Business Aspects of Closed-Loop Supply Chains Workshops

This grant provides funding for a workshop on the business aspects of closed-loop supply chains. The focus of the meeting is on developing systems and tools to support businesses seeking to create financially viable systems for product recovery. The workshop participants will be drawn from leading international academic experts in industrial engineering, supply chain management, operations management, management sciences, and information technologies. Doctoral students and early career faculty will also be invited. There will be speakers from industry to provide overviews of current practice and specific problems encountered when trying to create sustainable, financially viable, closed-loop supply chains. There will be presentations from academics on projects with industry and methodology applications. Small group break-out sessions will encourage interactions and interdisciplinary research cooperation.

The outcomes of the workshop will be to generate new research focused on the needs of the business community and encourage partnerships between academia and industry. One of the objectives of the workshop is to exchange experiences and the results of research projects. If successful, these interactions will encourage academic researchers to focus on the crucial needs of industry. The workshop also encourages partnerships among international researchers in diverse disciplines. The workshop will also encourage doctoral students to start research in this area and attract early career researchers to develop new research streams. The findings and recommendations will be disseminated via a white paper and research articles in scholarly journals.