IQPC Reverse Logistics and Returns Management Asia

An integrated supply chain strategy that incorporates both forward and reverse logistics becomes increasingly important in an increasingly globalised and stretched supply chain management reality. Effective reverse logistics can help manufacturers reduce 40-60% costs by only 20% of the manufacturing effort. (Tan, A.W.K. and Hosie, P. 2010)

The Reverse Logistics and Returns Management Asia 2011 conference invite 15 experts from the region’s top manufacturing brands, to present informative keynotes/case studies on why and how global brands could generate additional revenue through reverse logistics in Asia:

Excerpts of exclusive interviews with our speakers on the challenges of reverse logistics:

Mathias Von Bescherer
Director for Channel Operations APOC
Microsoft Operations

As Microsoft is a software company and our main targeted customers have always been corporations, and consumer business is relatively new to the organization, reverse logistics and returns management have not necessarily been the focus of the company. However now especially with the success of Xbox, we are coming to the business scenario and volumes that starting to take reverse logistics and returns management seriously. We have started about 2 years ago to put structures, people technology and processes in place to manage reverse logistics and returns management, because the company identified that these areas are strategically important.
Obviously when it comes to customer service, customers remember you as a brand particularly when something is wrong with the product. So if you manage reverse logistics properly you can increase customer satisfaction. There are a lot of costs associated with RL, but there are a lot of hidden costs that you can reduce if you do this rightly. So today we have in all parts of the world proper reverse logistics teams in place.

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Shams-Rahman Shams Rahman
Professor of Supply Chain Management, School of Business IT and Logistics, College of Business
RMIT University

Professor Shams Rahman from RMIT University Australia speaks on:

We have been doing some research along this line in Australia with a number of different industries; what we found out is that generally people will indicate [the challenges to be] the availability of resources by the company, the coordination and integration of various types of reverse logistics.
The volume and quantity of recyclable and returned materials are very critical, so first of all companies have to have the resources to put reverse logistics systems in place. Once you have that, then you need to really coordinate and integrate forward logistics with reverse logistics systems. However the question is if you don’t have the volume then it’s hard to allocate resources.

Key criteria in selecting outsourcing partners:
We’ve seen companies in Australia, in the case of 3PLs in the reverse logistics area that IT management and transportation management are the two vitally important areas that outsourcing companies should have in order to be selected.

The perception of reverse logistics in supply chain management in Asia in the next few years:
Countries like China, India and Indonesia are already big players in manufacturing and global trade. Therefore environmental and sustainable issues are going to be major concerns of Asian business in the next 5 years. By sustainable, I meant environmental sustainability.

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Who should attend?

The conference gathers senior executives from the supply chain, logistics, and customer service function of branded companies, OEMs/ODMs, especially VP/Director/Head of: