Reverse Logistics and Green Logistics - Research Paper Example

The two most recent concepts in this regard are of reverse logistics and green logistics. Organizations are taking different measures and steps in order to provide the customers with the complete solutions associated with the full life cycle of the products. For this purpose the organizations are focusing more on reverse logistics. Apart from this, the increasing emphasis on the environment protection and the government regulations have forced the organizations to implement green and sustainable supply chain practices.

The activities and processes associated with reverse logistics help the organizations in the process of designing green supply chains. The recycling and refurbishment of the products result in reducing the wastage materials, thus protecting the environment. In this paper an attempt has been made to explore and understand the concepts of the reverse logistics and green logistics. For this purpose, three international organizations known for their supply chain management have been selected. These three organizations are: Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, and Best Buy.

Cisco systems and Wal-Mart recently took position in the top five international supply chains (Wailgum, 2010). Apart from the regular channels and elements of the supply chain, the organizations are now giving increasing importance to the activities related to reverse logistics. Most of the time organizations face the issues and challenges regarding the unused, failed, and returned products. The reverse logistics process is known to be composed of returning or exchanging, repairing, refurbishing, remarketing, and disposing off of the unused and failed products.

This concept or phenomenon of reverse logistics is becoming popular quickly and is being perceived as an important part of the business operations of the organizations (Venkatesh, 2010). Organizations can generate considerable amount of value and