Adapting the 'Iron Triangle' to develop a framework for reverse manufacturing decision support tools

Interest from industry in reverse manufacturing is increasing due to market drivers such as higher costs for resources and increasing government legislation aimed at reducing waste. In order for companies to take advantage of this business opportunity, awareness and understanding of the role of uncertainty within reverse manufacturing and its influence on performance parameters of cost, time and quality must be acknowledged. Although decision support tools exist in literature, they currently lack a holistic approach in modeling the interrelated effects of performance parameters and uncertainty within the business. The purpose of this paper therefore is to propose a framework in which future decision tools can be created for reverse manufacturing. The effects of this framework are then demonstrated with current business scenarios, using reverse manufacturing case study examples.