Most companies have had to come up with a returns process because of pressure from consumers and meeting the environmental standards. The first step is always product acquisition or retrieving the used product. The timing, quality, and quantity of the returned product should be carefully managed. If the companies do not manage their returns, they may end up being flooded with various products of different quality that remanufacturing may become an impossible task ( Qiang et al., 2013) . It is a process that involves the company, distributors, and retailers.
The second step is reverse logistics. After the returned products are collected, they should be transported back to the warehouse or facilities for inspection, differentiation, and disposition. There is no perfect process for a reverse logistics network. Each network should be designed to meet the needs of the different products that are involved to ensure they are available for reuse ( Dekker et al., 2013) . For instance, fragile products such as cameras may require very different handling from bulky goods such as tires. The affected companies should evaluate the shipping and storage cost. Moreover, they should also consider the depreciation or how quickly the returned goods and products will decline. Some companies outsource the management of returned goods to a specialist.
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The third step is inspection and disposition. The returned goods should be tested, sorted and graded. It is always a time consuming and labor intensive process. However, the procedure may be streamlined if the company decides to subject the returned goods to quality standards. The quality standards may use barcodes, sensors, or any other technology that will automate the testing and tracking. All in all, the company should make the best decisions based on product configuration and quality. The quality testing should be made at the earliest stages of the process to eliminate additional costs and facilitate the returning of the remanufactured goods back to the market.
The next stage is reconditioning. The business may decide to capture value by either extracting or reconditioning the individual components for reuse or by entirely remanufacturing the returned goods for resale. Remanufacturing and reconditioning processes may be less predictable than the conventional or traditional manufacturing due to the large degree of uncertainty in the quality and timing of the returned goods ( Dekker et al., 2013) . Therefore, smart decisions are vital in the early stages of the process when accepting and sorting returns because they assist in minimizing manufacturing variability and costs.
The final stage is distribution and sales. If the business intends to sell recycled goods, they should first determine whether demand exists or a market should be created for reused goods. If there is no market, the business should be prepared to make huge investments especially in consumer education and other marketing efforts. The potential clients for the recycled products may not just be the original consumers but also new customers existing in the different markets. For instance, the business may decide to target the clients who are unable to purchase the new products but are willing to buy the recycled products at reduced prices.
For companies that have an efficient returns process in the closed loop system, their forward supply chains should be closely coordinated to eliminate waste and minimize costs. For instance, they should make manufacturing decisions and product designs while foreseeing reconditioning and recycling. One of the companies with an efficient returns process is Bosch that builds sensors within their motors to determine whether the motor can be reconditioned. The new technology assisted them to drastically minimize disposition and inspection costs thus allowing the business to make good profits on the sale of remanufactured goods ( Dekker et al., 2013) .
References
Dekker, R., Fleischmann, M., Inderfurth, K., & van Wassenhove, L. N. (Eds.). (2013). Reverse logistics: quantitative models for closed-loop supply chains . Springer Science & Business Media.
Qiang, Q., Ke, K., Anderson, T., & Dong, J. (2013). The closed-loop supply chain network with competition, distribution channel investment, and uncertainties. Omega , 41 (2), 186-194.
