Abstract

BADENHORST, A. Management practices to mitigate barriers in reverse logistics. JCMAN [online]. 2017, vol.14, n.1, pp.595-623. ISSN 1815-7440.

Recently, reverse logistics management has gained popularity in business and research since it can reduce costs and pollution; improve customer service and market share and increase competiveness. Despite these advantages, many organisations are reluctant to deal with reverse logistics because of economic, organisational, operational and supply chain barriers. The main purpose of this article was to conduct a literature study, in order to identify barriers in reverse logistics and to propose management practices to mitigate these barriers. The research methods included (i) a literature study to identify barriers and mitigating practices to overcome barriers in reverse logistics, (ii) create a conceptual framework based on the literature findings and (iii) a survey to test the findings of the literature in order to determine the importance and difficulty of implementing the practices in South Africa. The literature study findings showed that outsourcing is the most important practice, because it overcomes ali the barriers in reverse logistics. In contrast, the survey results indicated that outsourcing is the least important practice because of its contribution and difficulty to implement. The results also showed that the most important practices included a strategic plan for reverse logistics, training of staff and collaboration with supply chain members. Organisations can use this article to identify important barriers in reverse logistics that could apply to them in order to determine the most important management practices to implement.

Keywords : product returns; returns management; reverse logistics; reverse logistics barriers; reverse logistics management practices.

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