MANAGERIAL ISSUES IN CLOSING THE LOOP

The consequences for corporations striving to meet the new requirements of ‘closing the loop’ are investigated. An integrated managerial framework is developed to manage products over their complete life cycle. Effectively managing systems for ‘closing the loop’ requires a careful examination of the complex web of markets, government regulations, consumer behavior, supplier relationships and their impact on the value chain of an individual corporation. The underlying assumption is that developing a systematic framework of managerial issues for managing products over their complete life cycle is necessary to cope with the increased complexity caused by the tools related to ‘closing the loop’. Although managerial issues are the focus in this paper, this does not imply that changing consumer behavior or a more incentive and innovation oriented regulatory approach are not of importance. Without such an approach only a few pioneers will follow a closed loop system.