Reverse logistics and the return portion of the supply chain is often an overlooked and mismanaged process. Companies tend to focus their efforts on the forward portion of supply chain management, while failing to take advantage of the many opportunities that reverse logistics presents (Benton, 2007). What these companies do not realize is that the effective management of reverse logistics has the potential to make them more profitable, and to add value to many other parts of their supply chain. In the case of Johnson Automotive, we will analyze their current supply chain processes to determine their effectiveness while answering the following questions:
1. What is reverse logistics?
2. What are the key elements of reverse logistics in the automotive industry?
3. How can Johnson optimize its reverse logistics channel?
What Is Reverse Logistics?
The Reverse Logistics Association (2008) defines reverse logistics as “all activity associated with a product/service after the point of sale, the ultimate goal to optimize or make more efficient aftermarket activity, thus saving money and environmental resources”. Because all of these processes take place post-sale, this portion of the company’s activities could simply be viewed as a cost center. This could not be further from the truth. The objective of any intelligent business manager should be to optimize all activities and ensure that the maximum value is achieved for every Dollar that is spent by the company.
Some of the activities associated with reverse logistics are remanufacturing, recycling, reconditioning, warranty management, call-center management, and transportation.
The main goal of reverse logistics is to facilitate these activities in a manner that helps the company to meet its corporate objectives.
That is why the design of the reverse supply chain processes is so important. Every company needs specific processes that are aimed at increasing value for the company and its customers based on the type of industry in which it operates and the type of products that it supplies.
The major stumbling block for most companies that are attempting to optimize their return supply chain is the chaotic nature of reverse logistics. Volume within the return supply chain is highly variable and difficult to predict or control (O’Reilly, 2005). In addition, returning the product in a timely manner is often not of major importance to the end users and retailers. Therefore, any processes that rely on the availability of cores or supplies will have to be flexible enough to handle variations in supply.
...dustrial Distribution allows me to pursue my interests in both Business and Engineering, and therefore I chose that major. Also, it will help me to build my personal characteristics that will make me successful in this major. As my education continues, I look forward to learning how manufacturers and distributors maintain good communication and relations, so that the products can be distributed efficiently and avoid problems. If there are problems, I would also like to comprehend ways to solve those problems. In the future, I hope to work for a company such as Amazon, Dell, or Boeing in the field of logistics. These companies depend on logistics in planning and conducting their operations. Since logistics and relations between manufacturer and distributor are critical to the everyday operations of businesses, understanding this will help me in my future endeavors.
Those activities can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary activities. Primary activities are inbound logistics, operations, sales and marketing, customer service, and outbound logistics. Inbound logistics include receiving and storing materials or distribution to production, operations transform inputs intro finished products, outbound logistics includes storing, and distributing finished products, sales and marketing deal with promoting and selling the firm’s products. Secondary activates consist of administration, human resources, technology, and procurement. Supply chain management systems coordinate the flow of resources into the firm, and make the primary activities
Reverse Logistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal. It is the process of returning goods from consumers back to suppliers. Also comprises of sending new or used products backup stream for repair, remanufacturing, reusing, recycling and refurbishing activities.
The aim of the value chain structure is to maximize the value creation while minimizing costs. Value Chain Analysis is a useful tool for working out how you can create the greatest possible value for your customers. Value chain analysis relies on the rudimentary economic principle of competitive advantage -companies are best served by operating in divisions where they have a relative prolific benefit compared to their competitors. Concomitantly, companies should ask themselves where they can deliver the paramount value to their customer. To conduct a value chain analysis, the company begins by identifying each part of its production process and recognizing where steps can be purged or enhancements can be made. These improvements can result
The global supply chain variability is causing customer delivery delayed by around 40% and also experiencing quality problems that is introduced by the humidity difference between the locations of Chinese manufacturing plants. Moreover, it is taking much longer to deliver products, and the spare parts preventing any timely customer services. The goal is to come up with a faster product delivery and product cycle employing strategic and tactical changes that might improve supply chain problem and address the quality and increase customer
Coyle, J., Langley, C., Gibson, B., Novack, R. and Bardi, E. (2008).Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective. 8th ed. Cengage Learning, p.366.
Inventory management is a method through which a business handles tangible resources and materials to ensure availability of resources for use. It is a collection of interdisciplinary processes including a full circle of the demand forecasting, supply chain management, inventory control and reverse logistics. Inventory management is the optimization of inventories of manufactured goods, work in progress, and raw materials. According to Doucette (2001) inventory management can be challenging at times; however, the need for effective inventory management is largely seen more as a necessity than a mere trend when customer satisfaction and service have become a prime reason for a business to stand apart from its competition. For example, Wal-Mart’s inventory management is one of the biggest contributors to the success of the company; effective and efficient inventory management is of critical importance.
All four subdivisions will involve all the fourteen (14) logistics activities identified by Stock and Lambert (2000) although not to the same extents. They would have to forecast demand, procure materials, store them, handle and control inventory, package and transport them to designated locations and service customers.
Reverse logistics has become an increasing concern for many companies over the last decade. It is the process of the movement of goods, moving in the opposite direction, such as from the customer to the business. Some important processes involved are the physical movement of goods, customer support, warehousing and repair. Reverse logistics handles the issue of handling resources effectively. Rogers and Tibben-Lembke (1999) defines reverse logistics as the ‘process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal’. This definition is seen to...
As part of curriculum of the Graduate Degree at Chitkara University, Rajpura , students are required to do a project in any reputed organization. For this reason, I did my project research in Safe Express,Chandigarh. The project work was titled “Global scenario of logistics & supply chain” & to suggest ways & means to improve the management strategic decisions.
There are four approaches that an organization can choose from to analyze logistics systems. These are namely: materials management versus physical distributions, cost centers, nodes and links, and logistics channels.
Integrative strategy development is essential to successful integration of a supply chain. There are many components of an integrative strategy first a company must determine its objectives and strategic goals. These named objectives must be a focused few, with associated metrics. After a company has established its objectives, cross-functional business objectives must be established. With the establishment of cross-functional objectives, the associated team must be brought ...
Robinson (2014) explained that reverse logistics stand for all operations related to the reuse of products and materials. It is the process of capturing product lifecycle end value and properly disposal. Reverse flow or logistics could increase aftermarket customer satisfaction, reduce overall costs and effectively maximize recovery assets
By adopting the value chain into a manufacturing company, it will gain efficiency, effectiveness, reduce the product cost and improve continuously. For example, Toyota has implemented Toyota Product System (TPS) integrated information system with the business process which allowed the company to be more efficiency, effectiveness and reduce inventory cost. (Toyota
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