Reverse Logistics: Time to Bring It Front and Center

by Gabriele Piccoli

This installment of CBR focuses on an often-neglected issue: reverse logistics. To help us better understand the potential of the reverse logistics process, and keeping with our standard process, we recruited both an academic and a practicing professional. Our academic on this issue is a returning contributor, Kathryn Brohman, Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the School of Business at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario (Canada). Kathryn and I share an interest in customer service systems and IT-enabled service. But Kathryn is also becoming increasingly interested in the reverse logistics process. Our practitioner on this issue is Eileen Brown, an Associate Partner in IBM Global Business Services. Eileen has a wealth of experience in supply chain and operations issues having spent more than two decades in this space. Eileen's broad base of knowledge spans other areas such as M&As, IT, and manufacturing operations within the electronics services and manufacturing industries.