A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF TRANSPORTATION AND WAREHOUSING ASPECTS OF REVERSE DISTRIBUTION

Abstract

Nearly all of the physical distribution lit erature has been concerned with forward distribution, which refers to products mov ing from a producer to a consumer in a channel of distribution. Thus, one can look in both scholarly and practitioner pub lications and find articles on topics such as carrier selection, inventory management, warehousing issues. On the other hand, the reverse distribu tion of goods is a topic that has received scant attention in the physical distribution literature. Reverse distribution refers to the movement of goods from a consumer back towards a producer in a channel of distribu tion. Reverse distribution may be the result of one of the following types of initiative: 1) customer initiative?voluntarily returned goods; 2) industry initiative?recycling; and 3) government initiative?product re calls. Only within the past fifteen years have the business implications of reverse dis tribution begun to be recognized. This might be the result of public policy and so cial marketing influences on commerce as well as the fact that product recalls and re cycling have distinctive public policy and social marketing overtones. For instance, the social marketing emphasis on both re source conservation and pollution reduc tion has helped to spur the recycling movement. While product recalls have existed since the early twentieth century, they have become prevalent only since the mid-1960s. Previous research into reverse distribu tion has focused primarily on recycling and product recalls. The recycling research suggests that consumer motivation is ex tremely important; the benefits of returning a product must outweigh the costs of re turning the item.2 In addition, the literature asserts that recycling is feasible when vol ume can be built at some point in the re verse channel.3 The product recall research has been primarily prescriptive in nature. For in stance, the literature suggests that the best type of organizational structure for dealing with a product recall is the task force.4 Moreover, firms should have objectives when conducting product recalls, although there is disagreement as to the exact nature of these objectives.5

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