Service organizations have traditionally shown much more enthusiasm for investing in their product shipping and handling processes than for managing the return and repair of damaged goods. This is changing as companies realize that the handling of returns may be a hidden opportunity to drive more profits to their bottom line, regardless of the disposal of returned goods: repair, refurbishment, disposal/recycling and remarketing.
A true "reverse logistics" or "reverse service chain" process is a complicated cycle that involves each of the following critical functions.
- Logistics: authorizing returns, recovering, sorting, testing, restocking, reshipping, and disposition
- Depot repair: repairing, remanufacturing, reconfiguring
- Sales/marketing: remarketing refurbished products and parts for resale through liquidation or adjacent channels
- Finance: validating in-warranty repairs and recovering appropriate costs from suppliers
- Customer service: receiving in-bound customer calls and ensuring compliance with service contract commitments
- Channel management: selecting, measuring, monitoring, tracking, and evaluating the performance of reverse logistics channel partners
Putting the processes in place that will establish and manage all the affected sectors is not for the faint of heart. It will require investment in technology such as warehouse management, service parts management and forecasting, transportation management, warranty management. We can help with all of these areas, so enter your information below to request a WMS demo.
Request a custom WMS demo to learn how handling RMA's properly can help you improve your bottom line
