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Generally, the transportation of cargo plays a vital role in effective supply chain management. For the safe transportation of the goods, the Returnable Containers (RCs) are provided by the container management organization to the consignee as rental basis. Unfortunately, some of the RCs are returned as delay in time for some situations. This study explores a situation of container management organization that unexpected delay of empty containers and then suggests a restoring strategy for shortfall units. As a strategy of restoring the shortfall units, this research considers the leasing option instead of buying the new RCs. This paper examines the container inventory model with the consideration of the delayed return of containers under the fuzzy arena. Because the container's return rate is unpredictable and uncertain, the container inventory model is formulating under fuzzy environment. This research describes a container inventory model with price-sensitive demand. In this model, the container return rate as well as the proportion of repairable from received RCs as Triangular Fuzzy Numbers (TFNs). The optimal duration of inspection of the container and the optimal duration of the lease of an RC are obtained. The expected total cost using the fuzzy return rate and the fuzzy proportion of repairable RCs is computed. The container inventory model under fuzzy arena is proposed to attain the approximate outcome for the unpredictable and uncertain parameters. The impact of the fuzzy proportion of retuned RCs, fuzzy reparable from received RCs, and the changes in some parameters on optimal solutions are performed in the sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating market demand for a product is essential to business growth; yet, it is exceedingly difficult. This article considers various demand patterns for a single product in a three-echelon supply chain where a single supplier, a single manufacturer and a single retailer are involved. A robust inspection process is considered at the manufacturer's end to deliver a high-quality product to the retailer. The backorder strategy is incorporated to enhance the company's trust and reputation among consumers. The major idea of this research is to analyze the nature of the product's demand in three distinct situations, as well as the benefits of implementing the backorder technique. Three cases are analyzed on the basis of different demand patterns, in which the demand rate is assumed to be constant (i.e., deterministic), price-dependent and fuzzy in the first, second and third cases, respectively. To verify this model, numerical examples are tested independently with identical information for each case and owing to the complexity of the objective function; a genetic algorithm is employed to obtain the best solution. Finally, sensitivity analysis, managerial insights and conclusions, including the future directions, are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]