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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Reverse logistics can be of characterized as the movement of items and material in the reverse
direction for building or recreating the value. It may consist of raw material, product and
packaging (Roger and Tibben-Lembke, 1999; 2001).The exercise of reverse logistics has
gradually increasing day by day and becoming distinctive range of attention over some decades
(Tibben-Lembke and Rogers, 2002; Stock and Mulki, 2009).
Reverse logistics is adapt by numerous business, which includes steel mills, jets, PCs, vehicles,
chemicals, appliance and curative items. Firms that have adept reverse logistics includes BMW,
Delphi, DuPont, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, Storage Tek, and TRW Automotive. The
successful utilization of reverse logistics can benefit the organization to participate in its industry
when challenging its strong competition and low revenues.
In the pervious 200 years, the outstanding progress of industrial and financial improvement has
enhanced the global trading of individuals, products and data making it very challenging for
self-return(Subramanian et al. 2014:235; Ye et al. 2013:132) nature deposit are utilized for the
contribution of consumer items that are becoming costly ,while in the mean time buyers are
becoming situationally aware, as such condition reverse logistics play an important role while
obtaining low cost than your competitor in the grocery industry (Lamsali 2013:1; Tejwani&Sethi
2012:16).
Grocery retailers are recognized for its inventive stock recovery solution for competition. These
Grocery industries are the first time that focus on product returns and create reverse logistics
process. Vendor probably utilize innovation like electronic data interchange (EDI), computerized
return tracking and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to improve reverse logistics
process
Reverse logistics also plays significant role to recreating packaging material in grocery
industries. Recreating packaging is used to wrap up the product during the distribution from
manufacture to grocery stores. Generally card boxes, plastics are utilize in secondary packaging
materials
This re-use packaging of material plays an important impact on environment. Reverse logistics
help to save energy and reduce pollution. The procedure of re-use of packaging material like card
boxes, plastics is not harmful to atmosphere as compare to one time packaging material.
According to Frauenhofer Institute in 1993 re-use packaging are less trouble on environment
than one time use packaging material, which mean reverse logistic help to make environment
friendly.
The utilization for re-use of packaging material is to encourage because of concern for the
environment. In 1991 Dutch ministry and industries signed the Packaging Covenant forcing
industries to consider better approaches to manage with wrap material According to this
Packaging Covenant in the year 2000 the wrap material in Netherland cut down by 10%.On the
other hand the German companies and traders created non profit company know as Duales
System Downloaded by Carleton University. The purpose is to gather wrap material to re-use

As indicated by Dobbs et al. (2011) and Schulte (2013:44) the worlds population has increased to
seven billion in two eras, with an expectation about 3 billions of individuals will entering world
with working class by 2030 (McKinsey & Company 2011; Schulte 2013:44).Two centuries
before the resources are not infinite source of wealth, particularly with the global boost per capita
resources (Dobbs et al. 2011; Schulte 2013:44).Leading reverse logistics will permit companies
to regain as much as incentives from recourses ,limiting global assets shortage.
South Africa population had increased by 1.6%. As south Africa’s population is increases it is
impacting on amount of consumer products hence organizing activities such as waste
management, reuse and product restoration will help the firms to recover the amount of the
products and accomplish sustainability in supplies and efficiency (Chan, Chan & Jain
2012:1319; Thamsatitdej et al. 2015:1588).
The majority of the earlier RL analysis focussed on drivers and boundaries in advance countries
but pays little attention on developing countries for example South Africa (Abdulrahman,
Gunasekaran & Subramanian 2014:460; Bouzon, Govindan & Rodriguez 2015:27; Subramanian
et al. 2014:235).Research show South Africa setting incorporate a structure for organizing
practices to overcome cost-related issues in RL (Badenhorst 2013b:1– 10),a study is to
organizing the usage of practices to defeat operational barriers in RL (Badenhorst 2016:1– 12)
and supply chain item returns process (Mostert, Niemann and Kotzé 2017:1– 18).
Problem statement:
Reverse logistics practices positively impact financial performance, increase
sustainability and gain competitive advantage from the practices but current situation of
reverse logistics face many problem are cost related problems, barrier of reverse
logistics and supply chain integration in the product return process. This study is to
explore the barriers and practices of reverse logistics in Pakistan and identify internal
and external drivers of reverse logistics

Purpose of research:
The aim of this research is to explore the barrier and practices of reverse logistics within
major Pakistan grocery retailers.

Research question:
 What RL practices do Pakistan grocery retailers currently implement?
 What are the key internal and external drivers for RL practices in the Pakistan
Retail grocery industry?
 What is the nature of the competitive advantage that results from RL practices in
the Pakistan retail grocery industry?
 What are the key internal and external barriers to RL practices in the Pakistan
retail grocery industry?

Research objectives:
 to investigate the concept of reverse logistics
 to determine the importance of reverse logistics
 to explore the drivers and benefits of reverse logistics
 to explore all the dimensions and elements of reverse logistics
 to identify the problems and challenges in reverse logistics
 to find solutions to the problems and challenges in reverse logistics
Justification:
The reason of our research is to identify drivers and barriers of reverse logistics
practices of large grocery retailers in Pakistan. According to CSCMP (2010:161).’’Reverse
logistics is the concept of focusing on the movement of products and resources after the
sale and after delivery to the customer.’’ IT include product return for repair and the
process of recycling, reusing, reducing the amount of material used. Reverse logistics is
the process of moving goods from their place of avail, back to their place of manufacture for
reprocessing, refilling, repairs or waste disposal. It is a process of reverse movements of goods
done in an efficient manner Sople (2007:184) Reverse logistics is the process where products
are returned from consumers for the purpose of gaining their value Dowlatshahi (2011:1)

Limitations:
The researchers and analysts can never fully depend on the feedbacks and responses because the
results cannot always be accurate. There is a possibility of reliability and biasness and in the
feedbacks collected from the managers because during the interviews some managers were too
consumed with their workload, organizational pressures and some were reluctant to discuss
about there organizations openly ending up being non-cooperative with the researchers.

Scope:
This study is based upon grounded theory method and revolve around the issues related to cost
related problem, barrier in reverse logistics and supply chain integration in the product return
process its influences on an grocery retailers in Pakistan and how managers and top management
authorities perceives it and can effectively play their role towards minimizing the rising
dilemma. Due to a restricted span of time this study is going to be a cross-sectional study.

Definition of key terms:


Drivers:
Internal drivers of RL practices relate to the factors that motivate the organisation to
have an RL operation, by increasing revenue and profit through cost-saving initiatives
(Hsu, Tan & Mohamad Zailani 2016:88; Stoyanov 2012:12).
Reverse logistic:

Reverse logistics is the process of planning, implementing and controlling flows of raw
materials, in process inventory, and finished goods, from a manufacturing, distribution or use
point to a point of recovery or point of proper disposal Lu et al. (2007:324)

Remanufacturing:

The process of remanufacturing consists of “collecting a used product or component from the
field, assessing its condition, and replacing worn, broken, or obsolete parts with new or
refurbished parts” (Beamon, 1999:337)

Barriers:

Internal barriers an internal barrier relates to a hindrance within the organisation that
affects the performance of RL practices (Abdulrahman et al. 2014:461).

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