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STREAMLINING PACKAGING AS PART OF SUSTAINABLE REVERSE LOGISTICS PROCESSES
Alesha January
American Military University
December 17, 2023
Introduction
Recently, sustainable development and logistical cost reduction, notably in packaging, have gained importance. The study recommends strict packaging improvements. Packaging methods must be examined utilizing sustainable development principles. Packaging material and technology prices, market introduction, and environmental consequences will be reduced by the proposed methods.
Packaging process assessments show higher procurement prices, import and local packaging material, packaging rubbish, and recycling costs. Optimize reverse logistics using a unique packaging registration system, workflow, and standardization phases. The solution’s main benefits are economic and environmental (Guo et al., 2017). New packaging and recycling fees are cut, saving money. Second, waste management hierarchy and circular economy principle eliminate environmental damage. Faster, more effective, and more practical training for new hires, faster packing due to uniformity and visualization, and more efficient reusable packaging separation are expected.
Background
A supply chain management concept dubbed “reverse logistics,” involves consumers returning goods to merchants or producers. When consumers return or recycle goods, reverse logistics occurs. Reverse logistics returns goods from consumers to suppliers. Reverse logistics requires consumers to recycle, refurbish, or resell goods.
End consumer affects return shipping and processing, disposal affects recycling or resale, and customer ends. Implementing new repair and return policies, improving supplier-company cooperation, reevaluating transport and logistics procedures, and optimizing reverse logistics by incorporating recent trends and engaging third parties can improve reverse logistics management, especially in smaller companies. Global competitiveness is key for reverse logistics and supply chain management (Wijewickrama et al., 2021). Regulatory, HR, organizational, economic, and strategic factors affected reverse logistics.
Sustainable competitive advantage requires reverse logistics. Sustainable practices, environmental concerns, laws, and manufacturing stakeholder pressure greatly affect reverse logistics. Improved reliability, efficiency, and lifetime from sustainable resource utilization decrease human-caused environmental impact. ICT sustainability, logistics, and HR management are hot topics. Sustainable reverse logistics adoption requires income control, standardized and mapped procedures, shorter time cycles, effective information systems, a well-planned logistic grid, and consumer-supplier partnership. Organizational and effective reverse logistics operations assist organizations beyond the environment.
Literature Review
Sustainable supply chains and ethical businesses require reverse logistics. By managing product returns, repairs, recycling, and disposal, companies may save resources and delight customers. Reverse logistics saves money, helps the environment, and boosts competitiveness (Letunovska et al., 2023). The growing emphasis on sustainability in enterprises will make reverse logistics crucial to modern supply chain management.
Sustainable business reverse logistics and waste management enable sustainable development and regulatory compliance. Effective logistics, such as procuring raw materials, stocking, and transporting the finished product, determine quality at each stage. To optimize the supply chain, explore reverse logistics difficulties in complicated logistics systems. Sustainable reverse logistics boosts quality and competitiveness, thus enterprises must use it. Firms require reverse logistics sustainability help.
To advance the company’s circular economy and sustainability. Packaging operations and registered reusable packaging to develop a sustainable waste hierarchy. Prioritizing reusable packaging in decision-making streamlines and clarifies processes and owners with color visualization. This simplifies change and improvement management. Simplifying the packaging process within sustainable development goals helps. This warehouse worker tool shows composition, testing site availability, and package utilization. The outcomes optimize and consolidate new and recurring training, reduce workplace conflicts, and prevent improper package categorization for reuse (Plaza-Úbeda et al., 2020). Improvement of warehouse organization requires this. Smart packaging and increasingly complex approaches will be used in sustainable packaging research to satisfy sustainable development goals. Circular economy and sustainability must be identified and measured from three perspectives—sustainable development, the environment, and economic growth.
Findings
According to the literature review, the paper proposes a packaging process model based based on extensive research, and industry approaches. The system includes packing numbers, trends, average packaging costs, and return flows. The packaging process optimization method includes these steps: Definition objective: Data collection to detect patterns, constraints, and optimization factors. Examining data on materials returning to packaging; applying industrial engineering and logistics principles; and implementing sustainable development goals and waste hierarchy. Packaging process model including visualization, workflow control, and standardization (Chileshe et al., 2019). Process flowcharts and diagrams can show the packaging process and solution’s steps, system architecture, and computer algorithm. Simple hand-drawn flow charts to elaborate computer-generated representations of many processes and pathways are available. Inefficiencies in manufacturing or procurement can be identified using flow charts to show logistics or manufacturing activities.
Logistics firms pack. Warehouse workers process returns and storekeepers’ packages. Companies identify storage goods before packaging. The warehouseman receives the package. A warehouseman checks shipping merchandise before sorting them. Warehousemen pack by product kind and quantity. For smaller quantities, the storekeeper utilizes a cardboard box or sealed plastic bag for weight-based commodities. The warehouse keeper uses the package when a consumer orders many things. First, they’ll check the goods’ quantity and damage. After inspection, label the package with contents and company. To carefully pack things, the box is closed after inspection. The company taped boxes to prevent opening during shipping and handling. After finishing the box, tape secures an invoice or delivery note envelope. Binding tapes help warehouse personnel support large items. Packaging waste is reduced by binding tapes limiting large boxes. Palletized orders are gathered. When palletizing items, storekeepers must consider size and weight. After loading all order items onto a pallet, the warehouseman must ensure the stability of the carefully selected goods for delivery. Stretch film minimizes pallet movement and delivery box damage. Pallet trucks deliver packages to platform scales for weight measurements and picking sheet registration (Kazancoglu et al., 2021). When the houseman returns the picking sheet, Economic invoices. Pallets are loaded onto cars by platform scales. Warehouses sort pallets two ways. They can find a product in the warehouse and store it on a pallet or utilize a transport platform truck to unload it onto a scale-prepared pallet. Pallet-weighed goods are put onto the transport truck. Two transporters deliver boxed goods to the logistics company. Multi-layer cardboard boxes safeguard palletized goods.
Through the waste management hierarchy and sustainable growth goals, the company has streamlined packaging to reduce use and expenses.
Many factors, including supplier inventory purchase and warehousing personnel mismanagement, raise packing volume throughout production. Analogies, observations, interviews, and document examination reveal that rising package production and sales are the problem. Warehouse workers’ insufficient training caused this spike. The warehouse’s registration system and work duties are taught to new hires. Poor training increases costs over time. Warehouse worker inefficiencies and packaging material selections seem uneconomical. Warehouse workers utilize improper or excessive packaging, according to the economic department. This hurts the economy and ecology. Supplier imports lead to more packaging waste. However, using intact supplier packing materials and registering can solve this issue.
System for registering to package
Implementing a new registration system for packaging materials, especially paper and cardboard, which make up most packaging, is a worry. The comprehensive records approach includes documenting all cardboard and cardboard packaging received from suppliers, inspecting and manually sorting registered packages into two groups, documenting usable packaging and its sorting, keeping records of the remaining box stock, and implementing a collection/storage container for usable packaging (Fidlerová et al., 2021). Training warehouse workers for specific tasks. Warehouse staff must manually sort and visually inspect before registration. The usability group gets the box after control.
Conclusion.
As a large part of logistics packaging, paper, and cardboard packing should be minimized through production and importation. Implementation goals and sustainable development reduce recycling fees for production companies and reduce environmental impacts. A supplier packaging registration system will show a corporation how much packing it receives. Documenting reusable package quantities is crucial. A registration system allows the company to reliably measure reusable packaging, exposing stakeholder packaging preferences. After data collection and analysis of the suggested registration system, suppliers’ package quantities and consumption percentages can be predicted. Provide details on available packaging and the required quantity of new packaging to improve logistical management efficiency and accessibility (Fidlerová et al., 2021). The waste hierarchy begins with waste prevention by keeping detailed records on supplier packaging. Reduces the likelihood of acquiring discarded packaging. The waste hierarchy also requires inspecting, registering, and removing packaging from sources to prepare objects for reuse.
References
Chileshe, N., Jayasinghe, R. S., & Rameezdeen, R. (2019). Information flow-centric approach for reverse logistics supply chains.
Automation in Construction,
106, 102858.
Fidlerová, H., Makyšová, H., Sklenárová, L., & Bajdor, P. (2021). Streamlining packaging as part of sustainable reverse logistics processes.
Acta logistica,
8(4), 423-433.
Guo, S., Shen, B., Choi, T. M., & Jung, S. (2017). A review on supply chain contracts in reverse logistics: Supply chain structures and channel leadership.
Journal of Cleaner Production,
144, 387-402.
Kazancoglu, Y., Ekinci, E., Mangla, S. K., Sezer, M. D., & Kayikci, Y. (2021). Performance evaluation of reverse logistics in food supply chains in a circular economy using system dynamics.
Business Strategy and the Environment,
30(1), 71-91.
Letunovska, N., Offei, F. A., Junior, P. A., Lyulyov, O., Pimonenko, T., & Kwilinski, A. (2023). Green Supply Chain Management: The Effect of Procurement Sustainability on Reverse Logistics.
Logistics,
7(3), 47.
Plaza-Úbeda, J. A., Abad-Segura, E., de Burgos-Jiménez, J., Boteva-Asenova, A., & Belmonte-Ureña, L. J. (2020). Trends and new challenges in the green supply chain: The reverse logistics.
Sustainability,
13(1), 331.
Wijewickrama, M. K. C. S., Chileshe, N., Rameezdeen, R., & Ochoa, J. J. (2021). Information sharing in reverse logistics supply chain of demolition waste: A systematic literature review.
Journal of cleaner production,
280, 124359.
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