**3.2 Purpose of DRS reverse logistics**

DRS reverse logistics is about the recovery management of all sorts of relief supplies that are sent to the reverse flows, together with the green marketing strategies to ensure the efficient and cost-effective reuse and recycling of materials. Successful recovery management of relief materials can largely reduce the waste in need of proper disposal.

Hiding behind the humanitarian goals with highest priorities, the reverse logistics of relief supplies that fall short somewhere along the relief supply chain, or require removals from the points of consumption is not fully highlighted by the academic research or practical applications. However, the public has seen successive


**Table 1.** *Types of DRS reverse logistics.* reports about expired living necessities and rusty tools stored in emergency warehouses, spoiled food and out of date sanitation articles sent to the affected population, useless donations rushing into the disaster areas, etc. In the face of quality concerns, cost implications, and social responsibilities, managing reverse logistics of relief supplies should not be far from the decision-making core of humanitarian operations. While many operational issues, such as the pre-positioning, the procurement and the location-allocation of relief supplies, have attracted extensive attention in both academia and practice, the changing scope and significance of reverse logistics have not received much academic attention.

This is especially important in the humanitarian context. As "social" inventories, relief supplies should be handled in a responsible manner for economic, social, and environmental sustainability, not only due to limited budget and intensive public attention but rather on the macro-level protection of the degraded environment which is often one of the causes for humanitarian assistance [10].

#### **3.3 Conventional reverse logistics**

Reverse logistics or reverse supply chain has gained more and more attention in society through the whole product life due to the seriously declining natural environment. The essential role of the conventional reverse logistics is to recover the value of the products dropped out at different stages of the forward supply chain, including the production wastes in the manufacturing process, logistics damage in the transportation and inventory process, sample wear or unsold in the retailing stages, and most likely the end-of-life products after the consuming, so that physically discarded materials are reduced to the minimum level.

The operations in reverse logistics cover reuse, remarketing, repair, refurbishing, remanufacturing, cannibalization, recycling, and disposal. There are several difficulties in reverse logistics operations. The first one is the high operational cost in the inspection and classification of the returned products with different conditions, collection, and transportation of items with scattered locations, small amounts and uncertain timing, and remanufacturing and resale operations. In particular, the research reveals that moving a product back in reverse transportation may cost 5 to 9 times more than placing it in the original direction. To identify reusable product needs to inspect, classify, collect, repack, and allocate to the reuse locations where the related operational cost is much higher than to make a new product. Furthermore, special packaging material and process may need products collected but without preliminary package for reuse, remarketing, or even discarding, which causes more than double the cost of the forward product supply chain.

The second point is the economies of scale that are the most critical in all stages of any product supply chain, particularly logistics operations. A product or its component may get out of the forward supply chain due to different reasons in a random pattern. Therefore, all operations activities may be more or less unique. When a product can be at its end of use stage at any time, any place and with any quality conditions, which raises the issues of small collection and further inspection. To achieve the scale of operations, Walmart retailing network designed centralized returning centers and saved a considerable cost on product returns. In fact, the shortage of economies of scale can be seen in all aspects of the product reverse logistics, from recollection to inventory, from transportation to remanufacturing, and from recycling to remarketing.

The third point lies in the insufficient attention given by business management due to many business strategic reasons. These remanufactured products are of reduced quality and thus have a lower market value, but maybe even competitive to the original products. The market demand for these remanufactured products

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*Disaster Relief Supply Management*

**3.4 DRS reverse logistics**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94008*

research and practical applications [11, 12].

and management strategical consideration.

population could be taken into consideration.

is hard to be identified and confirmed even with the low price. In general, these remanufactured products, from the remanufacturing process to marketing promotion, are always given the lowest priority in the company strategical plan, with limited financial resource allocation and other related supports. The management information system for a product supply chain designed for its regular business seldom serves the part of the reverse logistics. Even a professional third-party logistics service provider would allocate its capacity to its forward logistics operations since

To save the natural environment, the concept and operations of the reverse logistics should be considered and implemented in the disaster relief materials management. The DRS reverse logistics operations deals with a diversity of materials and waste from food surplus to medical surplus, consumable goods to durable goods, end-of-use product to end-of-life product, and packaging waste to debris waste, that exposes itself to the management challenges in the process of reusing (including the maintaining services), repairing, refurbishing, recycling and disposal. Some of the activities must be carried out under difficult situations simultaneously with disaster relief operations (e.g., removing unsolicited donations or debris waste), some of the decisions should take serious consideration of the social and environmental impacts in advance (e.g., resale options for the products with market values). Most importantly, given budget constraints and cost burdens, it lacks incentives, or even impossible for the DRS management and suppliers to operate a wide range of reverse systems simply with moral requirements or enforced regulations. Innovative and cost-effective business models for recapturing value or benefits from closing material loops are much more attractive for both academic

To bring the Right relief supplies with the Right quality and Right quantity at the Right time to the Right sites to serve the Right beneficiaries, called 6R rule in disaster rescue and relief operations [13], is well discussed and implemented in practice. However, a rich body of knowledge documented in commercial inventory management research provides limited insights in disastrous conditions. Comparing with the conventional practice, the DRS reverse logistics has at least several advantages in product value, operational cost, economies of scale in operations management,

The products or parts handled in the conventional reverse logistics are of low value and not directly useful. But, most of the goods stored for disaster rescue and relief purposes are consumable [10]. Take the massively reserved food commodities as an example. The "food waste hierarchy" has been widely discussed in relevant food-management research, which indicates that the reuse option for surplus food, which refers to the removal of food from its intended supply chain, is highly recommended if the removed food is still fit for human consumption. Since the prevention of product depreciation is of top priority, food inventories should be updated and replenished with fresh items periodically before going expired. When removed, DRS managers and their suppliers could have a set of marketing choices. Transferring to legitimate secondary markets with markdown prices or selling with promotions and discounts in the supplier's primary market are both cost-effective options, dependent on the residual value of the food. In addition, donating them to other ongoing humanitarian programs or local food aid services for the poor

Capital items and rescue and relief equipment are normally kept in a higher level of organization centers, which also provide regular maintenance and normal

the service revenue for reverse logistics is lower than normal.

### *Disaster Relief Supply Management DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94008*

is hard to be identified and confirmed even with the low price. In general, these remanufactured products, from the remanufacturing process to marketing promotion, are always given the lowest priority in the company strategical plan, with limited financial resource allocation and other related supports. The management information system for a product supply chain designed for its regular business seldom serves the part of the reverse logistics. Even a professional third-party logistics service provider would allocate its capacity to its forward logistics operations since the service revenue for reverse logistics is lower than normal.
