60 seconds with ... Jim Dickson

Jim Dickson on what it takes to build a strong reverse logistics operation

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/1/2005

The key to reverse logistics success is to plan for it. It can't be an after thought. You have to put in place not only an excellent process but be constantly improving the process for you and your customers.

To make that happen, we built a separate hub for reverse logistics. At our facility here in Fort Worth, we receive more than 30,000 cell phones and Blackberries each day. We then have three days to convert each into a re-sellable unit for our customers, several major phone companies.

Such quick recovery of assets requires us to focus on people, processes and technology.

There are roughly 800 people in this facility. All are cross-trained so we can use them where they are most needed on any given day.

Our process has several steps: receipt, inspection, test, resetting to specs, reboxing and moving the item to our distribution center. We use technology such as bar codes to eliminate manual data entry and warehouse software to automatically direct activities on the floor. Conveyors and sortation ensure items move through the building efficiently.

The result is consistency of processing and communication. In addition, our customers have visibility of their assets at any point in our process.

And then, there's continuous improvement. We are constantly trying to be better tomorrow than we are today. In the future, we may need less time to turnaround product.