Identifying and ranking of the success factors in automotive reverse logistics through interpretive structural modeling(ISM)

Today the reverse logistics is one of the most important subjects in supply chain area. The control of return process beside the forward supply chain permits the organization to avoid of additional costs. This paper at the first approach introduces the major success factors which result from interview with experts in this area and although stemmed from major resources in automotive reverse logistics and then it utilizes the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) methodology to understand the mutual influences among the barriers so that those driving success factors, which can aggravate few more factors and those independent factors, which are influenced by driving factors are identified. By analyzing the success factors using this model, we may extract crucial factors that influence the reverse logistics activities. It can be observed that there are some factors, which have both high driving power and dependency, thus they need more attention. Finally, the implications for practice and future research are discussed.