The introduction of RL, as a counterpart of traditional logistics, complements the integrity of GL (Lee and Lam, 2012). The collection, examination and disposal of used products are the typical moves of reverse logistics as shown in Fig. 5. Depending on the results of quality checking, the collected products can be directly reused by customers, repaired in distribution centers, remanufactured by manufacturers or recycled by suppliers to fully utilize the remaining value (Fleischmann et al., 1997 and Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 2001). Another research direction of RL is the comparative study of forward logistics, either the separation from forward logistics or the integration with forward and backward logistics by considering the similarities and differences between them (Marsillac, 2008).