The reverse logistics process involves managing returns and buying surplus goods and materials. The process is also responsible for dealing with any leases or refurbishments. Reverse logistics vary across different industries, and there are different economic incentives for improving reverse logistics management.
The different types of reverse logistics are also known as reverse logistics components. They focus on returns management and return policies and procedures (RPP) and account for remanufacturing, packaging, unsold goods and delivery issues. Other types of reverse logistics account for leases, repairs and product retirement.
Reverse logistics provide another critical opportunity for supply chain optimization. Supply chain management accounts for the reverse and forward flow of goods, and a surge of returns can drive up supply chain costs, harming profitability.
There are five key reverse logistics-focused supply chain metrics that will help increase asset recovery. Supply chain analytics can help management make data-driven decisions at all steps of the supply chain.
Businesses often quickly experience the challenges of reverse logistics, such as capacity management, customer expectations, waste management, and more. These challenges were often too grand to build a reliable reverse logistics process due to limitations with logistics warehouse systems and ineffective tech stacks.
Another reason for the increase in the popularity of reverse logistics management is the rise of substantial technological solutions and innovations, such as the IOT and drones or autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs or drones). These reverse logistics e-commerce solutions allow SMEs to overcome the challenges that come with effectively managing a reverse Logistics process.
Global technology continues to develop, but nonrenewable energy sources are becoming less and less, which makes people begin to pay attention to sustainable development. Feris tried to make good management decisions at the environmental level. He understood and explained the relationship between environmental management and sustainable development in South Africa. The report critiqued recent cases and sought to understand how Chinese courts evaluate environmental decision-making [1]. Multinational corporations play a pivotal role in achieving the sustainable development goals. Kolk et al. explored their behavior in implementing SDGs. He reviewed the positive and negative impacts of human beings on the prosperity and peace of the Earth as determined by the United Nations 2030 Agenda and summarized 61 related research results. The result was that the number of positive impacts is greater than the number of negative impacts, but the negative impacts may bring about insecurity on the Earth [2]. Sustainability issues are increasingly the focus of global organizations and stakeholders. In this context, eco-efficiency has become a means of constant transformation into sustainable development. Caiado et al. systematically reviewed sustainable development issues from the perspective of eco-efficiency and used knowledge of the knowledge development process to identify and construct the latest eco-efficiency and sustainable development technologies. A statistical analysis of the selected BPs was carried out, and a thematic synthesis was carried out, combining ecological benefits and sustainable development with other approaches [3]. Plessis and Rautenbach offered several legal perspectives on sustainable development issues. Taking sustainable development as an environmental concept, in the living space, a specific concept and culture can be better integrated into the formula of sustainable development. The study found that in the context of sustainable development, the fluidity and importance of culture need to be differentiated from the role of culture and the role played in sustainable development [4]. The issue of sustainable development has attracted the attention of scholars around the world. In sustainable development, some of them have discussed the issue of green reverse logistics.
Good management of reverse logistics can promote the sustainable development of the economy [9]. Among the many activities of reverse logistics, the most important is the management of customer returns. For reverse logistics in the field of circulation, the following methods can be taken to reduce the amount of commodity recycling as much as possible. First, a recycling logistics system can be established in the whole supply chain. The management of reverse logistics should start by preventing the backwardness (that is, returning) of products. As long as the logistics company can make strategic demands on each employee, it can prevent (or reduce) the backwardness of certain products. Second, it is necessary to establish the disassembly-oriented design idea. That is, in the design of the product, the reprocessing and reuse of the product should be fully considered.
Reverse logistics is a relatively new field in the management of supply chain in Singapore. The business is growing in the Asia-pacific region and Singapore is thus a major hub of reverse logistics in Asia. The chart below illustrates the current trends of reverse logistics are depicted below.
Return management is a dominant process in the supply chain that keeps in check tasks affiliated to product returns such as gatekeeping, avoidance, and reverse logistics. The fourth R denotes remarketing, which entails the action undertaken by a company by reintroducing a given product or service as a way to respond to declining sales.
Recycling is done to provide secure asset management services to the initial electronic equipment manufacturers. The systematic approach to managing end life of electronic products ensures overall accountability by the business, thus encouraging environmental responsibility and data security. Returns management enables the manufacturer to spot opportunities that reduce unnecessary product returns coupled with controlling the reusable assets. Additionally, return management aids in effective control of the reverse product flow.
Reverse logistics is an important aspect of every organization. Product life entails the life initiation, growth, maturity, and the decline stages. The 4Rs involved in reverse logistics are the remarketing, refurbishment, recycling, and return management. Some of the future recommendations in reverse logistics include business product outsourcing, collaboration among manufacturers, and cross-border enablement.
Reverse logistics encompasses all operations related to the upstream movement of products and materials.[1] It is "the process of moving goods from their typical final destination for the purpose of capturing value, or proper disposal. Remanufacturing and refurbishing activities also may be included in the definition of reverse logistics."[2] Growing green concerns and advancement of green supply chain management concepts and practices make it all the more relevant.[3] The number of publications on the topic of reverse logistics have increased significantly over the past two decades. The first use of the term "reverse logistics" in a publication was by James R. Stock in a White Paper titled "Reverse Logistics," published by the Council of Logistics Management in 1992.[4] The concept was further refined in subsequent publications by Stock (1998) in another Council of Logistics Management book, titled Development and Implementation of Reverse Logistics Programs,[5] and by Rogers and Tibben-Lembke (1999) in a book published by the Reverse Logistics Association titled Going Backwards: Reverse Logistics Trends and Practices.[6] The reverse logistics process includes the management and the sale of surplus as well as returned equipment and machines from the hardware leasing business. Normally, logistics deal with events that bring the product towards the customer. In the case of reverse logistics, the resource goes at least one step back in the supply chain. For instance, goods move from the customer to the distributor or to the manufacturer.[7]
When a manufacturer's product normally moves through the supply chain network, it is to reach the distributor or customer. Any process or management after the delivery of the product involves reverse logistics. If the product is defective, the customer would return the product. The manufacturing firm would then have to organise shipping of the defective product, testing the product, dismantling, repairing, recycling or disposing the product. The product would travel in reverse through the supply chain network in order to retain any use from the defective product. The logistics for such matters is reverse logistics.[citation needed]
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