Author(s): Siddhartha Kushwaha
The seasonal online sales result in a surge in product returns following the sales. The study presents a mixed-integer linear programming model for a manufacturer, to select collection outsourcing policy under surge supply of product returns. There are two streams of product returns i) regular returns at the end of the service life of the product, and ii) surge returns in the period due to discount sales during the holiday. The manufacturer has a dual source of collection activity i) independent collection firms (ICF) in each locality where the company is marketing new products and ii) collecting product returns in-house centrally