The role and value of information for supply loop management: Framework and application for the end-of-life cell phone industry

Good decision making regarding product end-of-life management requires information from different life cycle stages. If information is missing or not accessible when needed by the decision maker, it can affect the performance of the entire supply loop. In this paper we investigate the role and value of information for supply loop management. We introduce a generic evaluation method to assess the value of information and apply it to the example of cell phones. Our results suggest that information can have high value and plays an important role affecting the economic and environmental performance of supply loops. However, the potential value of information is realized only if the relevant supply loop members are willing and able to use it for improved decision making. Our evaluation method can be used as a tool to determine what information is most valuable based on its effect on the performance.