Reverse supply chain management in consumer electronics: an Indian perspective

The present paper is an attempt to find out the strategic motive of an organisation to undertake reverse supply chain management (RSCM) activities with specific reference to consumer electronics industry in the Indian context. It has identified the facilitating factors as also the inhibiting factors faced by an organisation in pursuing RSCM activities by carrying out questionnaire survey amongst retailers and service providers doing repairing, refurbishing and remanufacturing of consumer electronic goods. This study has attempted to categorise the returned goods in terms of recency, usability and residual value and has tried to find out the percentage figures of individual element within each category of recency, usability and residual value. It has further analysed different return streams in terms of volume and residual value and revealed as to which return stream/s contribute most to the organisations. Finally, this study has analysed each element of RSCM activities in terms of time taken and cost incurred and identified the major activities consuming maximum amount of time and cost.