A large number of organizations that offer products today are experiencing returns; whether it is the return of a book from an online book store, the return of a television to the electronic retailer or a garment to a fashion retailer. How organizations handle product returns (reverse logistics) differs and also how much focuses each organization places on it, be-cause after all; it is extremely difficult to actually make revenue on reverse logistics. Why spend time and money on it? This study focuses on comparing an electronic and a fashion organization, how they both are conducting reverse logistics in regards to e-commerce. This is of interest to examine and add to the literature based on research focusing on a comparison between two organizations of a different nature in terms of their reverse logistics. Furthermore, it was of interest to study how each organization operates internally. For example, what are the barriers and drivers of reverse logistics, do they work proactively or reactively and what is the focus in regards to recycling of products? A case study research strategy was applied with an inductive approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with each organization where qualitative data was gathered. Secondary data was collected from literature sources such as academic journals and books. Data was analysed in order to structure the large amount of data to be able to compare the two organizations and draw conclusions. From analysing the data it is concluded that both the electronic and the fashion retailer are experiencing a great amount of returns, which generally follows the sales trend. Furthermore, the two organizations are similar in several aspects regarding reverse logistics although they are selling different products. One of the main drivers for both organizations in regards to reverse logistics is satisfying their customers. Finally, one of the main barriers for each organization was the costs that play a major role in reverse logistics. Overall, the study shows that it greatly depends on the nature of the products how reverse logistics processes are handled in the organization.

The application of innovative methods to diminish the amount of human creation called “waste” should be applied not only under commercial terms, but also under the humanitarian concept. Negative results of focusing only on the fastest relief of human suffer without attending the consequences of the flow of items left on the disaster zones, could bring in the medium term, critical environmental consequences, due to the creation of new waste. This research analyzes relevant approaches of the Humanitarian Relief of Aid under a Humanitarian Logistics point of view. It aims to find if those approaches have already a Reverse Logistic phase of the items provided by donors. The results demonstrate the absence of a Reverse Logistics Phase for items brought to disaster zones. Thus, some proposals were suggested for a new Reverse Logistic Phase in any humanitarian relief of aid. NGOs, donors participation, coordination among players on the scene, managing inventories, last mile distribution, performance measurement, relief of aid models,  and reverse logistics concepts applied to the humanitarian field would be only some of the themes revised on this research. These aim to enrich the readers’ knowledge on the topic as well as to provide an open panorama of the humanitarian actions employed in each Natural Disaster. The reader would acquire sufficient understanding to determine how feasible and reachable are the alternatives proposed by the authors. The relevance of this theme reveals a critical and not yet researched niche in Reverse Logistics under Humanitarian Logistics. It encourages more readers to research on it, explore and apply in future natural disasters. This research used a qualitative approach employing a semi-structured interview made to small and large humanitarian organizations.

Titel: Waste Management – Förbättringsförslag av återvinningsprocessen inom hemelektronikbranschen. Bakgrund: I en bransch som kännetecknas av snabb teknologisk utveckling är det viktigt att se till att de produkter som kommer ut på marknaden också tas om hand på ett bra sätt i slutet av sitt funktionella liv. Hur ser återvinningsprocessen hos företagen ut idag och vad kan göras för att minska de växande problem som framkommer i samband med den ökade konsumtionen? Genom att granska fenomenet Waste Management avser uppsatsen angripa slöseri i logistikflödet och finna förbättringar av dagens återvinningsprocess av uttjänta hemelektronikprodukter. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att kartlägga återvinningsprocessen inom branschen för hemelektronik i syfte att identifiera potentiella förbättringsåtgärder med det samhällsekonomiska målet att uppnå ett större returflöde i logistiksystemet ur ett företagsperspektiv. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod som gjorts baserat på en flerfallsstudie. Primärdata har samlats in genom semi-strukturerade besöksintervjuer och asynkrona individuella intervjuer online utifrån ett bekvämlighetsurval. Studien intar ett positivistiskt synsätt och det vetenskapliga angreppssättet är abduktivt. Analysen utgörs enligt en mönsterjämförelse med avseende på produkttyper, kompensation och information till kund. Slutsats: Författarna kommer efter analys av funktionsflödesschema och mönsterjämförelse fram till ett antal punkter för förbättring vilka kan leda till ökad andel återvunna EOL-produkter. Dessa är; införande av ett fast returcenter, omhändertagande av ett större produktsortiment, föra statistik över returer, tydligare information till kund och kompensation för inlämnade produkter. Författarna kommer även fram till att det råder stora skillnader i hur man i dagsläget arbetar med Waste Management inom de olika företagen, där vissa företag är mer ambitiösa än andra. Företagen har mycket att lära av varandra och inom samtliga studerade företag finns något att förbättra.

Bakgrund och problem: Returlogistik har hitintills varit ett oprioriterat område både inom akademin och i näringslivet, men har på senare tid fått allt mer uppmärksamhet. Många företag arbetar med returflöden eftersom flöden tillbaka från kund förekommer i de flesta branscher, men det är inte något som företag fokuserar på i samma utsträckning som de traditionella materialflödena. Att skapa ett effektivt materialflöde i försörjningskedjan är ingen enkel uppgift, vilket även i allra högsta grad gäller för utformningen av returflödet. Hanteringsprocessen är en viktig del av returlogistiken där varje returprocess kan skilja sig beroende på typ av produkt och hur en organisation ser ut i övrigt. För många företag krävs en lyckad hanteringsprocess för att skapa ett hållbart miljöarbete och lönsamhet i verksamheten. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur en effektiv hanteringsprocess kan uppnås genom att granska dess krav och förutsättningar samt ta reda på vilka fördelar det kan generera. Genom att utgå från det teoretiska ramverket för vald studie skapas en större förståelse på vilka aktiviteter som ligger i fokus i studien. Med hjälp av figurer och tabeller belyses de krav och förutsättning och uppnådda fördelar inom respektive returprocess som krävs för en effektiv hanteringsprocess. Avgränsningar: Uppsatsen avgränsar sig till hanteringsprocessen inom returlogistik. Vi har alltså valt att avgränsa oss genom att inte beskriva vare sig transporteringen eller insamlingen av returprodukterna. Metod: Studien är baserad på intervjuer som genomförts på de fem företagen: Elgiganten, Skövde Radio och TV-service, Galdax, Skrotfrag och Cementa. Vidare analyseras resultaten av den insamlade empirin med uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk. Slutsatser: Det finns flera anledningar till varför företag bör arbeta aktivt med hanteringsprocessen, detta på grund av de fördelar som kan uppnås genom en effektiv hanteringsprocess. I teorin nämns ett flertal krav och förutsättningar för en effektiv hanteringsprocess, där studien visar att endast en minoritet av dessa verkligen implementeras av företagen. För att uppnå en effektiv hanteringsprocess inom returlogistiken måste företag bli bättre på att uppfylla de krav och förutsättningar som krävs i strävan mot de fördelar som kan genereras. Förslag till vidare forskning: Då hanteringsprocessen inom returlogistik fortfarande är ett ämne som bör forskas mer kring, vore det intressant med vidare forskning inom området och titta mer ingående på de returprocesser som ingår i hanteringsprocessen.

Recycling and remanufacturing returned goods are economically beneficial for companies since the cost of obtaining used parts is lower in many cases and selling price is close to that of a new product. This leads to decreased costs and thereby increased profits for the company. In addition, there are also great environmental benefits by keeping the structural integrity of a part; the energy used for disassembly and refurbishing is much lower than the energy required for raw material extraction and machining. Encompassing the returned goods makes the supply chain to closed loop supply chain, which is different from the traditional supply chain due to reverse logistics. A reverse flow of material is however usually more complex than a forward flow of parts and components from suppliers. This means that inventory management becomes critical and needs to be viewed from a new perspective. The purpose of the report is to study FAW Co., Ltd’s inventory situation in reverse logistics. The report analysed the inventory management in the company, specifically focusing on one product as the instance Motor Engine LFTS-2000since it is in the maturity stage of product life cycle. Two scenarios were designed to consider how different parameters affect inventory levels in reverse logistics. The report analysed how different parameters affect the inventory levels and minimum cost. With the increasing returned goods are processed, inventory levels and minimum cost will decrease correspondingly.

Reverse logistics is different from forward logistics in objectives, operations, pricing, quality, quantity, packaging, product and information flow. Further, management of the returned products and their information is a major challenge since it is difficult to predict the time, place of origin, quantity and quality of the goods that will be returned. To establish the importance of reverse logistics as a business process and to understand related issues for information management, this research was undertaken with data from the Australian Manufacturing and E-Business organisations. This research examined six dimensions of reverse logistics. These were: (1) Factors that compel Manufacturing and E-Business organisations to manage reverse logistics; (2) Operations in product return process; (3) Methods of capturing value from returned goods; (4) Barriers to reverse logistics management; (5) Information management issues in reverse logistics; and (6) Product return trends in the E-Business industry. This research was exploratory in nature and was accomplished via a quantitative research method. It adopted a positivist epistemology and followed a deductive approach to capture reverse logistics knowledge. Research data from Manufacturing and E-Business industries was elicited with postal questionnaire surveys using structured questions. Since the data collected from the two main surveys was mainly nominal and ordinal, it was quantitatively analysed using non-parametric tests, Fisher's exact test and one sample Wilcoxon test. It also employed frequency distributions, binomial test and one sample t-test. An additional statistical test was carried out on each set of data to triangulate the finding. The tests were undertaken in Minitab spreadsheet computer packages. This research highlights the fact that reverse logistics management is an important business process in the Australian Manufacturing and E-Business industries. It is a strategic advantage, as well as an important customer service. Although substantial monetary value can be recovered from returned goods, at present two industries investigated have not tapped into this potential. Findings of this research also indicate that a lack of efficient information management is a problem in reverse logistics. Information management in the two industries is based on land-line telephone, fax and computers. This research identified that from E-Business sales error in ordering, customer change of mind on receipt of good and inefficient forward logistics operations (picking, packing and delivery) are important reasons for returns. It also established that e-businesses resell the returned goods and recapture value. The value recovery process in this industry is different from the manufacturing industries where the prevalent value recovery processes are repair, resale and recycle. Further research issues emanating from this project include evaluation methods for recapturing value from returned goods, effective information management strategies for return management and the impact of a law for returning certain types of used goods. This research is an initial effort undertaken to establish returns management in the Australian industries. It establishes that reverse logistics should be recognised as a business process in these industries.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-08-10Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:54:26Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 coelho_tm_me_bauru.pdf: 479749 bytes, checksum: b9c4aa0add23a730f10f9d3ed7c6bde9 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho apresenta a descrição do panorama brasileiro em relação à reciclagem de garrafas PET e aos processos envolvidos na recuperação de valor do produto, por meio da aplicação da logistica reversa. A relevância do estudo consiste no levantamento de informações sobre os desafios e oportunidades do setor. Em nível mundial, o Brasil é um dos maiores consumidores de PET em garrafa e os baixos custos industriais da embalagem pós-consumo aliados à falta de estrutura do canal reverso proporcionam um aumento significativo desse resíduo no meio ambiente. Buscou-se mostrar as ações realizadas no Brasil, bem como em outros Países elencados pela Associação Brasileira dos Fabricantes de Embalagens PET - ABIPET. Foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória que consistiu no levantamento das informações junto a associações referentes ao setor de PET no Brasil. Os resultados, após a análise dos aspectos ambientais, econômicos e sociais, mostram os desafios e oportunidades para retorno de embalagens PET pós-consumo no Brasil e descrevem a necessidade de conscientizar os envolvidos direta e indiretamente; de estruturar as cadeias reversas pós-consumo; de reduzir o consumo a fim de diminuir os resíduos gerados e de envolver os setores industriais para a busca de tecnologias mais limpas junto à cadeia produtiva do PET, a responsabilidade estendida do fabricante, bem como o poder público com o objetivo de auxiliar o processo por meio de políticas públicas / This work presents a description of the Brazilian panorama over the recycling of PET bottles and the processes involved in the recovery of product value through the application of reverse logistics. The relevance of the study is a survey of information on the challenges and opportunities in the industry. Globally, Brazil is one of the largest consumers of PET bottles and the low manufacturing costs of post-consumer packaging coupled with lak of structure of the reverse channel provides a significant increase of this residue in the environment. We tried to show the actions performed in Brazil and other countries listed by the Brazilian Association of Manufacturers of PET Packaging - ABIPET. We performed an exploratory study consisted of getting information from association for the PET industry in Brazil. The results, after analysis of the environemental, economic and social aspects, show the challenges and oportunities for return of post-consumer PET in Brazil and describe the need to educate those involved directly and indirectly, to structure the post-consumer reverse; to reduce consumption in order to reduce the waste generated and to involve industries in the search for cleaner technologies along the production chain of PET, the extended manufacture's responsability and the government in order to assist the process through public policies

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-07-16Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:54:31Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 machado_ba_me_bauru.pdf: 1458724 bytes, checksum: 0a00b4b83060209e0a02b604697a921d (MD5) / Dada à necessidade de se destinar corretamente os resíduos urbanos devido à escassez de locais disponíveis e adequados, limitação dos recursos naturais, questões de higiene e saúde, dentre outros, alguns países desenvolvem sistemas em que os consumidores são estimulados a entregar as embalagens de bebida pós-consumo (retornável ou descartável) antes ou durante a aquisição de novos produtos, obtendo descontos em suas novas compras. A escassez de publicações e disseminação dessas práticas impulsionou a realização desta pesquisa, cujos principais objetivos são: identificar os programas de Logística reversa (LR) existentes em países desenvolvidos (Alemanha e Estados Unidos) e compará-los com os brasileiros a fim de desenvolver uma solução otimizada que possa ser implantada no Brasil para impulsionar o seu desenvolvimento econômico, social e ambiental. A pesquisa sugere a implantação de um sistema similar aos modelos internacionais estudados, com vistas ao atendimento das características brasileiras, como resultado bibliográfico e da aplicação de um questionário junto a uma das principais produtoras de bebidas do Brasil, descreve os prós e contras do sistema de depósito de embalagens frente à realidade brasileira, a partir dos possíveis responsáveis por sua implantação. A proposta da implantação do sistema é complementada pela realização da estimativa do seu custo de implantação e manutenção e a possibilidade de receita do sistema para diferentes valores de depósito e margens de retorno, considerando o sistema economicamente viável em diferentes instantes do estudo / Because of the need to properly allocate the waste due to: the lack of available and apropriate locations and, limited natural resources, health and hygiene issues, among others, some countries developed systems where consumers are encouraged to return beverage post-consumption packages (disposable or returnable) before or during the acquisition of new products, getting discounts on their new purchases. The scarcity of publications and dissemination of these system drove this research, whose main objectives are to identify programs of reverse logistics (RL) existing in developed countries (Germany and the United States) and compare them with the Brazilians methods in order to develop a optimized solution that can be developed in Brazil to boost their economical, social and environmental development. The research suggests the implementation of a system similar to the international studies, meeting the Brazilian characteristics as a result of the literature review and the application of a questionnaire to one of the Brazilian leading producers of beverages and describes the pros and cons of the beverage deposit system front of Brazilian reality, from the point of view of possibles respnsibles for its implementation. The propose of the system's implementation is complemented by the development of the deployment and maintenance costs estimate and revenue potential for different values of deposit and returns margins, considering the system economically viable at different time of the study

De nombreux retours de produits dus au recyclage et à la réutilisation des déchets se développent dans le but de préserver les ressources naturelles limitées de notre planète. Ces nouveaux flux interagissant avec les flux de production traditionnels, il est important de les piloter de façon à satisfaire au mieux les demandes des clients et minimiser l'encours dans la chaîne logistique. Nos travaux s'inscrivent dans cette démarche. Nous nous plaçons dans un contexte où la capacité de production est limitée et nous considérons un problème opérationnel de gestion des stocks et de la production intégrant des flux de retours. Nous modélisons trois problèmes de production et de stockage à temps continu, avec des capacités de production limitées, des délais aléatoires et des coûts linéaires. Le premier prenant en compte la probabilité qu'un produit puisse être réutilisé comme produit fini ou seulement comme produit semi-fini (par partie), le deuxième présentant un problème où la réutilisation d'un retour comme produit fini nécessite une étape de remise à neuf et le troisième modélisant un système où les clients préviennent à l'avance du renvoi potentiel de leurs produits. Outre la caractérisation des politiques optimales de gestion, une part importante de nos contributions réside dans l'évaluation des performances de différentes politiques heuristiques et l'étude de l'impact de la capacité de production sur celles-ci. Enfin, nous nous servons dans tout ce document d'outils permettant la caractérisation des politiques optimales. La dernière partie de ce document vise à développer ces outils et à permettre l'étude de l'effet des paramètres d'un système formulé en processus de décision Markovien sur la politique optimale de celui-ci. / Flows of returns due to recycling and reusing waste are developing in order to preserve the limited natural resources of our planet. These new flows interact with the traditional production flows. Therefore, in order to provide customers with the best service level and minimize the stock in the supply chain, the control of the return flows appears to be of highest importance. We address this problem by modeling a situation with a limited porduction capacity and we consider an operational production/inventory problem that incorporates flows of returns. We model three continuous-time production/inventory problems with limited produc- tion capacities, random lead times, and linear costs. In the first problem we take into account the probability that a product can be reused as a finished product or only as semi-finished product (by parts), in the second problem we include a step of remanufac- turing before reusing the returned product, and in the third problem we consider a system with product returns that are announced in advance by the customers. Apart from the caracterization of the optimal policies for these cases, the performance assessments of some heuristic policies and the study of the poduction capacity effect on these heuristic policies stand as main contributions. Throughout this work we have used existing tools to characterize optimal policies for different Markov decision processes. The last chapter aims to improve these tools and enable us to study the influence of several system parameters on its optimal policy.

Orientador: Rosani de Castro / Banca: Jorge Henrique Caldeira de Oliveira / Banca: José Alcides Gobbo Junior / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta a descrição do panorama brasileiro em relação à reciclagem de garrafas PET e aos processos envolvidos na recuperação de valor do produto, por meio da aplicação da logistica reversa. A relevância do estudo consiste no levantamento de informações sobre os desafios e oportunidades do setor. Em nível mundial, o Brasil é um dos maiores consumidores de PET em garrafa e os baixos custos industriais da embalagem pós-consumo aliados à falta de estrutura do canal reverso proporcionam um aumento significativo desse resíduo no meio ambiente. Buscou-se mostrar as ações realizadas no Brasil, bem como em outros Países elencados pela Associação Brasileira dos Fabricantes de Embalagens PET - ABIPET. Foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória que consistiu no levantamento das informações junto a associações referentes ao setor de PET no Brasil. Os resultados, após a análise dos aspectos ambientais, econômicos e sociais, mostram os desafios e oportunidades para retorno de embalagens PET pós-consumo no Brasil e descrevem a necessidade de conscientizar os envolvidos direta e indiretamente; de estruturar as cadeias reversas pós-consumo; de reduzir o consumo a fim de diminuir os resíduos gerados e de envolver os setores industriais para a busca de tecnologias mais limpas junto à cadeia produtiva do PET, a responsabilidade estendida do fabricante, bem como o poder público com o objetivo de auxiliar o processo por meio de políticas públicas / Abstract: This work presents a description of the Brazilian panorama over the recycling of PET bottles and the processes involved in the recovery of product value through the application of reverse logistics. The relevance of the study is a survey of information on the challenges and opportunities in the industry. Globally, Brazil is one of the largest consumers of PET bottles and the low manufacturing costs of post-consumer packaging coupled with lak of structure of the reverse channel provides a significant increase of this residue in the environment. We tried to show the actions performed in Brazil and other countries listed by the Brazilian Association of Manufacturers of PET Packaging - ABIPET. We performed an exploratory study consisted of getting information from association for the PET industry in Brazil. The results, after analysis of the environemental, economic and social aspects, show the challenges and oportunities for return of post-consumer PET in Brazil and describe the need to educate those involved directly and indirectly, to structure the post-consumer reverse; to reduce consumption in order to reduce the waste generated and to involve industries in the search for cleaner technologies along the production chain of PET, the extended manufacture's responsability and the government in order to assist the process through public policies / Mestre