Inventory management in sustainable closed-loop supply chains with continuous improvement

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The proposed research program will benefit from the knowledge created in previous research projects and build on that acquired knowledge to develop mathematical models that are more representative of environmental issues in closed-loop supply chains (CLSC). It will also investigate how learning, captured by learning curves,  can improve the sustainability performance of such chains. Two approaches, classical and non-classical, will be used to study CLSCs. The classical approach focuses on minimizing the sum of (classical) costs of a CLSC with no consideration of environmental factors, while the non-classical approach draws a parallel between an inventory and logistics system and a thermodynamic system by using its laws to reduce the system’s entropy (disorder) and improve its sustainable performance.