Consumers are the starting point of a reverse supply chain. They act as supplier of raw material to value adding activities and reverse supply chain activities such as remanufacturing and recycling. Though reverse supply chain literature acknowledges the significance of consumers, the degree of influence of consumers on the reverse supply chain is still unexplored. The study explores the role of product-related and environment-related factors on product returns from consumer through an extensive survey of literature.

The raw material to reverse supply chain is product returns from consumers. The product returns occur often at the end of usage of product by consumers. The products can also be returned to manufacturer due to warranty clause, product exchange drives and mandatory regulatory reasons. The consumers reside at dispersed locations. It is posing a challenge for manufacturers to collect the products profitably. Once products are returned to manufacturer, it can undergo any one of the product recovery processes which are remanufacturing, refurbishing, recycling and cannibalization.

Remanufacturing is the process by which a used product is completely disassembled, repaired, obsolete components are replaced and contemporary enhancements are incorporated in the product. Refurbishing is the process of restoring a product to its original condition without any modifications so that the product meets the original functional requirement. Recycling is the process of breaking down the used product into basic constituent parts and then using the constituent parts in manufacturing new products. Cannibalization or part harvesting is the process in which only the reusable quality module or parts are retained and subsequently reassembled into products. The selection of the recovery process is primarily driven by the condition or quality of the product returns. The quality of returned product depends on the product usage habit of consumers. Hence, identification of variables which can be used to obtain used product from consumers would be of use to the manufacturers for profitable product recovery or alternatively cost-saving in the process.

Supply Chain Management Journal, Product Recovery Management (PRM), Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), Product Life Cycle (PLC), Consumer Behavior (CB), Consumers, Product Returns, Reverse Supply Chain, Literature Review.