Cisco Networking, Telecommunication, and Mobile Technologies
Cisco Systems is a leading global company in networking technology for the internet. The company was founded back in 1984. As of 6th June 2020, the company boasts of a market cap of 202 billion. Cisco Systems operates in the networking hardware and networking software industry sectors. These involve telecommunication, networking, and mobile technology.
Telecommunications technology refers to signals transmission over some distance for communication. Telecommunications in modern times involves the use of electromagnetic waves by receivers and transmitter (Giri, Chakraborty, & Maiti, 2017). In the olden days, it involved the use of visual signals like smoke and the use of drums. Examples of telecommunications networks include Radio Networks, Television networks, and computer networks like the internet, Ethernet, and wireless networks. On the other hand, networking refers to the process of interconnecting two or more devices to a single system called server. Examples of networking technology include LAN, WAN, and WLAN.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Mobile technology refers to the technology adopted for cellular communication. It has transformed over the year with a simple general mobile device moving from pager to a smartphone, GPS navigation device, an instant messaging client, to web browser communication and gaming devices.
Cisco Product Recall
A product recall refers to a customer’s request to return a product to the company after they discover a problem with the product like safety problems, product defects endangering their lives, or when a product is risking maker/seller of legal consequences. Cisco Systems strives to bring high-quality products to the market to ensure that its high-end and premium market products perform as intended. However, problems and mismatches do occur, probing for the need for a recall. When there is a mismatch, Cisco moves quickly and efficiently to correct the situation because defective products can easily ruin the brand name or cause reputation problems (Partridge, 2011). Therefore, product recalls are the approaches through which a company obtains defective products back from the customer to repair or replace the product. For networking and telecommunications companies like Cisco, recalls also involve the need to deal with waste products; that is, after a networking system is utilized, it needs to be reused, recycled, or sold back for some value. Most of the time, recalls are a continuous process and calls for a properly implemented reverse logistics to ensure seamless flow of the items across the chain to the appropriate destination.
Cisco Systems Reverse Supply Chain Logistics
The Cisco Systems logistics is global and highly extensive and diverse. The company has over 320 categories of products, with an array of gear aimed at a spectrum of clientele with a wide array of views, fulfillment, and expectations. Most of the company products adopt a CTO production framework (configure-to-order). CTO refers to a model where the products are developed about confirmed client orders. A wider percentage of the company growth originates from acquisitions, and these acquisitions also bring along their unique supply chain processes and requirements that have to be integrated into the Cisco primary operations. Besides the over 1,100 Cisco suppliers across the globe, together with the logistics and production partners, the Cisco supply chain constitutes 4 BTS sites, 16 CTO manufacturing sites, eight strategic logistics centers, and more than 26,000 orderable product IDs (PIDs) and millions of annual shipments.
Cisco Systems reverse logistics' objective is to recover the company’s products back from the distributors or customers and redeploy then in a manner that brings the best value back to Cisco. This reverse system's primary objective is to create a scalable, consistent, and global end-to-end system and process for inbound logistics and receiving though fulfillment and disposition. The Cisco reverse supply chain's core drivers are achieving a lower product return rate after it is booked, protecting the company brand, and building a new customer base.
Figure 1: CISCO Supply Chain
The primary challenges Cisco systems reverse chain systems experiences include the need to have a short-time product return, the evolving business model that keeps on changing, and the need to bring in new reverse logistics partners once in a while. Another major challenge is the ERM software used that also needs to be tailored continuously to meet the changing needs of the business.
To solve these challenges, CISCO has installed an ERP service software to solve the problem gaps in its oracle software functionality. The company was also forced to create a unique and new reverse logistics route so that in the company function supply chain is not burdened with a load of dealing with returns or rejections (Govindan, Soleimani, & Kannan, 2015). Having implemented a reverse logistics route that does not collide with the original supply chain, the company is in a position to deal with the marginal time value n correcting the customer complaint and returns the corrected items to the customer over a very short period.
The benefits of a reverse supply chain system to CISCO include the ability to recycle the products through Green Initiative, to attract new customers, reduce the cost of the transaction, and enhanced the process of product reuse.
Figure 2: CISCO Reverse Logistics Interactions
The CISCO reverse logistics systems, as can be seen in figure 2, allows the customer to return the product through a CISCO reverse logistics partner. Once the product is refurbished, it is returned to the client through hair shipping ( Partridge, 2011) . At the core of the system is the Cisco Oracle ERP system that handles the customer interface, shipping monitoring, and confirmations, requisition request responses, and receipts.
References
Giri, B. C., Chakraborty, A., & Maiti, T. (2017). Pricing and return product collection
decisions in a closed-loop supply chain with dual-channel in both forward and reverse logistics. Journal of manufacturing systems , 42 , 104-123.
Govindan, K., Soleimani, H., & Kannan, D. (2015). Reverse logistics and closed-loop supply
chain: A comprehensive review to explore the future. European Journal of Operational Research , 240 (3), 603-626.
Partridge, A. R. (2011). Full circle: reverse logistics keeps products green to the end. Inbound
Logistics , 31 (6).
