A Risk Management Tool for the Reverse Supply Chain Network

The forward and reverse supply chain have their own characteristics and different roles among organizations. However, when it comes to supply chain, most organizations tend to concentrate more on the forward supply chain. Therefore, the reverse supply chain is not well-developed, especially in managing and quantifying the risks process. Meanwhile, there are many risk management tools developed and optimized solely for the forward supply chain in those processes. This paper will represent a risk management tool to be used in the reverse supply chain with the aid of software development. The tool is simple, efficiently implementing and using, that helps the firms manage and quantify the risks, even without previous experience. It is becoming more flexible as the aided software is developed. The tool uses the scoring mechanism to show the impacts of risk and its probability of happening in the reverse supply chain network. To illustrate the values of the tool, and the supporting software as well, a case study in co-operation with company A to build the process of returned products in its reverse supply chain will be conducted.