more sustainable techniques, such as waste reduction via recycling, recovery, and
remanufacturing helps to reduce both costs and environmental losses (S and Müller, 2008).

10
Because of globalization production companies are required to undergo radical change (Nar-
ula, 2004). Growing demands for personalized items shortens product life cycles, highlighting
the need for manufacturing systems that are quicker and more dependable (Mourtzis, 2016).
Firms to use cutting-edge technology in their corporate operations to be competitive in today's
complicated market. Technologies such as AI, Blockchain, cloud computing, big data analytics
are required for businesses to increase economic benefit in terms of cost effectiveness, produc-
tivity, modularity, flexibility, adaptation, stability, and sustainability (Zhang et al., 2020). As
element of the circular economy, reverse logistics is a crucial area for companies to incorporate
sustainable practices (VivianneJulianelli et al., 2020). For instance, in addition to the environ-
mental advantages of e-waste reduction, intel has enabled $30M in additional value ever since
circular program's introduction in 2020 (Intel, 2020).

1.1 AIM

The aim of this research is to know about various aspects of reverse logistics and to achieve
sustainability in e-commerce and manufacturing sector. Rationale behind choosing this topic
for research was our small step to achieve net zero carbon emission by year 2040 by eliminating
waste by reverse logistics techniques and lean production methods for betterment of future and
start towards making our planet green. And reason behind choosing manufacturing sector is
that that it is the backbone of economy in any country with lean manufacturing it helps to cut
down waste and aids in achieving sustainability and for e-commerce it is due to increased
number of people ordering goods and products from e-commerce platform due to advanced
technology and less attention is given to products returned due to following reasons that is poor
quality, damaged/defective product, product looks different than ordered one. Thus, leading to
disruption in sustainable goals of any organization.

11
 Chapter-2

2. Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Due to increased environmental concerns, law, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable
competitiveness, reverse logistics (RL) has now become an area of priority for all businesses
in recent years (Agrawal et al., 2015). According to Rogers et al. (1999) emphasized the aim
of the RL, and the most frequently recognized definition was adopted. The definition was “RL
is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow of
raw materials, in process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of
consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal”.

Reverse logistics (RL) entitled to recover a portion of original value of old items, generating
economic, and social, environmental benefits, mostly in developed nations (Tundys, 2020).

Below are the different companies and sectors where RL has been incorporated in their supply
chain.

According to Jayaraman and Luo (20017) explained that kodak company can be able to reuse
its used parts of camara by 80%. Additionally, as per Wu and Cheng (2006) focused on merits
of implementation of RL in publishing sector. According to Subramanian et al. (2014) studied
EOL (end of life) goods and products in manufacturing sector in China. According to Vaidana-
thanJayaramana et al. (2003) mentioned systems of RL for reusing and recycling of beverage
container. This states the importance of RL in most of the sectors.

2.2 Difference between reverse logistics and direct logistics

RL is different from direct logistics (DL). While DL transports items to the consumer (from
supplier to end user), RL transports goods away from the customer (from end user to manufac-
turer/supplier). There are same elements in DL and RL that includes managing inventory,
transportation, IT (Information Technology) (i.e., information systems) (Oltra-Badenes et al.,
2019). Operations activities includes identification of waste, sortation, transporting, recovery
of value, recollecting, intermediate storing (Lamberta et al., 2011). The difference between
forward and reverse logistics can be observed in figure 1.

12
Figure 1: Difference between DL & RL and RL processes (Agrawal, et al., 2015)

13
2.3. METHODOLOGY

2.3.1 Introduction
A literature review is a good method for comprehensively examining and aids in structuring
an area of research. For literature to systematically review and explain the article’s research
method steps were followed such as criteria for selection of literature, implemented search
strategy, data collection (Nakanao and Jr, 2018).

2.3.2 Study design

A systematic review of the literature (SLR) discovers, chooses, and evaluates literature to ad-
dress a well-defined research issue. The systematic review must comply to a methodology or
plan with clearly established criteria before the review is executed (Nakanao and Jr, 2018). It
is a complete, transparent search of many databases and grey literature search that the other
scholars may repeat, and it consists of creating a very well search strategy that has a specified
objective or provides a solution to a stated question Nakanao and Jr, 2018). The review speci-
fies the types of information that were collected, evaluated, and submitted within specified
timeframes. Systematic literature reviews seek to identify that much relevant studies on the
specific research topic as feasible and use specified procedures to determine what can be
claimed with confidence based on these studies. Thus, systematic reviews eliminate the biases
that might result from alternative methods of evaluating study findings (Nakanao and Jr, 2018).
We conducted systematic review to answer the research questions as there were some argu-
ments/discrepancies in literature.

2.3.3 Literature identification

A rigorous thorough search for eligible studies is the fulcrum of a reliable SR. Databases were
searched and sorted independently by primary author (PS). Data was reviewed and sorted in-
dependently by a second reviewer (ARB). We sought help from supervisor if primary and sec-
ond reviewer could not conclude.

• Electronic searches
We comprehensively searched multiple sources as it is regarded as the best standard for sys-
tematic reviews to eliminate publication and location bias. Search strategy of relevant key-
words were made to collect the articles, the keywords were (“reverse logistics” OR “reverse
supply chain” OR “reverse flow” OR “product recovery”) AND “closed loop supply
chain” AND “sustainability” AND “lean manufacturing” AND “industry 4.0” OR “tech-
nology” and adapted with help of supervisor and implanted it in different databases such as
IEEE, web of science, and Scopus.

14
 • Searching Other resources
We conducted supplementary (i.e., ResearchGate and Google scholar). For grey literature
search, we searched reference list of included studies.

2.3.4 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Exclusion
Studies describing RL and sustainability. All other areas of research or study descrip-
tions were excluded.
Studies published after 1998. Reason for tak- Studies published before 1998.
ing into consideration of research papers af-
ter year 1998 was that more relevant studies
were found on the topic related to RL and
sustainability.
All study types were included. All other language of studies were excluded.
Only studies in English language were con-
sidered.
No geographical restrictions.
Table 1: Inclusion & exclusion criteria for SRL

2.3.5 Selection process and data management

• Selection Process
The author independently and deliberately compared the search results' research titles to the
inclusion criteria and found possibly relevant abstracts. Two reviewers reviewed abstracts sep-
arately using an inclusion/exclusion template. Disagreements were handled via conversation.

The following database covered multiple subject areas which were not relevant to my research.
Therefore, we introduced filters to improve relevant article search. (only “Engineering” “En-
vironmental sciences” “Business, management, and accounting” were considered), type of
document (only “Articles” Conference papers” “Reviewed papers” were included) addition of
title of source (all the journal articles depicted in table 2(a) and 2(b) and finally excluding area
of subject “Economics, econometrics and finance” due to irrelevant articles and subject area.
Similar approach was applied to other databases (i.e., IEEE, Web of Science).

15
 • Data Management
We utilized EndNote X20 software for data filtering and reference management. Additionally,
we used the same program to combine the searched results and eliminate duplicate references.
The inclusion, exclusion, and uncertain decisions were recorded electronically. The PRISMA
flowchart was used to track the identification, review, exclusion, and inclusion of studies, as
well as the reasons for its exclusion.

2.3.6 Data output

Overall, 8283 articles were identified. In which, 10 articles were duplicate. After sorting, 135
articles were further screened, examined with title, abstract and reading full text for checking
the content and reliability. Total 64 articles were included in study with exclusion of 71 articles
due to out of scope, didn’t provided sufficient data, articles were not matching with topic of
RL, information was irrelevant to research questions that can observed from figure 2. Adding
34 articles from other resources such as bibliography, citation searching and websites it counts
to 98. Those 98 articles were seeming to be appropriate since it emphasize on specific infor-
mation and aspects of RL and to achieve sustainability.
From grey literature, 40 articles were found and after excluding 6 articles due to wrong inter-
vention, outcomes were not clear and didn’t found data of interest. So, in that case only 34
articles were included for reviewing.

Figure 2: PRISMA diagram for systematic review of literature

16
 Table 2(a): Number of Journals

64 journal papers were selected to fully understand the concept's multidimensional viewpoint
and then sorted with relevant information and topic. Many articles were published from reputed
conference and journal papers such as “Journal of cleaner production”, “Sustainability”, “Re-
sources conservation and Recycling”, “International journal of production economics”, “Eu-
ropean journal of operational research” that can be observed from table 2(a) and 2(b).

For instance, from the figure 3 in year 2013 to 2022 if taken into consideration then, in year
2018 there was maximum number of researched papers published. Out of 64 articles from
journals, conference papers, 43 articles were selected from last ten years (2013 to 2022) pub-
lication. It is also evident that the number of publications published in this field has increased
significantly over the last ten years due to scholars' rising interest in the topic.

17
 Table 2(b): Number of Journals

Figure 3: Number of articles published year wise

Following is the literature flow diagram (figure 4), where further details have been discussed.

18
 Sustainable Reverse
Logistics

Social Sustaina-
Implementation Return product bility and its in- Lean manufac-
Circular
Issues Technology from different per- clusion in RL turing & think-
Economy
spective ing
Lack of com-
puterized sys- Optoro’s Generating
tem cloud soft- Manufactur- employment
ware Maximizing
ing return Distribution use of EOL
return Regulatory goods
Due to cost
RMS (return policies
management All lean tools
system help to achieve
Negative per- Customer
sustainability
ception return Developing Retaining value
new skills via innovations

Awareness

Uncertainty

Figure 4: Literature flow diagram

19
2.4 Implementation of reverse logistics

In today’s world companies acknowledge the significance of RL even though companies are
not interested and find it difficult to implement it. According to Vaz et al. (2014) this happens
due to:

1) Lack of computerized systems coupled with management practices, often need to use
the conventional logistics systems, or best-case scenario, adapting current systems to
RL.
2) The notion that reverses flow produces only expenses, hence having little or no im-
portance in organizations.
3) Inability to measure the impact of returned items and/or materials, coupled with not
having awareness of the necessity to restrict them.

According to Vaz et al. (2014) insist that reverse flows must be considered from the standpoint
of enhancing the company's economic worth and corporate image.

2.5 Why there is a need to implement reverse logistics?

According to Roger and Tibben-Lembke, (1999) manufacturers who do not feel accountable
for their items (i.e., after consumption) and not conducting research by organizations on the
advantages of RL for the product life cycle in companies are challenge to the implementation
of RL in those firms.

According to Vaz et al. (2014) RL can be used as an essential tool for gaining competitiveness
and for consolidating the corporate image, when incorporated into the corporate strategy and
the environmental marketing strategy, in firms that have prioritized an organizational view of
social and environmental responsibility. For such things it is required to:

1) To compare accurately the many factors involved in the construction of reversed dis-
tribution channels for post-consumer materials and goods.

2) To build the appropriate alliances between firms in reverse chains, enabling for a more
effective implementation of environmental regulations.

20
It is essential to emphasize that dealing with responsibility of environment will have a positive
effect on the institutional image of firm and as a result, permit the intensification of new busi-
ness, with greater opportunities for job creation, service generation, technological develop-
ment, and a greater awareness of sustainable development (Fagundes and Oliveira, 2018).

2.6 Challenges in reverse logistics

According to Min et al. (2016) suggested that RL is a difficult process and a specialized aspect
of every supply chain by definition and it barely matters whatever the item is, how it is sold in
market, or who the consumers are; every organization must prioritize recovering the most value
from returns. Following are the problems discussed in detail below.

• Issue related to cost involved in RL

A huge task for any organisation with respect to RL is the responsibility to decrease the cost.
Mainly firms focus on sale of product in forward way moving towards end users. All these
sales depend upon forecasting and planning of demand. Firms don’t have any plans for product
failure and entering stream of RL (Badenhorst and Nel, 2012). It may cost up to three times as
much to processing the RL of a new product as it would to handle its forward logistics to sell
it, since the rise in expenses for processing returns is greater than for forward sales (Badenhorst
and Nel, 2012).

• Doesn’t have sufficient IT system

Inadequate investments in IT and the absence of information systems are significant obstacles
to the effective management and execution of RL (Jayaraman et al., 2008). Systems such as
Enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRS), warehouse
management system (WMS) are not set properly to receive back the return items (Badenhorst
and Nel, 2012). Most organisations rely on labour-intensive, manual work, inefficient, and
sometimes disorganized RL procedures (Badenhorst and Nel, 2012).

• Uncertainty with respect to returning of product

Returns are made from various places and under various conditions, with numerous disposal
alternatives (Badenhorst and Nel, 2012). A lot of confusion surrounding product returns with
respect to the kind of product, quantity, timing, supply chain location, and the state and quality
of returned items thus, the bulk of good returns are unscheduled and hence cannot predict
(Kussing and Pienaar, 2009). According to Badnenhorst and Nel (2012) that return processing
is very dynamic and inconsistent because of irregular material flows, making it complicated.

21
 • Negative perception
Returning things to a company inherently has a bad connotation in the customer's perception
(Badenhorst and Nel, 2012). Customers' observed expectations are a crucial feature of any firm
particularly when customer gets an item that falls short of their expectations (Badenhorst and
Nel, 2012). This might negatively affect the company's connection with its consumers (Ba-
denhorst and Nel, 2012).

2.7 Technology

• Industry 4.0

Technology continues to advance as it demonstrates its ability to transform the SCM and lo-
gistics in this Digital World (Attaran, 2020). Technologies that are essential to industry 4.0 are
listed in figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Technologies in Industry 4.0 (Shah, et al., 2019)

Industry 4.0 increases the value proposition for customers participating in RL by maintaining
continuous communication with the manufacturer via collecting data and connecting to used
devices to provide different services (Man et al., 2017).

Through end-to-end digital integration, operational expenses are lowered (Wang et al., 2018).
Industry 4.0 has the help to increase the technological, economic, and social performance of

22
factories via the integration of technologies and utilizing selecting equipment that reduces hu-
man effort and simultaneously improves the process, the technology assures safe working con-
ditions on the assembly line (Wang et al., 2018).

2.8 Technology in reverse logistics

The technology is Optoro's RL software cloud platform and system enables a holistic approach
to logistics by integrating numerous elements of merchandising and SCM modules into a com-
prehensive solution (Shah et al., 2019). It enables directing returned and excessive inventory
to the appropriate channel based on cost, profit, and business rule input, thereby eliminating
the need for middlemen in the form of shipments, which contributes to the reduction of green-
house gas emissions from transportation, resulting in better environment for car (Shah et al.,
2019). For example, below is the traditional RL cycle where it produces waste, there impact
on business and environment.

Figure 6: Traditional reverse supply chain in retail (Calamai, 2016)

From the Figure 6 it is clearly seen that at each touchpoint products end up in landfills and
every product is transported 3-5 times, that will intern increase pollution and carbon dioxide
emission and there is strong impact on business that includes process is not efficient and in-
volves lots of middlemen, there is 10% - 30% recovery of products and there is no transpar-
ency. There is generation of 4 billion of waste, 1.2 billion and 12 million of fuel and carbon
dioxide due to transportation, respectively (Calamai, 2016). But with help of advanced called
return management system (RMS) which provides analytical and tools to help in selling re-
turned and excessive products to end users (Calamai, 2016).

23
 Figure 7: Technology of RL to achieve sustainable goals (Calamai, 2016)

According to figure 7, Using technology to sell merchandise directly to customers from the
centralized returns site reduces and eliminates intermediaries, resulting in more recovery of
finance and a decrease in shipping and waste costs (Calamai, 2016).

2.9 Case study of groupon goods

Groupon Goods and Optoro formed a partnership in 2014 to handle returned and surplus in-
ventory. Groupon delivered all returned and surplus products to liquidators prior to adopting
software of RL in its own warehouse. Using Optoro's solution of return management, Groupon
now handles most of its RL in-house (Calamai, 2016). Optoro incorporated Groupon's infor-
mation to the impact on the environment model to determine variations in waste, fuel usage,
and carbon emissions and the investigation revealed a substantial decrease in waste and fuel
consumption as in reverse supply chain. The following findings were mentioned below with
help of graph (Calamai, 2016).
• Decrease in waste

Figure 8: Wastage due to return and extra inventory (Calamai, 2016)

24
From figure 8, reducing dependence on liquidators decreased the amount of shipments, hence
decreasing the probability of damage due to shipping and the chances of items expiring or
becoming outdated. This decreased waste by 68 tons in RL supply chain during a six-month
period (Calamai, 2016).

• Decrease in emission

Figure 9: carbon emission due to return and extra inventory (Calamai, 2016)

From figure 9, transportation efficiency decreased fuel consumption by 30% and carbon diox-
ide emissions by 27%. By selling more products directly to customers, Optoro eliminated the
additional steps required when reselling to distributors and resellers. With Optoro, reverse sup-
ply chain fuel consumption dropped by 18,161 gallons, which is comparable to 357,844 pas-
senger car kilometres (Calamai, 2016).

• More than 15 percent of products were sold to customers

Figure 10: Number of items resold to secondary customer (Calamai, 2016)

25
In the basic case scenario, 21% of goods was discarded or recycled. 91 percent of returned and
surplus products were resold to secondary customers using software and putting things within
hands of customers extends their life and reduces waste in landfills as can be observed from
figure 10 (Calamai, 2016).
As described in the preceding case study, Optoro has shown its potential to minimize waste by
60 percent in the RL. Less waste, greater financial recovery and less pollution are all possible
advantages of improved technology and more efficient procedures (Calamai, 2016).

2.10 Returning of product

Returns may be categorized as originating from production, distribution, or consumers (Rogers
et al., 2002).

• Returns from manufacturing

Manufacturing returns are recovered goods throughout the manufacturing process. These in-
cludes extra raw material, quality assurance returns and leftovers from production and by-
products (BorjaPonte et al., 2019).

• Returns from Distribution

After products are manufactured at a factory and transported to distribution, the following
items return to production, return of products due to safety or health concerns, business-to-
business returns from customers because of contractual provisions that permit the return of
items due to defective deliveries or unsellable goods, materials utilized as carriers to transport
goods and products in distribution like pallets (Brito and Dekker, 2002)

• Returns from customers

Lastly, customers return started after the product has reached at least the final consumer. Fol-
lowing are the reasons below stated by consumers Rogers et al. (2002) for returning of product.
Customers return items for the reasons listed below,
1) Warranty returns permit the return of items when defects arise during usage. Relate
largely to an improper functioning of the item during usage.
2) End-of-use returns include items, such as bottles, that cannot be reused but may be
returned.
3) Refund assurances lets consumer to divert their minds over unfulfilled product require-
ments.

26
2.11 Sustainability
Sustainability is becoming a strategic concern for corporations. Nowadays, firms have recog-
nised to have environmental and social responsibility (Banihashemi et al., 2019). According to
Hubbard (2006) explained that nearly seventy-five percent of big multinational organizations
are all under pressure to examine sustainability concerns and to establish non-financial perfor-
mance indicators in addition to conventional ones. Below are three dimensions of sustainability
discussed in detail (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Different dimensions of sustainability (Ali et al., 2018)

• Performance and measurement of environment

The environmental organizational performance is defined as its dedication to sustainable ex-
cellence in terms of fulfilling the environmental expectations of society (Judge et al., 2000).
An organization's environmental performance is measured by its capacity to assist to water
pollution, reductions in air and solid waste, and the occurrence of environmental incidents
(Zhua et al., 2008).

• Performance and measurement of economic dimension

The economic perspective of firms mostly stresses on its growth and profitability (Judge et al.,
2000). According to Daugherty et al. (2005) stated that RL's economic performance may be
measured using measures like as recapturing product value, cost containment, inventory in-
vestment reduction, enhanced profitability, and productivity of labour.

27
 • Performance and measurement of social dimension
Social performance defined as firms engaging with problems with respect to social responsi-
bilities like management of quality, benefits and wages, education, and training, forced labour,
human rights, issues relate to health and safety (Banihashemi et al., 2019). According to S and
Müller (2008) stated that social dimension of sustainability not much explored by researchers
and need further study on it.

According to Younis et al. (2016) investigated positive relation among social performance and
RL due to increased consumer satisfaction by demonstrating social and environmental respon-
sibility and improved consumer loyalty by paying closer attention to defective items and low-
ering carbon footprint by accepting return products. Whereas Geng et al. (2017) investigated
there is no relation between two because health and safety issues of employees and product
image.
Sustainable RL aims to tackle environmental issues in the field of RL by lowering the total
negative impact of logistics on the environment and considering the cost of recycling and waste
management into account (Banihashemi et al., 2019). RL can put positive impact in improving
sustainability of organisations, for example, impact in relation to cost saving, increase in in-
come by selling remanufactured and recovered items, improving customer satisfaction in en-
vironmental and socially responsible and decreasing its carbon footprint (Kannan et al., 2009)

2.12 Social sustainability in RL

Businesses are under growing pressure from numerous angles to integrate sustainability ideas
into their policies and operations (Labuschagne and Brent, 2005).

• Internal oriented HR’s

The internal human resources category consists of employment practices, employment stabil-
ity, health and safety, and capacity development activities (Sarkis et al., 2010). Since RL op-
erations are not as technologically advanced as forward logistics and production operations,
there are generally many manual techniques, particularly for RL activities such as sorting and
disassembly (Herrmann et al., 2006). These manual operations provide HR issues, including
the repetitive motion problems, management of hazardous wastes, and other physical ailments.
For example, The Centre in Tennessee is effective for sale of recyclable raw material, gener-
ating employment for more than one hundred mentally challenged residents who would not
otherwise be employed and altering people’s perspectives about the disabled (Orange Grove
Center., 2009)

28
 • Stability in employment of workers
The employment stability category includes both work prospects and salary. Even while more
sustainable companies, such as RL-oriented organizations, may offer people with constant job
opportunities (Sarkis et al., 2010). Uncertainty in capacity demands typically contributes to
more employment instability (SN, 2001). Lack of use of RL channels (e.g., for recycling) might
compromise the efficacy of the RL supply chain (L, 2006). In scent recycling, for instance,
unsold fragrances constitute hazardous waste, but the ethanol basis may be collected and dis-
tilled for less than half the price of disposal (Andel, 2004). Regulatory policy may assist to job
stability in RL by ensuring a more consistent supply of returned goods and materials (Sarkis et
al., 2010).

• Practices in employment
Employment practices consist of disciplinary and security procedures, the employee contract,
equality in the workplace, and the growth and use of labour sources and within this dimension,
there are beneficial RL social sustainability practices, and one is the creation of opportunity
for the growth of low-skilled employees (Sarkis et al., 2010).

• Worker’s health and safety

The impact of RL on social aspects may be firm- or industry-specific. Depending on the nature
of products or material flows, employee safety concerns differ (Sarkis et al., 2010). Internal
HR health and safety considerations may be of more concern in an RL setting (Sarkis et al.,
2010). As per Kazmierczak K et al. (2004) in their research of the European automobile disas-
sembly and recycling sector, found that employee performance expectations were lower, but
musculoskeletal repetitive concerns were significant. On the positive side, RL may also boost
health and safety if integrated with process innovations and material replacements that result
in environmental improvements (Sarkis et al., 2010). For instance, the creation of a returns
process in RL may be aided by the usage of reusable containers. Removal of box cutting, sta-
ples, and damaged pallets prevents injuries; normalized dimensions as well as weights of pack-
aging components reduce back injuries; standardized containers facilitate the use of automated
systems, reducing the need for manual operations; and a cleaner environment with fewer stray
packaging materials decreases the likelihood of accidents (Sarkis et al., 2010).

• Capacity development
RL allows for the development of new skills, product, and process technologies. Capacity de-
velopment for RL often requires speed and adaptability. One tangible example being the in-
creasing expansion of RL operations’ capability for returning product (Sarkis et al., 2010).

29
 • Implications of policies
There are multiple examples in which government rules and regulations have improved the RL
market. New regulatory measures, such as Europe’s end-of-life car regulation and China’s
‘Circular Economy,’ are becoming more popular. As virgin resources become scarcer, the im-
portance of RL routes to increase the supply capacity of materials becomes more and more
essential and thus, policymakers may benefit not only from the economic and environmental
advantages of RL, but also from its social advantages. Policymakers must be aware of the
potential consequences of RL operations, including safety and labour instability problems
(Sarkis et al., 2010). Ethical and social concerns must be considered for Lean programs to be
successful (Angappa and Spalanzani, 2012). For instance, when landfills closed and fewer are
developed, there are fewer opportunities for waste disposal (Angappa and Spalanzani, 2012).
Through hands-on environmental education, Toyota has implemented a social contribution
program and approximately 25,000 students have participated throughout the course of the last
decade (Babiak, 2010). Toyota also engages in extensive reforestation efforts in regions like
Philippines and China (Babiak, 2010).

2.13 Reverse Logistics processes

Figure 1 shows the processes involved in RL. After the purchase, used items or returned goods
are gathered and evaluated for categorization and in the reverse flow, items move from several
points to centralized sites in smaller amounts, at less unpredictable rates, also with manual
tracking systems, resulting in increased transportation and storage expenses (Agrawal et al.,
2015). There are different RL processes namely, acquisition of product, collection, sorting and
invention, disposition, and disposal.

• Acquisition of product
Product acquisition refers to the process of acquiring old items, components, or raw materials
from end customers for further processing. As product returns are unpredictable in terms of
timing, amount, and quality, RL must acquire them to succeed (Agrawal et al., 2015). Acqui-
sition of product is the initial and most important stage in developing a sustainable (Fleisch-
mann et al., 2000). For instance, if a customer returns a product to the store, the retailer deter-
mines whether the product must be sent for additional processing (Acquisition) or returned to
the consumer (Agrawal et al., 2015).

• Collection
After acquisition, there is collection of products and transported to facilities for sorting, in-
spection, and disposal and collection is the process through which a company obtains owner-
ship of the goods (Fleischmann et al., (2003). According to Agrawal et al. (2015) they

30
explained three collection strategies as manufacturers collecting directly from consumers,
manufacturers collecting through retailers, and manufacturers collecting via third party logis-
tics. The choice of collecting technique is determined by the pricing structure and collection
amount (Atasu et al., 2013).

• Sorting and inspecting

Service returns, commercial returns, distribution returns, and end-of-life returns are all possible
types of product returns. Moreover, the client may return the items for known or unknown
causes and their condition may vary significantly. Therefore, a separate examination of each
product is necessary for sorting and general look and condition of its constituent pieces must
be examined (Agrawal et al., 2015). According to Zikopoulos and Tagaras (2008) that it was
discovered that sorting prior to disassembly and remanufacturing relies on shipping, disposal,
and disassembly costs, as well as the quality of the returned product.

• Disposition
After inspecting goods, the following step is to determine their disposition for further pro-
cessing. There are three disposition options namely recovery of product, product reuse and
managing the waste (Agrawal et al., 2015). According to Norek (2003) businesses typically
have five recovery choices, including sell as new, repairing, or repackaging and reselling as
new, repair or repackage and resell as used, resell at a lesser value to a salvage house, and sell
by weight to a salvage house.

2.14 Circular economy in RL

In this era, for production of products and goods, a linear which basic model is followed
(Romero et al., 2021). Where raw materials are extracted and turning into items which are used
for short span of time and among these, some items are recovered or recycled, otherwise most
probably which will lend up in landfills (Ripanti et al., 2015). Linear model is not sustainable
and its expensive for firms that’s why most of the organisations are moving to the model of
circular economy than linear due to increase in demands for products, services and goods fol-
lowed by increased scarcity of resources and there is volatility in price (Ripanti et al., 2015).
It also emphasizes the separation of technical and non-technical substances to maximize the
reuse of end-of-life goods and its retained values via innovation (Ripanti et al., 2015). Several
CE activities may be identified for example, reusing, repairing, recycling, and remanufactur-
ing/refurbishing (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013). That can be seen from figure 12 below.

31
 Figure 12: CE model (Bernon et al., 2018).

Figure 12 illustrates the two paths of material circulation from the point of consumption to
production. At the 'butterfly' diagram's spine are the outgoing processes (example, forward
logistics), while each side of the spine represents the opposite flow of goods and products (RL)
which refers to it as technical and biological materials and RL is compatible with CE, particu-
larly the reverse flow of technical items (Bernon et al., 2018).

Due to a lack of reverse supply chain and remanufacturing activities, the amount of electronic
equipment that is destroyed annually increases by 17 percent annually to an estimated 50 mil-
lion tons (Cucchiella et al., 2015). For instance, the alliance among Sinctronics and HP has
produced its first circular economy program within Brazilian electronics industry and the aim
of collaboration among sinctronics and HP was to develop process of close loop for recovery
of plastics from HP’s used products (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013). As part of its circular
economy plan, HP Brazil aims to boost the average proportion of recycled materials in its
products to 20 percent for upcoming years (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013). This, how-
ever, will need a rise in the rates of collection of end-of-life items or the usage of post-consumer
plastics from some of the other industries. In addition to decreasing waste and increasing value,
the technique may also result in environmental advantages such as a decrease in greenhouse
gas emissions (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013). Through the initiative, 97 percent of
Sinctronics's acquired materials are now recovered and returned straight to the supply chain
and this solution not only assists HP in achieving its circular economy objectives, but also
reduces supply chain costs and volatility. Sinctronics was able to reduce client expenses by up
to 30 percent and time of collection for end-of-life items by 50 percent because of the project's
experience in RL, which was incorporated into its industrial strategy (Ellen MacArthur

32
Foundation, 2013). The ways to achieve sustainability in e-commerce and manufacturing sec-
tor is discussed in detail below.

2.15 Reverse logistics in E-Commerce

Logistics is the most important aspect of e-commerce. Due to a rise in information technology,
RL and e-commerce have become more integrated (Jian and Jiang, 2009). RL in e-commerce
is characterized by intense logistics systems, flexibility in CRM, and collaboration of network
of logistics (Yanyan, 2010). Returning e-commerce items is difficult due to the expense of
handling returns. Although the quick rise of e-commerce makes it difficult for established
stores to support their local retail with web-shops, this is the case. This is because the handling
of e-commerce product returned is expensive and return management differs from the compa-
ny's typical type of process returns (Mollenkopf et al., 2007).

2.16 Achieving sustainability in e-commerce

During the covid-19, more than thirty percent of customers in Malaysia, South Korea and Sin-
gapore made online purchases many times each month, according to a survey done in those
nations (Insight, 2020). After the pandemic, customers in developing nations turned dramati-
cally toward online shopping, resulting in a surge in single-use plastic garbage, including con-
tainers, eatable utensils, and carrier bags (Simachaya, 2020). From figure 13, it can be observed
that, America, and China these were leading polluters of plastic packaging in e-commerce in
2019. Chinese e-commerce generated 221.5 million kilos of plastic packaging trash, whereas
American e-commerce generated 212.7 million kilograms (statista, 2021).

Figure 13: Plastic waste produced by nations (statista, 2021)

33
Although the nature of commerce has evolved, product distribution has not changed much and
almost all online purchases have been packaged using single-use materials, such as corrugated
cardboard, plastic bags, and plastic wrap. (See Figure 14). It is acceptable to conclude that the
increase in shopping online and the usage of packing materials are significantly connected (Lai
et al., 2022).

Figure 14: Commonly packed material for online delivery (Lai et al., 2022).

There are rising issues over the social impacts and environmental of the widespread use of
single-use items (Kalina and Tillley, 2020). For purposes of safety, health and convenience,
single-use plastic packaging has indeed been promoted without proper consideration of its en-
vironmental effect (Anon, 2020). Too much packed waste has negative effects on environment
and there is overuse of packaged material for safety concern by retailers (Lai et al., 2022).

According to Lai et al. (2022) only 5% of packaged materials of plastic are being recycled in
China. It takes 400-500 years for packaged plastic to decompose (Lai et al., 2022). The pro-
duction of cardboard packing accounts for about 22 percent of the entire carbon emissions of
online sales Weber et al., 2008). In addition to highlighting characteristics of recyclability and
priority should also be made on the implementation of circular economy activities, like RL
which would aid in enhancing resource use efficiency (Lai et al., 2022).

Figure:15 Waste generated due to packaged plastic (Lai et al., 2022)

34
The usage of corrugated cardboard, plastic containers, including wooden crates has increased
over the years, as has the amount of packaging trash created per capita mostly in 28 EU member
states (Lai et al., 2022). That can be depicted from figure 15. RL include the management of
goods, their packaging, and returning of waste, followed by operations of recovery, reuse, or
recycling and RL, particularly for online merchants, becomes an important problem for both
environmental and customer loyalty reasons (Geisendorf and Felicitor, 2018). Using current
postal services, a RL system for the recovery of garbage (disposable products such as, packag-
ing, inkjet cartridges, and mobile phones) is implemented to establish a circular economy as
suggested by (Esposito, et al., 2018). Reusing packaging materials using RL increases the sus-
tainability of buying online and delivery (Lai et al., 2022).

2.17 Recycling plastics packaged material and corrugated boxes

According to Lai et al. (2022) between 2017 and 2019, the average recycling rate for packaging
of corrugated boxes was 92.3 percent. In 2018, over fifty percent of old and outdated corru-
gated cardboard (OCC) boxes were recycled as raw materials to produce more corrugated
boxes (Lai et al., 2022). For each tonne of wastepaper used as a substitute to virgin wood fibre
for making paper, at least 30,000 litres of water and 3,500 kilowatt-hours of power may be
saved, and 95 percent of air pollution could be decreased (Bajpai, 2014). There is broad scope
of working of plastics items before they are thrown as thrash and Europe's yearly collection of
post-consumer plastic trash surged from 24.7 million tonnes by 2010 reached 29.1 million
tonnes by 2018, with over 61 percent coming from the packaging industry from 2016 onwards,
where more than 61% comes from the packaging industry from 2016 that can be observed in
the figure 16 (Geyer at al., 2017).

Figure 16: Collection of plastic trash in EU in 2010 to 2018 and different trash treatment op-
tions (Lai et al., 2022).

35
Clearly, recycling, which climbed by 33 percent in Europe between 2010 and 2018, has been
the best option, following the energy recovery through incineration and landfill (figure 16) and
the fifty percent drop in landfilling over this time period demonstrates Europe's intention to
establish a CE and society (Geyer at al., 2017). Mechanical methods to recycle plastics involves
numerous stages process which involves, sorting, collecting, shredding, cleaning, and making
granules by remelting the plastics (Arena et al., 2003).

2.18 Challenges in E-commerce

For instance, in India, the e-commerce retailers face some challenges on customer side they
are the RL process is initiated by incorrect size or colour, there is no cost on returning, con-
venient to exchange the products with another of the same price, conveniently returning of gifts
which are unwanted (Jyoti and Gupta, 2020).

For a store or supply chain, the most important factors are formulating policies which are cus-
tomer-friendly, managing returned products, keeping a complete record of the cause for the
return, deciding whether to refill or dispose the items, and the monetary loss incurred. All these
factors make it challenging for a store to manage items that arrive through RL (Jyoti and Gupta,
2020). Customers want return policies that are flexible, and suppliers are obligated to give such
policies since the consumer does not have the option of personally inspecting the goods by
their hand. Even though returns in e-commerce are three times more expensive than initial
delivery, firms continue to provide simple return policies (Jyoti and Gupta, 2020).
According to the research made by Jyoti and Gupta (2020) the main challenge found was fraud
made during returning of product. As that can be seen from bar graph below shown in figure
17.

Figure 17: Challenges when returning product (Jyoti and Gupta, 2020).

36
As long as there has been business, there have been individuals who want to use it for their
personal profit. This is especially true today, when fraudulent customers purchase products and
then return substitute or defective one (Shih et al., 2021). Above challenge of fraud can be
mitigated by help of blockchain. Blockchain is not an untrustworthy technology; rather, it is a
confidence producer. The three characteristics of blockchains—distributed, immutable, and
permissioned makes corporate networks more difficult to fraud (Shih et al., 2021).

2.19 Reverse logistics in manufacturing sector

The primary flow of goods is from suppliers or producers to end-users (Nikolaidis, 2013).
However, substantial quantities of materials and items possessing some values are returned by
end-users and restructuring the SCM system by closing the loop of supply chain is seen as a
successful method for lowering costs, complying to environmental rules, and meeting customer
requirements (Fahimnia et al., 2013).

Figure 18: RL in manufacturing. (Hosseini et al., 2014)

As observed from the figure 18, in the manufacturing sector, RL would complete the supply
chain loop at several stages, leading in the reuse of goods, as modules, or as a mix of modules
and materials (Hosseini et al., 2014).

2.20 Some of the barriers of RL in terms of manufacturing sector

Major internal obstacles stopping manufacturing firm from implementing RL includes, don’t
possess the knowledge of RL in company, limitation of resources in implementing RL with
respect to budget and workforce, not much support from management because of uncertain RL
results, resistance to change the structure of organisation and routines of business (D.

37
Abdulrahman et al., 2014). Whereas the identified external barriers are lacking customer sup-
port because of assumption that returned products are of lesser quality, lacking assistance from
different supply chain partners, lack of necessary facilities and technology in the sector, The
design of items is not compatible with the concept of RL, possessing less knowledge in the
sector, lacking assistance and motivation from government (Waquas et al., 2018).

2.21 Types of waste in manufacturing

Wastage can be defined as “any activity that does not produce value, value in the “eyes” of
the customer” (Douglas, 2000). Pertaining to Japanese 5s approach, there are mainly seven
types of wastage in manufacturing process. Toyota utilizes this method to reduce waste, and
as a result, company were able to meet their goals. These wastages are waste resulting from
overproduction, waste caused by long wait times, waste resulting from shipping and handling,
wastage associated with unwanted and extra inventory, manufacturing process waste, waste
caused by defects and scraps (Douglas, 2000). Detailed about wastage type along with their
impacts on environment can be observed in table 3.

Table 3: Type of wastages and their impact on environment (Douglas, 2000)

All the wastages mentioned above can contribute to variety of problems and they are reducing
productivity, there is long lead time, high energy costs and inefficient resource use, longer
waiting of machines and people, reducing quality, excessive handling (Msaod Hekmatpanah
et al., 2009). Flexibility is vital for any firm seeking to maximize earnings and customer satis-
faction while lowering production costs (Wang et al., 2007).

38
2.22 Lean manufacturing
Lean Production is a manufacturing technique and concept that was created by Toyota in Japan
and now is extensively implemented by companies throughout the globe. LM is essential
mainly because it reduces the waste and decreases the lead time (Dave and Dixit, 2015). And
advantages of lean manufacturing can be seen in figure 19.z

Figure 19: Advantages of lean manufacturing (Dave and Dixit, 2015)

But achieving sustainability through lean manufacturing is debatable concept (Khodeir and
Othama, 2018). Lean creates cultural and an operational atmosphere that is extremely favour-
able to waste reduction and pollution control, hence promoting the sustainability of operations
and by combining both process of efficiency (quality, time, cost) and concept of sustainability
(social equity, health economy and environmental quality) is the new path to achieve overall
view about sustainability through lean production (Khodeir and Othama, 2018).

From the table 4 below shows the different techniques in lean manufacturing which helps to
cut down the waste and put positive impact on environment.

39
 Table 4: Different lean manufacturing practices and positive impact on environment
(Fliedner, 2008)
Environmental protection agency in united states, found and did case studies on different com-
panies and the way they put impact on environment through lean manufacturing (Fliedner,
2008) (See Table. 5)

Table 5: Companies put positive impact on environment (Fliedner, 2008)

40
According to Kingrani et al. (2021) stated that main aim of lean manufacturing is to cut down
everything into halves that includes wastage, number of working hours, and investment.
Whereas (Nejati, 2010) argued that lean manufacturing helps in achieving sustainable goals of
an organisation. Summary of literature is discussed and can be observed from table 6.

Table 6: Summary from literature

RL is important factor in supply chain which helps to lower cost, product recovery, and achiev-
ing sustainable goals. There is gap in literature about the ways to include social sustainability
with respect to RL and also, dilemma about how social sustainability is related to RL? Either
positively or negatively. Also, authors in literature argue about whether lean manufacturing
helps to attain sustainability, or its primary moto is not achieving sustainability.

41
2.23 Defining research problem
RL is indeed a relatively new topic, scholars and logistics firms have gradually emphasized on
achieving sustainable goals through reverse supply chain. Need to focus on achieving sustain-
ability in E-commerce and manufacturing sector with respect to RL. Attention needs to be
given to include circular economy and social sustainability, where is not much research done
on social sustainability. Then, there is argument in literature about lean manufacturing contrib-
uting towards sustainability. Also, in this era of technological inventions, there is need to give
broad view about the way technology can help in RL to achieve sustainable goals. Reducing
cost, recapturing value of product, recovering the product, returned products are managed well
instead of throwing into landfills thus affecting the environment.

Following are the Research questions.

• What are the issues with implementation of RL?

• Considering social sustainability in RL so that it can become more sustainable.
• Including dimension of technology (industry 4.0) with respect to sustainability that would
give overall picture of RL
• Introducing the concept of circular economy in forming sustainable RL
• What are the main practical reasons why goods and products are returned via reverse supply
chain?
• Importance of lean manufacturing in RL. Do lean manufacturing contribute to sustainabil-
ity or driven by being efficient mainly with cost and resources?

42
 Chapter 3

3. Survey Design Methodology

3.1 Study Design

Aim of survey was to know about the perspective of customer on returned products, reasons
for returning the product, amount of plastic involve in packaging, way how returned policy
should be, to study about material used for packaging products. Cross-sectional study design
was conducted as it makes inferences of collected data about customer who purchased goods
and products from E-commerce platform.

3.2 Data collection method

There were eleven multiple choice questions where for one question choice was given to select
more than one option due to customers preferences. Survey was classified by YES and NO
questions, lickert (3 and 4 point) scale was used for participants to respond. The questionnaire
was approved/validated by the supervisor. Survey was open from 12 June 2022 to 30 June
2022. Survey was implemented using Qualtrics software provided by university of Strathclyde.
In a survey, targeted population was the end user or customer who purchased a goods or prod-
uct from e-commerce platform.

3.3 Sample characteristics

Anybody who has purchased product from e-commerce platform could participate in survey.
Survey was in English language only. Only participants who has not purchased from e-com-
merce were excluded. There was no restriction on location. We conducted the survey with an
aim to recruit 180-200.

3.4Administration
Survey was active for nineteen days. It was virtual survey conducted using Qualtrics from
Glasgow and spread via email, LinkedIn, social media. After 10 days reminder email and mes-
sages were forwarded to all the participants. After which we asked the participants to remind
their personal contacts with whom link was shared by them. We customize the settings to limit
multiple responses. The sampling methods used in this survey was snowball sampling because
chain of referral process would allow us to gather more data in a short time frame internation-
ally.

43
 3.5 Ethical considerations
University’s ethical checklist was submitted to university of Strathclyde’s ethics committee
after taking signature of supervisor. Participation in the survey was considered as consent. All
the survey responses will be saved in secured folder (i.e., password secured folder) which will
be access to research team at university of Strathclyde. The initial analysis and raw data will
be shared with supervisor only. Pertaining to delete the raw data, we will accurately follow the
university of Strathclyde data protection and deletion advise. Once final analysis was carried
out, after that in 3-4 weeks raw data will be deleted.
We had not asked the personal details of participants (e.g., address, name, email ID) that aids
in protecting confidentiality and anonymity. In addition, we had activated the anonymous func-
tion of the smart online surveys during survey design.

3.6. Statistical Analysis

Survey was active till 30th of June. So, after closing of survey on 1st of July we planned for
narrative and descriptive analysis.

3.7. Sensitivity analysis

We planned global sensitivity analysis using SPSS version 28 software on the data and setting
the output style to be variable dependent.

3.8. Handling missing data

All data was imported in SPSS in .sav format for each question. Frequency analysis was per-
formed which revealed the missing data except for question 5. Due to the complexity of the
data, it was decided that the missing data of question 5 would be assessed/checked manually.

44
 Chapter 3 (A)

3.9 Interview Design Methodology

3.9.1 Study design

We planned to conduct semi-structured interviews of approximately ten participants working
with different organisation that includes manufacturing, reason behind choosing different or-
ganization was to understand different aspects of RL in manufacturing and what is their think-
ing about implementation of lean tools to achieve sustainability.

3.9.2 Data collection method

Initially, connected 46 people on LinkedIn, email several people, then contacted 8 others via
networking through attending conferences for interviews and we planned to follow up (i.e.,
provide reminder) every week with the participants. In total seventeen questions were framed
and asked to interviewees virtually.

3.9.3 Inclusion and exclusion

Only people having experience in RL, supply chain operations, product recovery, warehouse
management were taken into considerations. There were no geographical restrictions on taking
interviews. Interview was conducted in English. All other people were excluded who had ex-
perience other than RL, supply chain operations, product recovery, and warehouse manage-
ment as that might not answer our research questions broadly and it was irrelevant to my re-
search to take interview of individual other than mention above.

3.9.4 Administration
Interviews was taken on zoom and MS teams platforms. Invitation for the interview was sent
through email, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp.

3.9.5 Analysis
NVivo 2020 software was used to transcribe the communication between interviewer and in-
terviewee and used for further analysis. Thematic analysis was planned as it aids in concluding
all main characteristics of huge data collection which drives the researchers to use structured
framework for data management, hence helping in producing well-organised report. From the-
matic analysis conducted, we created themes from the interview transcription.
3.9.6 Ethical consideration

45
Before going ahead with interview process, a consent letter was circulated to interviewees and
ask them to sign that form and send it back. Later, ethics checklist, risk assessment form, data
protection and assessment form were submitted to department of design manufacturing engi-
neering management ethics committee of university of Strathclyde. we have sent consent letter
to everyone before taking the interview and ask them to sign and send it back. (See appendix
E). All the responses were recorded only for analysis purpose after being granted with partici-
pants permission. Once after analysis is done, we will delete all the interview recorded infor-
mation after 3-4 weeks. We will not ask for any personal (residential address, mobile number)
or their company details which is helping to protect confidentiality and anonymity. If we face
any issues with data protection, confidentiality we will immediately contact IT research team
of university of Strathclyde.

3.9.7 Research validation

After conducting the interview each interview was transcribed using Nvivo software. After
thematically analysing the results we sought confirmation from interviewers about transcrip-
tion verbatim, the analysis and themes.

46
 Chapter 4

4. Survey Results

4.1. Participants characteristics

180 survey invitations were sent to people through LinkedIn, social media, emails who bought
any product from e-commerce. From which 156 people participated in survey whereas, 113
people completed the survey questionnaire. 41 people partially completed the survey and 2
people didn’t complete the survey at all. Out of 180 survey invitations, 24 people didn’t par-
ticipated in survey (Figure 20).

180 invitations were sent to partici-

pants who had purchased product on
E-commerce platform

24 didn’t participated
(13.33%) 113 people completed fully
41 people responded partially Response rate is 62.77%
(22%)
2 people didn’t respond at all
(1.11%)

Figure 20: Flow diagram

Reasons for not participating in the survey was that questionnaire was not relevant to respond-
ents. Overall response rate of survey was 62.77%. So, response rate is total number of number
of participants divided by total number of completed responders multiply by 100. Unique char-
acteristics of participants along with some proportions such as completed proportion, view
proportion was not initiated on Qualtrics software. Survey was answered by the customers who
ordered the products online on e-commerce and returned it due to some reasons.

4.2. Sensitivity Analysis

Sensitivity analysis was performed which revealed positive inclination in percentage for ma-
jority of data. (See appendix D)

47
4.3. Missing Data
In survey, question number five has multiple sub question, and that was converted from mul-
tivariate to univariate data and due to complex data frequency analysis was not performed. So,
in that case missing data was found manually. Out of 156, thirteen participants didn’t answered
question. For question one, four people didn’t responded (see appendix D, Q1) whereas for
question number two, eight people didn’t reported (see appendix D, Q2). Further for question
number three, sixteen individual didn’t answer(see appendix D, Q3), next for question number
four and forty, nine people didn’t participated (see appendix D, Q4), for question number six,
fifty people didn’t responded(see appendix D, Q6), for question seven, forty nine participants
didn’t answered(see appendix D, Q7), for question number eight, forty nine people didn’t par-
ticipated(see appendix D,Q8), for question number nine, forty nice people didn’t responded(see
appendix D, Q9), afterwards for question ten, fifty people didn’t participated(see appendix D,
Q10), for question for eleven, forty nine people didn’t responded(see appendix D, Q11).

Table 7: survey missing data

48
4.4. Reasons to return the product

Figure 21: Reasons to return products by customers

Overall, 30.28% of people stated that they returned the product due to poor quality whereas,
25.69% of responders reported that reason behind returning the product was that product was
looking different from originally ordered. Some 24.77% of participants found product to be
damaged or defective. A few respondents (9.17%) reported that they returned it because they
received the wrong product (Figure 21). 2.75% of participants were not happy with customer
service while, 7.34 of responders reported change of mind is the reason behind returning the
product. Majority of the people returned the product due to poor quality.

4.5. Return Policy

Figure 22: Customer’s expectations from return policy

In survey, 41.10% people want hassle free return policy whereas, 23.29% of sample size need
free shipping from the organisation. Moreover, 21.92% of responders didn’t want company to

49
asked them any questions while returning the product and small minority of 11.64% of people
expect company to provide them with return packaging. Others about 2.05% of people reported
that they expect enough timeline to return the product (Figure 22). Overall, large chunk of
customer wants hassle free return policy by organisation followed by free shipping.

4.6. Involvement of plastic in purchased product

Figure 23: Involvement of plastic in product

Most of the products are packed with plastic material that harms environment as it takes lot of
years to decompose (Lai et al., 2022).
So, in this survey people were asked about the product they bought from e-commerce and the
amount of plastic involved in packaging, in that case 46.36% of people said that it was low but
37.27% of respondents claimed that it was high. Moreover, 6.36% of participants reported that
involvement of plastic was very high when they bought product from e-commerce platform
whereas, 10.01% of people answered that plastic involvement was very low.

4.7. Packaging material used for product

Figure 24: Packaging material utilised for product bought from E-commerce

50
Products are packed with different material that includes plastic, paper, cardboard. Reason was
to find from the customer that what was the packaging material used when they ordered the
product from e-commerce.

34.64% of people got carton box as packaging material for their product whereas, 20.91% of
responders received plastic bag. Moreover, bubble plastic bag has gotten by 20% of people
who ordered online on e-commerce. 8.18% of people received bubble plastic sheet. Further,
3.64% of people got padded envelop as material used for their bought product. And about
4.54% participants reported that they received Styrofoam sheet. 8.09% of people said that plas-
tic tape was involved for packaging when they received their product from e-commerce plat-
form.

4.8. Validation of Research

The process of validation was conducted by sending the survey to the supervisor and gaining
his approval on it. After drafting the survey questions, it was reviewed by the supervisor. We
kept on updating the questions until a final approval was sought from the supervisor.

51
 Chapter 4 (A)
4.9 Interview Results

4.9.1 Participants characteristics

Overall, we recruited six people for interview from which, each one of them was working in
different positions such as production team leader in manufacturing company, production en-
gineer, supply chain manager, supply chain operations specialist, purchase and data manager,
material flow and packaging engineer. Two of them had more than 8 years of experience in
supply chain operations and production, whereas one person had 16 years of experience in
supply chain, RL, operations, quality. Additionally, two people had 5 years of experience in
logistics. Interviewed individuals were within the age range of 38-50 years. It was a bit difficult
to connect with people as we were not able to find the participants from reverse supply chain
background and even if we could get connected with someone, but they use to not accept our
invitation for scheduling interview. But finally interviewed 6 people virtually that lasted for
around 1 hour. In total, two interviews were taken on MS Teams platform whereas, 4 inter-
views were conducted via Zoom. Seven people denied for interviews due to their busy sched-
ule, they were fully occupied with their office work and some postponed it to next 2 month
which was not feasible as dissertation submission date was 3rd August 2022. We took follow
up after every five days to remind participants of interview by calling, email, messaging and
through LinkedIn.

All the participants answered first 5 questions (100% response rate). Whereas question 12 and
10 were not answered by 3 individual (respondent 1,4 and 5). The reason for not answering
those questions were that individual did not have experience in that sector (i.e., technology).
To achieve sustainability, technology (industry 4.0), lean manufacturing and circular economy
plays vital role in RL. Social sustainability is one of the aspects of sustainability. This social
sustainability has gotten less attention to include in RL. For implementation of RL, it is difficult
to return due to some reasons that have been discovered by conducting interview of profes-
sionals and analysed thematically.

4.9.2 Analysis
We used Nvivo 20 for transcription of all the interviews. After thematically analyzing, we
found six main themes which help us to achieve sustainability and to understand the aspects in
RL. So, within six main themes twenty-one sub themes were found.

52
 Sustainable Reverse
4.9.3 Themes
Logistics

Implementation Social Sus- Reasons to Circular Lean manufac-

Technology tainability Return turing & think-
Issues Economy’s
Motivation ing

Cost (Profit, Value Sys- Quality Is-

Blockchain tem sues
effectiveness Mindset

RFID
Space Training Defects 5S
Recycling

ERP Over Ship-

Legislation Education
ment
VSM
Customs Sophisticated
Rules Tool Sanity Check
Deviation

Uncertainty Awareness
4. Gap between testing
and inspection proce-
Terms and condi- Encouraging dure
tions People
Figure 25: Themes from Thematic analysis
53
4.9.3.1 Main theme- implementation Issues

• Sub-theme- Cost
Out of six interviews, majority of individual stated that cost is an important factor which makes
implementation of RL difficult. It is because when customer return the product, there is not
much support from any parties in supply chain to manufacturer so there will be more cost with-
out revenue. For instance, individual’s company is distributor, and they have financial support
from manufacturer to maintain and develop marketing plan and after sales for them to protect
their brand. That’s why individual said they help supplier, and end user to fix the problem. But
for other companies like resellers and small scale they may not want to do, and they do not get
benefit of that.

• Sub-theme: legislation and custom rules

Two individuals told custom rule and legislation are also issues which make implementation of
RL difficult. This is because it becomes difficult to abide laws of countries when reseller sell to
customer outside their country and end user returned the product for repair or rework as it is
expensive and time consuming.

• Sub-theme: space
Additionally, three individuals stated that with regards to space for logistics you need to pay for
the space and if you’re not going to use that material, keeping that in inventory or in warehouse
for longer time the companies go for scrapping. It was reported that scrapping is cost effective
than implementing RL.

• Sub-theme: Uncertainty
One individual reported that uncertainty in forecasting and planning is reason why RL becomes
difficult to implement. “With respect to uncertainty, for instance if the plan is to sell 11 million
products for particular year but during that year company could make only half of it”. Inventory
in supply chain will be too much or much more than demand. Resellers may have to bear the
loss as cost of holding the inventory that they cannot sell.

• Sub-theme: Terms and condition

One participant highlighted that terms and conditions during making an agreement with supplier
makes it difficult to implement RL. Pertaining to terms and condition, while you’re doing con-
tract with supplier if you do not put some clauses in your contract and agreement, then it’s
become very difficult to set up RL in case of rejection and rework. Also, 1 participant reported
that people don’t pay attention to documentation to see it as forward or reverse transaction. That
cost too much time for paperwork for the custom process to deal with RL.

4.9.3.2 Main-theme: Technology

Every individual suggested different technology that can be used with respect to sustainability
that would provide more holistic view about RL such as blockchain, ERP, RFID and using some
sophisticated tool.

• Sub-theme: Blockchain
One individual reported that blockchain can be used in RL to holistic insights about sustainabil-
ity. To deal with return, they have all the information in their system which the company uses
to produce product. As with some of the expensive product they had serial number for tracea-
bility again, they can track back what kind of component they are using, what were their num-
bers, when it was built, when it was shipped, how many times they had to service it or repair it.
It is a good for technical department to check and trace it back to how it was produced. Then
engineer can see the condition of components and improve the recycling and manufacturing
process.

• Sub-theme: ERP
One participant who worked in manufacturing sector said that ERP is one of the main technol-
ogy tools can be used for RL. Moreover, there are also local ERP tools available in market, so
companies can prefer their own based on requirement and they can update.

• Sub-theme: Sophisticated tool

From technology point of view, one respondent said it can only think of clubbing the return
parts. They suggested to use more advanced tool when parts are coming in and getting scanned.
They complained that today its all-manual inspection. They just look for parts and then they
decide if they want to use it for production or not. That can be avoided if we use more sophisti-
cated tool at point of receiving where it is basically scanning all the materials. There itself tool
can detect if that part has defect or not. Then you send back. This is something quick and indi-
rectly reducing carbon dioxide because you are taking decision quickly rather than waiting for
days to send or to inspect part by part.

• Sub-theme: RFID
One individual stated that beyond technology, what would help us is to say carbon dioxide cost
assign to something. Like we measure the product cost but if we go beyond that then we can

55
make very simple economic calculation but if we had some tracking system for supply chain
carbon footprint then suddenly people would be that there is money or reputation to be gained
here. In terms of technology, reported that cross organizational information sharing is good way.
One individual said that RFID can be used with RL.

4.9.3.3 Main-theme: Social sustainability

Out of six individual, all five agreed that social sustainability is important and related to RL,
but one participant said that can’t relate social sustainability with RL as logistics that is hap-
pening completely inside the company. So, there is no link between social sustainability to
logistics.

• Sub-theme: value system and training

One individual said that we must inculcate value system that will allow us not to throw stuff
away in bin. Out of six, two reported that training should be given to people how to use the
parts differently from what was designed as when old model is returned it may help manufac-
turer to save their cost and help people to get some knowledge about how to recycle the com-
ponents.

• Sub-theme: encouragement and awareness

Two people stated that we must encourage people and make them understand the importance
of environment. Also, people need to be more aware of it.

• Sub-theme: sanity check

One participant reported that in their organisation a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
team who is in-charge of ethical guidelines and labour laws and when negotiating with sup-
plier they do sanity check with whether they meet CSR guidelines or not and checks the origin
of raw material used in manufacturing, also team checks the raw material whether it is coming
from a place where the children are being forced to work. Team does the checking with whom
they want to work with.

• Sub-theme: education
One individual reported that in his organization they had bought medical batteries. In case of
rejection material was lying in warehouse and supplier was not taking those material. As batter-
ies were better from manufacturer side. It might have gone back. He says in that process it must
clearly defined how the dumping will be done. Awareness can be done in company of

56
operational health and safety certification to employees. Every worker working on shop floor
must be aware and educated how to handle the battery.

4.9.3.4 Main-theme: reasons to return

• Sub-theme: defects and quality issues

Majority of participants stated that defects and quality issues were the most observed reasons
for returning the product from customer.

• Sub-theme: gap between testing and inspection procedure

Moreover, one individual said that there is a gap between testing and inspection procedure of
supplier. When supplier do 100% testing and 100% pre-dispatched inspection is done. Then
after receiving that material to manufacturer, they do test according to their process which is
not known to supplier. So, the feasible solution for this is that inspection standards set by two
parties must be align and followed by everyone.

• Sub-theme: deviation
One participant reported that deviation from technical specification is the reason to return the
item. Other reasons stated by participants are when they order some quantity, but supplier
shipped much more than original order, where supplier expect them to keep it, but manufacturer
don’t have space in inventory. They can’t keep it. So, they must return it. Productivity issue,
and from customer side its misaligned expectations are some reasons to return goods and prod-
uct from end user.

4.9.3.5 Main-theme: Circular economy’s motivation

• Sub-theme: Mindset
One individual said that circular economy is about thinking big and need to incorporate at base
level. RL is the first step but its only be end goal to have circular economy because even if you
are sending it back and forth you still end up in bin. So circular economy is the mindset change
that we need to have.

• Sub-theme: recycling
Majority of them reported that recycling is the key in circular economy to achieve sustainable
RL. As there is strict regulation from government. One of the participants stated that the cards
they are buying from vendors are recycled one and not the original copy.

57
One participant told that need awareness at broader and public level. So, if material is coming
back then this is something which responsibility must be given to manufacturer for recycling
because he knows better where they can dispose of that material, or whether he can rework or
recycle or not. Moreover, one individual reported that if some goods that is not want any more
by customers because its old model. In this case they are thinking to disposing the items. So
here comes the importance of circular economy. Here the old model will not go straight to bin
but go back to manufacturer for recycling.

From five interviews, one individual from aerospace industry reported that, they don’t go for
circular economy as very dimension of part can damage the whole aircraft which is why they
always go with technical specification. However, they use circular economy in prototype air-
crafts where those are not meant for commercial flying.

4.9.3.6 Main-theme: lean manufacturing and thinking

Out of six participants, five individuals agreed that lean manufacturing contributing towards
sustainability. Whereas one induvial didn’t agreed because according to her perspective lean is
mainly driven by being efficient and it’s not being efficient for sustainability. It’s driven for
being efficient mainly with cost and resources. She gave an example by saying lean also reason
we had many supply chain issues during Covid 19. Because everyone just kept decreasing their
inventory. Further she tells its more of make to order system.

• Sub-theme: VSM
One individual claimed that lean manufacturing and sustainability goes hand in hand. He sug-
gested blend of all lean tools can be used and are important. Moreover, he stated that Value
stream mapping (VSM) is one of the best tool for RL. He explained that in any process we have
some non-value-added activities in process. It is waste like over production, over processing or
defects. But with the help of VSM we can go and identify deeply in process, and we can identify
whether there is over processing or keep doing the same process again and again. He didn’t
comment on whether it is positive or negative relationship of lean manufacturing towards sus-
tainability. But he shared other view. We try to follow lean manufacturing but still there is other
process after marketing. “Why can’t we use lean in this process”? “We can’t say we can do
100%”. “However, we can try to achieve 100%”. “We should use the lean tools even after the
market”

• Sub-theme: 5S
One of the participants stated that lean tools help us to achieve sustainability. In their organiza-
tion they use the lean tool 5S. At operational level, people may think that it’s of no use because

58
every day we will need to do something like everything must clean and must be neat in office.
But later, everyday would be like the person develops the habit to be lean, to be tidy, to be clean
to do single steps in 5S to manage the requirement. From day one you will not see the change
but after long time the habit will developed. Good habits will develop, and people will see the
improvement from long time.

4.10 Research validation

All interviewers agreed to the interview transcription, analysis, and themes. After transcription,
report was sent to everyone by email and on LinkedIn. After a span of week all the individuals
reported back saying that written content is matching to what they highlighted during interview.

59
 Chapter-5

5. Discussion and Conclusion

After conducting the survey of 156 participants which relates to understanding the customer
perspective of return product in RL. Additionally, interview of six participants for understanding
to achieve sustainability in manufacturing sector using lean manufacturing and tools with re-
spect to RL. This research has highlighted both customer and organization (manufacturing) per-
spective to achieve sustainability with regards to RL.

Then focus was to achieve sustainability with respect to RL in manufacturing and e-commerce
sector. To know about customer perspective, a survey was conducted to address few issues that
is reasons to return the product from end user, then how customer want return policy from com-
panies, then emphasize on amount of plastic material involve in brought product from end user.
And to address what packaging material does companies used nowadays in their product. The
findings reported that due to poor quality customer return the product, whereas majority of peo-
ple expect hassle free return policy. Although participants reported that plastic involvement in
their product was low, but we can’t neglect the number of people (37% response rate) who
answered that they got high amount of plastic in their product from e-commerce that would
eventually impact the environment. Though majority of people received carton box that was
used for the product to pack, but we can’t neglect the amount of plastic material used for their
product that is unsustainable as answered (48.28% response rate) by other responders.

On the other hand, to address the problem of sustainability with regards to RL, interview was
conducted of professional who works in manufacturing industry to know how technology helps
to achieve sustainability pertaining to RL, to understand role of CE in RL to achieve sustainable
goals, as there was not much research done on social sustainability and ways to include it in RL,
and to understand the reasons why it is difficult to implement RL along with to get broader
insights about reasons to return the products back from customer. To know about importance of
lean manufacturing with respect to RL and to get view whether lean manufacturing and thinking
leads to achieve sustainability or its primary motto is not achieving sustainability but for being
efficient with cost and resources.

Through findings it clear that ERP, blockchain, sophisticated tool and RFID can be used in RL
to achieve sustainability. Result shows it CE is the mindset change that we all need to have and
majority of them claimed to recycle the product once after it is being returned instead of

60
throwing directly in bin. Also, social sustainability can be included in RL by creating some
value system not to throw things in bin, also by giving training, educating, and encouraging
people in organization. Some firms have CSR team who is in-charge of ethical guidelines and
labour laws and does the sanity check with supplier whether they meet CSR guidelines or not
and checks the origin of raw material used in manufacturing, also team checks the raw material
whether it is coming from a place where the children are being forced to work. RL is difficult
to implement due to cost, space, legislation and customs rules, uncertainty in forecasting and
planning and terms and conditions while making agreement with supplier as found from partic-
ipants. Lastly, large number of people said that defects and quality issues were most common
to return the product back. Moreover, over shipment, deviation from technical specification and
gap between testing and inspection procedure. Next, blend of lean tools can be used to achieve
sustainability. for instance, interviewee claimed that VSM and 5S can be used in organization
with respect to RL. Below we will discuss findings of both perspective that is people working
in manufacturing sector and customer perspective.

Pertaining to interview conducted of people working in manufacturing sector. Following find-

ings were identified.

5.1. RL’s implementation issues

Through the interview with people who has experience in supply chain and logistics and work-
ing in production sector said that cost is the most observed reason for difficulty in implementa-
tion of RL. Other reasons were, due to space, uncertainty in forecasting and planning, legislation
of each country and their custom rules for product return, and last one is terms and conditions
when you are doing contact with supplier. It is surprising that only one reason matches with
literature and this finding through interview that is cost. In literature, (Vaz, et al., 2014) used
review approach to find that cost or expense, lack of advance computer system along with man-
agement practices, or best think is to adapt to current updated systems of RL and inability to
handle the impact of returned products are some reasons of difficulty to implement RL. This
study contributed more reasons to previous research.

5.2. Technology
Some interviewees had experienced in using advanced technology in their firm. They reported
that blockchain, RFID, ERP and some sophisticated tool can be used with respect to RL to
achieve sustainability. This research introduces new technologies and that were added to earlier
study. But in literature the author (Shah, et al., 2019) claimed that optoros RL software which
is cloud based and along with analytical tool called as return management system (RMS) that
help to reduce waste, cut fuel cost, and lower carbon dioxide emissions and can be used to
achieve sustainability in RL. And said that industry 4.0 has positive impact on RL.

61
5.3. Social Sustainability
All the interviewees stated that there is positive relationship between social sustainability and
RL except one individual. One disagreed because logistics is happening completely inside the
company as there is no link between social sustainability and RL. Five individual said social
sustainability can be included by inculcating a value system through which people will not
throw things in bin, by encouraging and though awareness about importance of environment
and its impacts, giving necessary training to employee in organisation from which people can
upgrade their knowledge, and one individual stated that sanity check should be done by team
who is responsible for ethical guidelines and labour laws whether supplier meet CSR guide-
lines or not and checks origin of raw materials and checks whether raw material is coming
from place where there child labour. From the literature, (Orange Grove Center., 2009)
adopted content analysis approach in their study to gather information about social sustaina-
bility can be included in RL by generating employment. One center recruited more than hun-
dred mentally challenged people in selling recyclable material. Further, it can be included
through social contribution program, by creating opportunities for low skilled employer,
workers health and safety varies industry by industry that is worker in chemical factory and
other working in assembly line will not have same health and safety rules, by developing new
skills of employee, by including policies for job stability, and by policymakers must be aware
of the potential consequences of RL operations including safety and labour instability prob-
lems. Both the research used different methodology and found valuable contribution towards
inclusion of social sustainability in RL.

5.4. Reasons to return the product

From the interview of professionals who work in the supply chain and logistics industry stated
that most reasons seen why product return to manufacturer from customer were defects and
quality issues. Other reasons for returning of products were if there is deviation from technical
specification, there is over shipment of raw material from supplier, and last reason was ob-
served practically by individual when working in industry was gap between different testing
and inspection procedure from supplier and manufacturer. From the literature it was observed
that, author (BorjaPonte, et al., 2019) said return in manufacturing was due to quality issues,
further if you have extra raw material, and lastly whatever leftover from manufacturing and
leftover. Some reasons of professional were matched with literature, but this research gave
some more recent reasons for returning products.

62
5.5. Circular Economy
Both this study and previous research used same methodology that is conducting interview,
but the background of recruited individuals were different in both the studies. According to
this study, individual stated that circular economy is all about mindset change that we need to
have and need to think big and must incorporate at base level. Maximum participants stated
that recycling is the important factor to achieve sustainability with respect to RL. But accord-
ing to (Ripanti, et al., 2016) stated that need to maximise the reuse of end-of-life goods and
more attention to give to reusing, repairing, recycling, and remanufacturing/refurbishing and
recovering.

5.6. Lean manufacturing and thinking

Maximum number of people who worked in supply chain and logistics sector reported that
lean manufacturing contributes to achieve sustainability however only one individual claimed
that its primary goal is to being efficient mainly in cost and resources. Other one individual
not commented whether it has positive or negative relationship with sustainability but stated
that lean manufacturing tools should be adopted even after market. Blend of lean tools help in
achieving sustainability specifically VSM and 5S. There was a debate in literature. (Kingrani,
et al., 2021) stated that primary aim of lean manufacturing is to reduce wastage, number of hours
and investment. But (Nejati, 2010) argued that lean manufacturing helps in achieving sustaina-
bility. This current study adds positive relation with respect to lean manufacturing towards
sustainability. Also, this research and earlier study both used different methods that is semi-
structured interview and correlation matrix. Customer perspective was analysed by conducting
survey to know about customer’s experience with product they bought from e-commerce plat-
form.

5.7. Reasons to return the product

After analysing the survey, it was observed that majority of participants said that they return the
product bought from e-commerce due to poor quality (figure 21). Whereas other reasons to
return the product was they received wrong product to which they ordered before, some partic-
ipants claimed that the products were faulty or defective, when customers received wrong prod-
uct, lastly, they return it because dissatisfied with customer service. According to literature,
author (Rogers, et al., 2002) stated that customer returned the item during time of warranty
when defects arise. Secondly, end user returned the product due to end of use of product because
it can’t be reused. Lastly, giving assurance about refund shift their mind on unfulfilled require-
ment of product. It is amazed to see that only one reason matches with current study’s research
findings as both the methodologies used were different. From this research could gather more
reasons from customer perspective to look at products which are returned from e-commerce.

63
5.8. Involvement of plastic material in bought product
From the literature author (Lai, et al., 2022) stated that only 5% of plastic is recycled in China
as it takes 400-500 years to fully decompose. If we used too much package waste, then it has
negative effect on environment and it has been observed that there is overuse of packaged
material for safety reason. From fig 13, China and America were known to be polluters of
plastic packaging in e-commerce in 2019. So, implementation of CE would help in increasing
efficiency and achieving sustainability. Also, from figure 16, recycling seems to be good op-
tion as recycling has been increased since 2010. But our study stated most of the participants
reported that plastic was low in amount, but we can’t ignore the figure where participants said
that plastics was high (37.27% response rate) and some said very high (10.01 % response rate)
in their packaging which directly impact the environment in negative way. Both current and
earlier research use two different methods that is survey and review of literature, respectively
to find the number of plastics that negatively impacts the environment in e-commerce.

5.9. Return policy

From the survey we found that majority of participants expect hassle free return policy. Other
respondent reported that they don’t want firms to charge for shipping, they expect not to ask any
questions during return policy, others claimed that company should provide them with packag-
ing, and lastly small chunk of participants stated that company should allow them much time to
return the product. Both current and earlier research varies in methodology that this research
focused on survey, but earlier study emphasized on both interview and survey. But according to
literature, author (Jyoti & Gupta, 2020) stated that customer want flexible return policies.
Through survey conducted we can observe more expectations from customer perspective.

5.10. Packaging material used for product

From the survey it was clear that majority of people who bought the product from e-commerce
received carton box as packaging for their product. Some participants received plastic bags,
bubble plastic bag, bubble plastic sheet, some got padded envelop, Styrofoam, lastly respondent
even claimed that they got plastic tape. Though this study and earlier study approaches were
different that is current study focused on survey and earlier study focused on review of literature
still found some similarities. From the literature author (Lai, et al., 2022) stated that product
purchased from e-commerce platform have been packed with single use material such as plastic
bag, plastic wrap, and corrugated cardboard. (Weber, et al., 2008) stated that for the manufac-
turing of cardboard packing there is about 22% of carbon emission of e-commerce sales. So, the
usage of plastic containers, corrugated cardboard has been increased and the amount of packag-
ing trash created per capita in EU 28 states have been increased.

64
5.11. Advantages of Research
This is the first research involving two methodologies and gaining perspective of customer and
manufacturer over the issue of RL to my best of knowledge. Study was not limited to any geo-
graphical location, nor any language restrictions were imposed. Even after using multiple meth-
odologies in a time span of 3 months, we were able to recruit 156 respondents in survey and
conducted 6 interviews.

5.12. Limitations
Interview was conducted of people who works in manufacturing sector but couldn’t be able to
reach to reach a greater number of people to take interview as they were busy with their daily
work, and some were outstation. Interview was taken of people who work in supply chain op-
erations, in warehouse, logistics specialist but it could have been more effective if we had people
from sustainability sector. Due to time limitation, we could not capture more customer perspec-
tives. This study was limited to only two sector such as e-commerce and manufacturing.

5.13. Future Directions

For future research, it is recommended to include people from sustainability background or
those who worked or working as specialist in sustainability, environmental engineer who can
give more holistic and broad view about achieving sustainability including social sustainability
in RL. Researchers can also emphasize and include other sector such as retail, process industry,
pharmaceutical. Additionally, more studies are required on how to include social sustainability
in RL for better understanding. For conducting future research, this study can be done with large
sample size for more reliability and credibility.

5.14. Conclusion
This research highlighted customer and organization (i.e., manufacturing sector) perspectives in
RL. Additionally, this research highlighted different techniques like RL, technology, circular
economy, and lean manufacturing which could help customer and organization from manufac-
turing sector to achieve sustainability as this will be a small step towards achieving net zero
carbon emission by 2040.

65
 Section-6
References

1. ABDULRAHMAN, M. D., GUNASEKARAN, A. & SUBRAMANIAN, N.

2014. Critical barriers in implementing reverse logistics in the Chinese manu-
facturing sectors. International journal of production economics, 147, 460-471.

2. AGRAWAL, S., SINGH, R. K. & MURTAZA, Q. 2015. A literature review

and perspectives in reverse logistics. Resources, Conservation and Recycling,
97, 76-92.

3. ANDEL, T. 2004. Rethinking recycling. Material Handling Management, 59,

35-38.

4. ARENA, U., MASTELLONE, M. L. & PERUGINI, F. 2003. Life cycle as-

sessment of a plastic packaging recycling system. The international journal of
life cycle assessment, 8, 92-98.

5. ATASU, A., TOKTAY, L. B. & VAN WASSENHOVE, L. N. 2013. How col-

lection cost structure drives a manufacturer's reverse channel choice. Produc-
tion and Operations Management, 22, 1089-1102.

6. ATTARAN, M. Digital technology enablers and their implications for supply

chain management. Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal, 2020. Tay-
lor & Francis, 158-172.

7. BABIAK, K. 2010. The role and relevance of corporate social responsibility in

sport: A view from the top. Journal of Management & Organization, 16, 528-
549.

66
8. BADENHORST, A. & NEL, J. 2012. Identifying potential solutions for spe-
cific reverse logistics problems. Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Man-
agement, 6, 73-90.
9. BAJPAI, P. 2013. Recycling and deinking of recovered paper, Elsevier.

10.BANIHASHEMI, T. A., FEI, J. & CHEN, P. S.-L. 2019. Exploring the rela-
tionship between reverse logistics and sustainability performance: A literature
review. Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications.

11.BERNON, M., TJAHJONO, B. & RIPANTI, E. F. 2018. Aligning retail re-

verse logistics practice with circular economy values: an exploratory frame-
work. Production Planning & Control, 29, 483-497
.
12.BREEN, L. 2006. Give me back my empties or else! A preliminary analysis of
customer compliance in reverse logistics practices (UK). Management Re-
search News.

13.BRITO, M. P. & DEKKER, R. 2002. Reverse logistics-a framework. Econo-

metric Institute Research Papers.

14.CALAMAI,2016.optoro.[Online] Available at: http://www.optoro.com/wp-

content/uploads/2016/02/Optoro-Whitepaper6-9-2016.pdf.
and www.optoro.com

15.CORRÊA, H. L. & XAVIER, L. H. 2013. Concepts, design and implementa-

tion of Reverse Logistics Systems for sustainable supply chains in Brazil. Jour-
nal of operations and supply chain management, 6, 1-25.

16.CROXTON, K. L., LAMBERT, D. M., GARCÍA-DASTUGUE, S. J. & ROG-

ERS, D. S. 2002. The demand management process. The International Journal
of logistics management, 13, 51-66.

67
17.CUCCHIELLA, F., D’ADAMO, I., KOH, S. L. & ROSA, P. 2015. Recycling
of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams.
Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 51, 263-272.

18.DAUGHERTY, P. J., RICHEY, R. G., GENCHEV, S. E. & CHEN, H. 2005.

Reverse logistics: superior performance through focused resource commit-
ments to information technology. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics
and Transportation Review, 41, 77-92.

19.DE MAN, J. C. & STRANDHAGEN, J. O. 2017. An Industry 4.0 research

agenda for sustainable business models. Procedia Cirp, 63, 721-726.

20.DESHMUKH, S., UPADHYE, N. & GARG, S. 2010. Lean manufacturing for

sustainable development. Glob. Bus. Manag. Res. Int. J, 2, 125.

21.DIXIT, A., DAVE, V. & SINGH, A. P. 2015. Lean manufacturing: An ap-

proach for waste elimination. International Journal of Engineering Research &
Technology, 4, 532-536.

22.DOUGLAS, J. M. 1992. Process synthesis for waste minimization. Industrial

& engineering chemistry research, 31, 238-243.

23.DYCKHOFF, H., LACKES, R. & REESE, J. 2013. Supply chain management

and reverse logistics, Springer Science & Business Media.

24.ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION, 2013. Towards the Circular Econ-

omy 1: Economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition.
[Online]
Available http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/business/reports/ce2012

68
25.ESPOSITO, M., TSE, T. & SOUFANI, K. 2018. Reverse logistics for postal
services within a circular economy. Thunderbird International Business Re-
view, 60, 741-745.

26.FAGUNDES & OLIVEIRA, 2008. The interaction of logical channels as a fac-

tor of economic and environmental sustainability. Ponta grossa., International
Management Congress,

27.FAHIMNIA, B., SARKIS, J., DEHGHANIAN, F., BANIHASHEMI, N. &

RAHMAN, S. 2013. The impact of carbon pricing on a closed-loop supply
chain: an Australian case study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 59, 210-225.

28.FERCOQ, A., LAMOURI, S. & CARBONE, V. 2016. Lean/Green integration

focused on waste reduction techniques. Journal of Cleaner production, 137,
567-578.

29.FLEISCHMANN, M., BLOEMHOF-RUWAARD, J. M., DEKKER, R., VAN

DER LAAN, E., VAN NUNEN, J. A. & VAN WASSENHOVE, L. N. 1997.
Quantitative models for reverse logistics: A review. European journal of oper-
ational research, 103, 1-17.

30.FLEISCHMANN, M., VAN NUNEN, J. A. & GRÄVE, B. 2003. Integrating

closed-loop supply chains and spare-parts management at IBM. Interfaces, 33,
44-56.

31.FLIEDNER, G. Sustainability: a new lean principle. Proceedings of the 39th

annual meeting of the decision sciences institute, 2008. Citeseer, 3321-3326.

69
32.GEISENDORF, S. & PIETRULLA, F. 2018. The circular economy and circu-
lar economic concepts—a literature analysis and redefinition. Thunderbird In-
ternational Business Review, 60, 771-782.

33.GENG, R., MANSOURI, S. A. & AKTAS, E. 2017. The relationship between

green supply chain management and performance: A meta-analysis of empiri-
cal evidences in Asian emerging economies. International journal of produc-
tion economics, 183, 245-258.

34.GEYER, R., JAMBECK, J. R. & LAW, K. L. 2017. Production, use, and fate
of all plastics ever made. Science advances, 3, e1700782.

35.GRODZIŃSKA-JURCZAK, M., KRAWCZYK, A., JURCZAK, A.,

STRZELECKA, M., RECHCIŃSKI, M. & BOĆKOWSKI, M. 2020. Environ-
mental choices vs. COVID-19 pandemic fear–plastic governance re-assess-
ment. Society Register, 4, 49-66.

36.GUNASEKARAN, A. & SPALANZANI, A. 2012. Sustainability of manufac-

turing and services: Investigations for research and applications. International
journal of production economics, 140, 35-47.

37.GUPTA, S. M. 2013. Reverse supply chains: issues and analysis, CRC Press.

38.HEKMATPANAH, M., SADRODDIN, M., SHAHBAZ, S., MOKHTARI, F.

& FADAVINIA, F. 2008. Six Sigma process and its impact on the organiza-
tional productivity. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology,
43, 365-369.

39.HERRMANN, C., LUGER, T., SPENGLER, T., SCHMID, E. & WALTHER,

G. Design and control of material flow networks for the recycling of WEEE.
Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the
Environment, 2006., 2006. IEEE, 340-345.

70
40.HOSSEINI, M., CHILESHE, N., RAMEEZDEEN, R. & LEHMANN, S. 2014.
Reverse logistics for the construction industry: Lessons from the manufactur-
ing context. Scientific and Academic Publishing Rosemead, CA, USA.
41.HOUSEMAN, S. N. 2001. Why employers use flexible staffing arrangements:
Evidence from an establishment survey. Ilr Review, 55, 149-170.

42.HUBBARD, G. 2009. Measuring organizational performance: beyond the tri-

ple bottom line. Business strategy and the environment, 18, 177-191.

43.INSIGHT, R., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour. [Online]

Available at: https://insight.rakuten.com/wordpress/wp-content/up-
loads/RI_Impact_of_COVID_19_Report.pdf

44.INTEL, 2020-2021. Corporate Responsibility Report. [Online]

Available at: www.intc.com
a. and https://csrreportbuilder.intel.com/pdfbuilder/pdfs/CSR-2020-21-
Full-Report.pdf

45.JAYARAMAN, V. & LUO, Y. 2007. Creating competitive advantages through

new value creation: a reverse logistics perspective. Academy of management
perspectives, 21, 56-73.

46.JAYARAMAN, V., PATTERSON, R. A. & ROLLAND, E. 2003. The design

of reverse distribution networks: models and solution procedures. European
journal of operational research, 150, 128-149.

47.JAYARAMAN, V., ROSS, A. D. & AGARWAL, A. 2008. Role of infor-

mation technology and collaboration in reverse logistics supply chains. Inter-
national Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, 11, 409-425.

71
48.JUDGE, W. Q. & DOUGLAS, T. J. 1998. Performance implications of incor-
porating natural environmental issues into the strategic planning process: An
empirical assessment. Journal of management Studies, 35, 241-262.

49.JULIANELLI, V., CAIADO, R. G. G., SCAVARDA, L. F. & CRUZ, S. P. D.

M. F. 2020. Interplay between reverse logistics and circular economy: critical
success factors-based taxonomy and framework. Resources, Conservation and
Recycling, 158, 104784.

50.Jyoti & Gupta, N., 2020. The Commercial Impacts of Reverse Logistics in E-
Commerce in India. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Tech-
nology (IJEAT), 9(3).

51.KALINA, M. & TILLEY, E. 2020. “This is our next problem”: Cleaning up

from the COVID-19 response. Waste management, 108, 202-205.

52.KANNAN, G., POKHAREL, S. & KUMAR, P. S. 2009. A hybrid approach

using ISM and fuzzy TOPSIS for the selection of reverse logistics provider.
Resources, conservation and recycling, 54, 28-36.

53.KAZMIERCZAK, K., WINKEL, J. & WESTGAARD, R. H. 2004. Car disas-

sembly and ergonomics in Sweden: current situation and future perspectives in
light of new environmental legislation. International Journal of Production Re-
search, 42, 1305-1324.

54.KHODEIR, L. M. & OTHMAN, R. 2018. Examining the interaction between

lean and sustainability principles in the management process of AEC industry.
Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 9, 1627-1634.
55.KINGRANI, C., DEV, K. & SHAH, S. 2021. Lean Manufacturing in Apparel
Industry. Journal of Textile and Clothing Science, 4, 01-06.

72
56.KOPLIN, J., SEURING, S. & MESTERHARM, M. 2007. Incorporating sus-
tainability into supply management in the automotive industry–the case of the
Volkswagen AG. Journal of cleaner production, 15, 1053-1062.

57.LABUSCHAGNE, C. & BRENT, A. C. 2005. Sustainable project life cycle

management: the need to integrate life cycles in the manufacturing sector. In-
ternational journal of project management, 23, 159-168.

58.LAI, N. Y. G., KUAH, A. T., KIM, C. H. & WONG, K. H. 2022. Toward

sustainable express deliveries for online shopping: Reusing packaging materi-
als through reverse logistics. Thunderbird International Business Review.
59.LAMBERT, S., RIOPEL, D. & ABDUL-KADER, W. 2011. A reverse logis-
tics decisions conceptual framework. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 61,
561-581.

60.MATSUI, K. 2022. Optimal timing of acquisition price announcement for used

products in a dual-recycling channel reverse supply chain. European Journal of
Operational Research, 300, 615-632.

61.MIN, J. U. & HA, H.-K. 2006. Aligning Reverse Logistics Into a Sustainable
and Scalable Business Organization–A Benchmarking Study in High-Tech In-
dustry. Journal of International Logistics and Trade, 4, 93-111.

62.MO, S.-J. & WANG, Z.-M. The Effect of Match Between Capability and Strat-
egy on Logistics Companies' Performance. 2008 4th International Conference
on Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing, 2008.
IEEE, 1-4.

63.MOLLENKOPF, D. A., RABINOVICH, E., LASETER, T. M. & BOYER, K.

K. 2007. Managing internet product returns: a focus on effective service oper-
ations. Decision sciences, 38, 215-250.

73
64.MOURTZIS, D. 2016. Challenges and future perspectives for the life cycle of
manufacturing networks in the mass customisation era. Logistics Research, 9,
1-20.

65.NAKANO, D. & MUNIZ JR, J. 2018. Writing the literature review for empir-
ical papers. Production, 28.

66.NARULA, R. 2004. R&D collaboration by SMEs: new opportunities and lim-

itations in the face of globalisation. Technovation, 24, 153-161.

67.NIKOLAIDIS, Y. 2013. Reverse logistics and quality management issues:

State-of-the-art. Quality Management in Reverse Logistics. Springer.

68.NISAR, T. M. & PRABHAKAR, G. 2017. What factors determine e-satisfac-

tion and consumer spending in e-commerce retailing? Journal of retailing and
consumer services, 39, 135-144.

69.NOREK, C. D. 2003. Throwing it into reverse. DC Velocity, 1, 54-58.

70.OLTRA-BADENES, R., GIL-GOMEZ, H., GUEROLA-NAVARRO, V. &
VICEDO, P. 2019. Is it possible to manage the product recovery processes in
an ERP? Analysis of functional needs. Sustainability, 11, 4380.

71.Orange Grove Center., 2009. This Best Practice is one of the Best Practices for
Human Settlements. Presented in the Most Clearing House. Best Practices Da-
tabase, Recycling and Job Creation: Chattanooga. [Online] Available at: .
www.orangegrovecenter.com
and www.unesco.org/most/usa7.htm

72.PETTIT, T. J., CROXTON, K. L. & FIKSEL, J. 2019. The evolution of resili-

ence in supply chain management: a retrospective on ensuring supply chain
resilience. Journal of Business Logistics, 40, 56-65.

74
73.PIENAAR, W. J. & VOGT, J. J. 2009. Business logistics management: a sup-
ply chain perspective, Oxford University Press Southern Africa.

74.PONTE, B., NAIM, M. M. & SYNTETOS, A. A. 2019. The value of regulating

returns for enhancing the dynamic behaviour of hybrid manufacturing-reman-
ufacturing systems. European Journal of Operational Research, 278, 629-645.

75.RAJAGOPAL, P., KALIANI SUNDRAM, V. P. & MANIAM NAIDU, B.

2015. Future directions of reverse logistics in gaining competitive advantages:
A review of literature. International journal of supply chain management, 4,
39-48.

76.RIPANTI, E. F., TJAHJONO, B. & FAN, I.-S. Circular economy in reverse

logistics: Relationships and potential applications in product remanufacturing.
20th Logistics Research Network (LRN) Conference, 2015.

77.RIPANTI, E. F., TJAHJONO, B. & FAN, I.-S. 2016. Circular economy in re-
verse logistics: formulation and potential design in product refurbish. Produc-
tion and Operations Management, 6.

78.ROGERS, D. S. & TIBBEN-LEMBKE, R. S. 1999. Going backwards: reverse

logistics trends and practices, Reverse Logistics Executive Council Pittsburgh,
PA.

79.SARKIS, J., HELMS, M. M. & HERVANI, A. A. 2010. Reverse logistics and

social sustainability. Corporate social responsibility and environmental man-
agement, 17, 337-354.
80.SEURING, S. & MÜLLER, M. 2008. From a literature review to a conceptual
framework for sustainable supply chain management. Journal of cleaner pro-
duction, 16, 1699-1710.

75
81.SHAH, S., DIKGANG, G. & MENON, S. 2019. The global perception of in-
dustry 4.0 for reverse logistics. International Journal of Economics and Man-
agement Systems, 4.

82.SHIH, D.-H., HUANG, F.-C., CHIEH, C.-Y., SHIH, M.-H. & WU, T.-W.
2021. Preventing return fraud in reverse logistics—A case study of ESPRES
solution by Ethereum. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Com-
merce Research, 16, 2170-2191.

83.SIMACHAYA, W., 2020. [Online]

Available at: https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1915956/plastic-
use-soaring-in-pandemic

84. STATISTA, 2021. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1262381/e-commerce-

plastic-packaging-waste-by-country/

85.SUBRAMANIAN, N., GUNASEKARAN, A., ABDULRAHMAN, M. & LIU,

C. 2014. Factors for implementing end-of-life product reverse logistics in the
Chinese manufacturing sector. International Journal of Sustainable Develop-
ment & World Ecology, 21, 235-245.

86.TAVERA ROMERO, C. A., CASTRO, D. F., ORTIZ, J. H., KHALAF, O. I.

& VARGAS, M. A. 2021. Synergy between circular economy and industry 4.0:
A literature review. Sustainability, 13, 4331.

87.TUNDYS, B. 2020. Sustainable supply chain management–past; present and

future. Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu, 64, 187-
207.
88.VAZ, C. R., GRABOT, B., MALDONADO, M. U. & SELIG, P. M. 2013.
Some reasons to implement reverse logistics in companies. International jour-
nal of environmental technology and management, 16, pp. 467-479.

76
89.WANG, Y.-H. & HSIEH, C.-C. 2018. Explore technology innovation and in-
telligence for IoT (Internet of Things) based eyewear technology. Technologi-
cal forecasting and social change, 127, 281-290.

90.WAQAS, M., DONG, Q.-L., AHMAD, N., ZHU, Y. & NADEEM, M. 2018.
Critical barriers to implementation of reverse logistics in the manufacturing
industry: a case study of a developing country. Sustainability, 10, 4202.

91.WEBER, C. L., HENDRICKSON, C. T., MATTHEWS, H. S., NAGENGAST,

A., NEALER, R. & JARAMILLO, P. Life cycle comparison of traditional re-
tail and e-commerce logistics for electronic products: A case study of buy. com.
2009 IEEE International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology,
2009. IEEE, 1-6.

92.WU, Y. C. J. & CHENG, W. P. 2006. Reverse logistics in the publishing in-

dustry: China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. International Journal of Physical Dis-
tribution & Logistics Management.

93.XU, J. & JIANG, Y. 2009. Study of Reverse Logistics in the E-commerce En-
vironment. International Business Research, 2, 128-130.

94.YANYAN, W. Research on the Reverse Logistics Model based on E-com-

merce. 2010 International Conference on Logistics Systems and Intelligent
Management (ICLSIM), 2010. IEEE, 687-691.

95.YOUNIS, H., SUNDARAKANI, B. & VEL, P. 2016. The impact of imple-

menting green supply chain management practices on corporate performance.
Competitiveness Review.
96.ZHANG, Z., ZHAO, J. & LI, Z. Preliminary Analysis of The Application and
Development of Big Data, Cloud Computing, IoT, Mobile Internet, AI, and
Blockchain In The Power Scene. Proceedings of the 3rd International Confer-
ence on Information Technologies and Electrical Engineering, 2020. 526-530.

77
97.ZHU, Q., SARKIS, J. & LAI, K.-H. 2008. Confirmation of a measurement
model for green supply chain management practices implementation. Interna-
tional journal of production economics, 111, 261-273
.
98.ZIKOPOULOS, C. & TAGARAS, G. 2008. On the attractiveness of sorting
before disassembly in remanufacturing. IIE Transactions, 40, 313-323.

78
 Section-7

Appendix A

Interview Questions

1) What are the issues with implementation of reverse logistics? Why it is difficult to imple-
ment?
2) Discuss some technologies with respect to sustainability that would give more holistic in-
sights about reverse logistics. How technology help to achieve sustainability?
3) Why social sustainability is important in reverse logistics and how we can include social
sustainability in reverse logistics?
4) Role of circular economy in forming sustainable reverse logistics
5) How can we include circular economy in reverse logistics?
6) What are the main practical reasons when goods and products are returned via reverse supply
chain?
7) How reverse logistics and social sustainability are related? Is it positive or negative relation-
ship?
8) How reverse logistics and economic sustainability are related? Is it positive or negative re-
lationship?
9) What is the importance of strategic, tactical, and operational level in reverse logistics?
10) What is the importance of information technology in reverse logistics?
11) What are the issues faced in reverse logistics and how to mitigate it? What actions need to
be taken?
12) What is best disposition option to achieve sustainability? Why do you think it is preferable?
13) What are the barriers faced in reverse logistics?
14) How to achieve sustainability in manufacturing and e-commerce with respect to reverse lo-
gistics?
15) Importance of lean manufacturing to cut down the waste.
16) What do you think can lean manufacturing achieves sustainability? If yes, then which lean
tool can be helpful to achieve sustainability?

79
Appendix B

Survey Question

1) Have you ever purchased any product through an E-commerce (like Amazon, Alibaba, Flip-
kart) platform?
o YES
o NO

2) Have you ever returned any product bought from E-commerce platform?
o YES
o NO

3) Why did you returned a purchased product?

o Damaged/ Faulty/ Defective
o Poor Quality
o Product looks different to what was ordered
o Received the wrong product
o Displeased with customer service/ Overall experience
o Other Reason

4) Do you check the return section of site before purchasing?

o YES
o NO

5) What do you want from a return policy?

o Hassle-Free
o No question asked
o Free shipping
o Company to provide me with return packaging
o Other

6) Does the packaging of your product involved plastic when you ordered from E-commerce
platform?
o YES
o NO

80
7) How much was the amount of plastic involved in packaging of your product when you
bought it from E-commerce Platform?
o Very High
o High
o Low
o Very Low

8) What was the packaging material used for your product when you bought it from e-com-
merce platform
o Carton Box
o Plastic Bag
o Plastic Tape
o Bubble plastic Bag
o Bubble plastic sheet
o Padded Envelop
o Styrofoam Sheet- It is elastic, soft, open cell structure, useful for delicate and light
weight items

9) How important do you think the plastic packaging waste problem is?
o Very important
o Not sure
o Not very important

10) Do you think the new return policies introduced by some companies will make you change
your habits?
o Yes- it will make me think twice about purchasing
o No- Shoppers should not be restricted

11) When you bought the product from E-commerce does your packaging had recycling sym-
bol?
o YES
o NO
o NOT SURE

81
Appendix C

A) Transcription from interview

Question 1: what are the issues with implementation of RL and why it is difficult?

Respondent 1: So, um, so why sometimes it is difficult is first

thing is because of cost. Okay. Second thing is also because
of, um, space.

Respondent 3: So, there are few implications, um, like the most
important factor is cost.

Respondent 6: So, yes, the second, um, issue is about the law, I
mean, um, legislation.

Respondent 4: Yeah. So one of the major difficulty while imple-

menting reverse logistic is your terms and conditions while
you, you are doing contract and with the supplier.

Respondent 6: when it is for the rivers logistic, which is like

the customer return the goods. Yeah. Then yes. There's not
very much support for the manufacturer from the brand. And so
there will be more cost for that without any revenue.

Respondent 6: Yeah. So, yeah. So it is something, uh, something

concerned with the forecasting or planning.

Respondent 6: Yes. Because its, its cost too much time and fault
to, um, for the paperwork, for the custom process in order to
deal with the reverse logistics. Um,

Question 2: Discuss some technologies with respect to sustainability that would give more ho-
listic insights about reverse logistics. How technology help to achieve sustainability?

82
Respondent 3: Um, I would suggest ERP is one of the main, uh,
technology tools can be used for reverse logistics

Respondent 6: Well, I think that blockchain, uh, recently has

been helping us.

Respondent 1: Yeah. They just look for the parts and then they
decide if they want to use it from production or not. Um, that
can be avoided if you use a more sophisticated tool at the
point of receiving where it is basically scanning all the ma-
terials, because I know that a lot of companies are working
on, um, setting up these kind of tools at the goods receipt
place. Well then, and there itself, the tool can detect if
that part has a defect or not. Okay. And then you decide to
send it back. Okay. This is something which could be quick and
also in a way indirectly, it will reduce the carbon emission
because then you are taking the decision quickly and yeah.

Respondent 2: Um, so in terms of technology, that would probably

be a, some sort of database platform structure. Okay. That
would help, I think. And then the regular stuff with tracking,
like, um, good visibility barcodes, uh, RFID all the, all the
good stuff.

Question 3: Why social sustainability is important in reverse logistics and how we can include
social sustainability in reverse logistics?

Respondent 1: We have a team of, uh, corporate social responsi-

bility at our company. Okay. Who, um, takes in charge of, um,
the labour laws and, uh, um, the ethical guideline of the com-
pany with whom we are dealing. Okay. Um, and they basically,
um, like, uh, they do like a sanity check, um, if they are
meeting all our CSR guidelines or not. And that's when we

83
decide if we really want to go with the supplier or not also
the raw materials that we use in manufacturing, our final com-
ponent, where are these raw materials coming from?

Respondent 2: Um, and then of course, if you do it, you inculcate

some sort of value system, a value system of, we're not just
throwing stuff away. So, um, that is I think a very positive
message as well, that can help.

Respondent 5: I think you can try to maybe like encourage people

and make them see like how, how it's important for the envi-
ronment right now.
I think maybe like people need to have like more awareness.

Respondent 4: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So operational health and safety,

uh, yeah. Uh, operational health and safety, something, uh,
SAS is that, so I don't remember yeah. Full form, but, but
this is something which need to be, uh, uh, uh, taught or to,
to be educated to the, um, actually the people with, to the
people who are directly coming into the contact of the, for
you say, every worker who is working on the floor has to be
aware or educated about how to handle battery plus metals.

Respondent 6 : Then. Yeah. So that can both, not only the, um,
the, the, the economy, but also the training, the education of
the people inside the supply chain and I think it's positive.

Question 4: What are the main practical reasons when goods and products are returned via re-
verse supply chain?

Respondent 1: Main reasons will be nonconformity a defect in the

part. Okay. Um, or, uh, deviation from the technical specifi-
cation.

84
Respondent 4: Now this is a major gap we have also, I have ab-
sorbed that inspection standards set with the two parties must
be aligned and followed commonly by everyone. It, it should
not be that you are following a different process. I am fol-
lowing a different process. Okay. Then it'll create a problem.
It'll create, it'll surely create a problem because the, the
results of the inspection or testing will be different.

Respondent 5: Why it's returned back. Yeah. Yeah. Most of the

stuff when I see like something returned back, uh, it's mainly
like not as function as they wanted or maybe like half out
quality issues, productivity issues

Respondent 2: Yeah. You already mentioned in the beginning, um,

defects quality issues. Um, but from a consumer perspective,
just misaligned expectations.

Respondent 3: And okay. For, so we can say lot of examples, um,

um, I would say is lot of defects, um, defects, which is been
identified

Question 5: Role of circular economy in forming sustainable reverse logistics. How can we in-
clude circular economy in reverse logistics?

Respondent 2: Yeah. Um, but circularity is actually like think-

ing big and then you have it incorporated at the, at the, uh,
base level.
So I think rev reverse logistics is a good first step, but
it's can only be the end goal to have a circular economy be-
cause even if you send it back and forth, you still like, have
it end up in the bin. Yeah. It's not designed to be circular.

85
Okay. So the circular economy is the mindset change we wanna
have.

Respondent 1: It depends. It depends on the, on the requirement of

the product. So in, especially in aerospace industries, we
don't really go for circular economy because okay. One is very
small dimension of a part can actually damage the whole air-
craft. Okay. That's why we, we always go by technical specifi-
cation.
Okay. Or used, but in case of prototype Aircrafts, for exam-
ple, we are first manufacturing, the testing Aircrafts where
no one is flying, we are flying just by remote control. Okay.
So in those kind of cases, in order for, in order to test the
Aircrafts, we use circular economy.

Respondent 3: So we have two different bins. One is not recycla-

ble and recyclable. See the recycle one, see the cards, uh,
which can go to the recycle bin. It goes to particular, par-
ticular place. They will recycle it. Okay
So those cards are not, uh, uh, the first time, uh, first time
made card, they are, uh, they're recycled one. Okay. So it'll
come with, uh, uh, like a, I would say traceability so where
this card has been, uh, that is so like, we can, we can track
like, uh, that this card has been manufactured and which area
it is coming from and how many times this car has been, uh,
recycl

Question 6: Importance of lean manufacturing in RL. Do lean manufacturing contribute to

sustainability or driven by being efficient mainly with cost and resources?

Respondent 4: Uh, the very first one is value stream mapping.

Via some value stream mapping. This is one of the best tool I
would say for, uh, reverse logistics

86
Respondent 6: I think lean manufacturing that it is, is helped us
to achieve the sustain sustainability. So I used to work in a
company that we use fives 5s

Respondent 4: yes. Lean manufacturing and sustainability goes

hand in hand unless its, it is, it is percolated to each and
every individual of the organization.

Respondent 1: And lean processes are always related to sustaina-

bility. I would say be environmental sustainability or pre to
process sustainability because clean manufacturing means they
are, they are really trying to optimize the process as, as
much as they can. So they are saving up materials. They're
saving up time, they're saving up resources and, and money in
the end. So I would say that it's very much connected to, to
reverse logistics as well.

Respondent 6: I think all of them are combined in the same way.

Cause like, say before, like VSM like by stream mapping, it
shows like, uh, all the processes and you can, and, and you
can like, um, make all the process and say and see like deeply
which process doing more, uh, five S five S is one of the
main, like goals you can achieve sustainability

Respondent 2: Yeah, I would, I'm, um, bit split minds about

lean. Okay. Um, because I think lean is also one of the rea-
sons we had so many supply chain issues during COVID. Okay.
Because everyone just kept decreasing their inventory. Right.
Yeah

Respondent 2: So I think it's mainly lean is mainly driven by be-

ing efficient and it's not being efficient for sustainability

87
Appendix D

Results of sensitivity analysis of survey shown through graphs

Question 1

88
Question2

89
Question3

90
Question4

91
Question 6

92
Question7

93
Question8

94
Question9

95
Question10

96
Question11

97
Appendix E

A) Consent Letter

98
Turnitin summary

Academic Honesty Declaration

99
100