Abstract: It is rarely known that the reverse logistics quantity in supermarket chain distribution center extraordinary takes up a large number of inventory space and capital cost. In this paper the causes of reverse logistics quantity in supermarket chain distribution center constituted by five categories returns——commercial return, terminal return, repair return, packaging return and production return are thoroughly analyzed; and the calculation model of the reverse logistics quantity in supermarket chain distribution center, which predicts on the coefficient of exponential smoothing and includes amplification factors, such as trend smooth coefficient, seasonal smoothing coefficient, return rate, damage rate, defect rate and so on, is built up and its inventory cost calculating model of reverse logistics quantity in supermarket chain distribution center is further deduced. Then, through the numerical example the reverse logistics quantity and its inventory cost in supermarket chain distribution center are calculated and the degree of influence of the reverse logistics inventory cost under different parameters is illustrated, and then the validity and practicability of the model are demonstrated. The ways to reduce the inventory cost of reverse logistics quantity in supermarket chain distribution center are given.

Key words: supermarket chain, distribution center, reverse logistics quantity, inventory cost, model