Forward (FL) and reverse (RL) logistics are similar because they use similar steps. Among them are the transportation, storage, and release of goods to destination points, either to the customer or to the manufacturer’s warehouse. There are similar requirements for goods: for example, the integrity of packaging and interests and ease of transportation. For both types of logistics, it is essential that quality control takes place at each stage and that there is a system for tracking the shipped product and its expertise. It can also be noted that the resources spent are also similar: at a minimum, the people involved in packaging and transporting the goods.
The difference between FL and RL is expressed in different steps. For FL, there are stages of sourcing materials and processing the finished product. There are the stages of re-marketing and introduction of the goods into the secondary circulation for RL (Zhang et al., 2013). FL processes are divergent because goods go to multiple customers, while RL is a convergent mechanism. FL depends on consumer demand and resources to maintain it. RL relies on the relevance of the supply of the purchased item when it is received (Zhang et al., 2013). More resources are spent on the product’s disposal and return shipping phases because of the need for repair, reuse, packaging, and more. However, the clever use of FL and RL can conversely increase the productivity of companies.
The transportation function of RL is to move the product from the consumer back to the seller. It refers to indicators such as the rate of product return, the rate of product replacement, and the safety of the package and product. The logistical functions consist of the direct cataloging of returned goods, packaging, and storage (Alkahtani et al. 2021). In addition, RL logistics is responsible for redistributing goods and their re-integration into the production process. The transportation function does not perform a valuable task in terms of marketing because it is used to move objects itself.
References
Alkahtani, M., Ziout, A., Salah, B., Alatefi, M., Abd Elgawad, A.E.E., Badwelan, A., & Syarif, U. (2021). An insight into reverse logistics with a focus on collection systems.Sustainability, 13. Web.
Zhang, Z., Van Hui, Y., & Chen, H. (2013). A forward and reverse logistics shipment planning model. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 64(10), 1485-1502.