| dc.description.abstract | With the increasing effects of drastic climate changes and fuel shortage caused by global warning, the photovoltaic (PV) industry has become the most rapid-growing and clean energy industry around the world. Because photovoltaic facilities are high-tech products, the chemical materials used in these systems pose a threat to our lives and need a large space for storage. Besides, these facilities may become efficient or reach the end of their lifetime one day. How to handle inefficient facilities and their waste products is also a problem. In modern days, businesses have to integrate reverse logistics into waste handling according to environmental changes and laws. Evaluation of optimal resolutions of reverse logistics has therefore become an important issue for the PV industry. Due to the complicated nature of this industry and the processes of reverse logistics, the relevance of the optimal solution to the industry’s structure is also of high importance. Therefore, this study first built a 3x3 evaluation matrix that integrates supply chain and reverse logistics of the PV industry to find solutions of handling of inefficient hardware and waste. Later, in order to find an optimal solution of reverse logistics, this study obtained 20 key factors affecting implementation of reverse logistics and developed a reverse logistics evaluation model for this industry based on convergence of findings from previous literature, Delphi method, expert interview, and quartile deviation. Finally, this study estimated the weight and ranking of each factor using network analysis to derive the optimal solution. The 3x3 evaluation matrix suggested that upstream firms in the PV industry handled reverse logistics by themselves, while midstream and downstream firms tended to outsource these tasks to other firms. This study further analyzed correlations in the matrix using Spearman Rank Correlation. The results could be divided into three groups: (1) collection, inspection, and preprocessing in the upstream, (2) collection and inspection in the midstream and downstream, and (3) preprocessing in the midstream and downstream. The first group showed that due to the high cost of raw materials, upstream firms can use recycling technologies to extract raw or other useful materials from inefficient facilities. This action could reduce their cost of raw materials and even bring them high profits. The second group indicated midstream and downstream firms in the PV industry were mainly responsible for production and assembly of peripheral modules. For them, recycling and reusing products from inefficient facilities is not cost-effective and profitable at all. Besides, collection and inspection operations require more transport and labor costs and obviously cannot help them reduce cost and increase profits effectively. Therefore, midstream and downstream firms in this industry should outsource waste handling operations and sell waste to recycling firms. This action can result in a cost reduction and even a profit increase. The third group was based on the same reason. The output value of recycling for midstream and downstream firms is low, so outsourcing is the optimal solution for them. However, waste preprocessing is more complicated than collection and inspection and requires higher technical, hardware, and opportunity costs. Hence, midstream and downstream firms should outsource preprocessing operations for the purpose of cost reduction. | en_US |