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External Article information:
Defining Warehousing's Role in Reverse Logistics
By Julia Kuzeljevich
Canadian Transportation and Logistics - www.ctl.ca
Quick Review by Paul Rupnow:
A very good article outlining some of the excellent
research and findings of James Stock, Professor of Marketing and
Logistics at the University of South Florida.
Some highlights, benchmarks and best practices:
Shorter
product life cycles require a faster ROI from all systems and processes
of a company or supply chain. For example, PC's have a marketing life
of 26 weeks, semiconductors 9 months.
the cost of processing a
return can be 2-3 times that of an outbound shipment, and handling
costs associated with returns can reach $50 per item
consider that some 37 % of online buyers and 54 % of online browsers
were deterred from buying online because of online and exchange
processes that were too difficult.
The warehouse's most important role in reverse logistics strategies is
to function as a centralized processing point, receiving product
returns (in some instances cross-docking comes into play), transferring
or putting away of items, handling disposition of saleable and
unsaleable items, storage (both dedicated and random), and handling
works-in-progress such as refurbishing or remanufacturing, packaging or
repackaging activities.
"There's some easy things that can be done, but what about layout,
storage, racking, conveyor systems, staff training?" asks Stock. Using
technology to track and monitor product returns (bar coding,
computerized return tracking, radio frequency, EDI, Internet is also
vitally important, since a warehouse can ideally provide notification
to transportation carriers and other third-parties, posting of info on
web-based sites, and eventually adjustments to financial accounts such
as inventory, accounts receivable, sales revenues, etc.
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