Scitsigol

Scitisgol - This is not, as you might guess, a tough hand in Scrabble.  It is actually “logistics” in reverse, an area which will see continued development in the future.

Reverse logistics is not new, despite many companies jumping on the bandwagon.  In fact, some of us are old enough to remember going down to our local shop with empty pop bottles to collect the deposits.  These empties then travelled back up the supply chain to be reused.  Yet pressures such as the much vaunted WEEE directive are making this a current hot topic.  Some logistics providers are even announcing dedicated reverse logistics services to come to the rescue - like knights in shinning armour.

One of the benefits of these separated operations is that at least you get to see how much it is all costing.  Many organisations have no idea how much money and resouces it soaks up.  As legislation and future ways of doing business bite, reverse logistics will initially be seen as a new problem and addressed, then finally drawn back into mainstream operations in order to further reduce the costs which have been isolated.