Competitive closed-loop supply chain network design under uncertainty

This paper studies the competition between two closed-loop supply chains including manufacturers, retailers and recyclers in an uncertain environment. The competition factors are the retail prices of new products and incentives paid to consumers for taking back the used products. Market demands are price sensitive and also the amount of returned products is sensitive to incentives. The primary goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of simultaneous and Stackelberg competitions between two closed-loop supply chains on their profits, demands and returns. A game theoretic approach which is empowered by possibility theory is applied to obtain the optimal solutions under uncertain condition. Finally the theoretical results are analyzed using sample data inspired by a real industrial case. (C) 2015 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.