Sometimes it’s easy to overlook that your distribution center is called upon to operate as a two-way street: Product heads out in one direction, but it also can shift into reverse and come back to you.

One of the biggest problems with this boomerang effect is the time it takes for distribution centers to figure out what to do with returned goods. After all, the primary goal is to get goods out of the door.

Hence, reverse logistics.

As fast as you can ship out a product, it can be headed right back to you. The better prepared you are to handle such situations, the more smoothly your distribution center will function.

The fact that many businesses are willing to pay someone else to take care of this tells you it’s a valuable service. And if someone’s willing to pay an outsider to come in and do it, why not do it yourself and save the money?

Time is the single greatest enemy to handling reverse logistics. Processes grind to a halt and distribution center employees are forced to research and make decisions for each item or product that comes back in your door.

There’s a two-step solution for this:

• Identify the categories/reasons for return, and
• Have a plan in place for how to deal with each category.

There are seven core reasons for returns:

• manufacturing problem
• service problem
• recalls
• end-of-life
• obsolete
• end-of-use
• problem under warranty

Once you’ve determined the core cause for return, it’s easier to drop it into one of six “asset recovery disposition” buckets:

• restock to resell
• refurbish
• destroy
• repackage to resell
• sell to secondary market, and
• return to manufacturer.

Once your distribution center has developed working criteria for each disposition, it’s much easier for any staffer to handle returns.

You’ll save time, decrease frustration, and get returned goods on the way to where they’re supposed to be.

Tags: distribution center, logistics, recalls, returns