Industry 4.0 and the Future of Reverse Logistics

How Industrial Computers and Tablets can Help You Manage Returns

With the COVID-19 pandemic, more people have been turning to online retail. Of course, higher volumes of purchases bring higher volumes of returns. By leveraging Industry 4.0 tech like RFID-enabled Industrial Panel PCs and Rugged Industrial Tablets, businesses can maximize the efficiency of their return processes.

What is Reverse Logistics?

Reverse logistics refers to the process by which products and materials go from the end-user/customer back to the supplier. Many businesses lose money because they have yet to give reverse logistics the focus it deserves. Historically speaking, there has just not been a sufficient volume of returns to these sectors to warrant dedicating time and resources to reverse logistics. With the rise of online retail, this is changing rapidly.

Why Online Retail Increases Return Volume

In a brick and mortar establishment, if an item on the shelf is not to the customer’s satisfaction, they can simply get another one off the shelf that does. However, customers must wait until the product they purchased is shipped to them via online retail before examining it. Should they be dissatisfied with the product for whatever reason, they must send it back, rather than just placing it back on the shelf and looking for a new one.

Consumers Embrace No-Hassle Returns

Customers are increasingly likely to avoid online retailers with restrictive or expensive return policies. In fact, according to Deloitte, over three-quarters of customers said they would steer clear of online retailers that charged restocking fees or return shipping, and over half said they would avoid online retailers with short return time limits.

People want to examine their purchase at their leisure and won’t tolerate any roadblocks to returning their item should they be unsatisfied. Of course, no-hassle returns for customers can be a significant hassle for retailers without a robust reverse logistics plan to handle everything. This is where technology enters the picture.

Reverse logistics and Industry 4.0

Without an advanced reverse logistics plan in place, businesses would be crushed under the weight of e-commerce returns. Fortunately, the same Industry 4.0 technology that maximizes efficiency and minimizes costs in the forward supply chain can also maximize efficiency and reduce costs in the reverse supply chain.

RFID and Blockchain

RFID, or Radio-Frequency Identification, offers retailers several advantages over traditional barcode technology. Barcodes must be read individually, usually by a worker with a handheld scanner. Reverse logistics operations that rely on barcodes for their asset tracking find themselves bogged down by the need to manually scan every individual item along every step of the chain.

Unlike with barcodes, a worker with a Rugged Industrial Tablet equipped with a built-in RFID scanner can scan multiple items at once and relay that data to an edge computing network that runs it through a big data analysis program to determine the most efficient next step in the supply chain: disposal, restocking, refurbishment, etc.

Under an Industry 4.0 paradigm, all of this data can be stored and accessed on a blockchain ledger. With each RFID scan, an item’s location and other relevant handling data are stored as an unalterable block along the blockchain.

Final Thoughts

The surge in online retail that happened due to COVID-19 is not going to recede once the pandemic ends and the world returns to normal. With more and more people buying things online rather than trying them out first a brick and mortar retail locations, more and more people will be looking to return items they would usually just leave on the shelf.

Giant companies like Amazon are already catering to this desire by eliminating the usual barriers to returns like time limits and restocking and shipping fees. Businesses that do not develop a robust reverse logistics plan involving advanced Industry 4.0 technology will find themselves left behind and drowning under the volume of online returns.

If you’re interested in learning how Industrial Tablets and Panel PCs can streamline your reverse logistics processes, contact the experts at Cybernet Manufacturing today.