RFID Improves Reverse Logistics

Defining and Improving Reverse Logistics, RL ...

Robert Banks, Army Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee, Virginia, writes ...

... "From this beginning, three tenets of Reverse Logistics RL have emerged: predictability, reliability, and visibility. We can predict successfully when a retrograde item will arrive, our prediction is reliable to the 95th percentile, and we have visibility of the shipment throughout the process. With a system in place that can meet these tenets, maintenance personnel can schedule maintenance activities and more accurately order repair sets or kits. Central shipping and receiving personnel also can adjust workloads to handle inbound or surge shipments as well as to schedule outbound trucks or containers more accurately. The question now becomes: how do we gain this predictability, reliability, and visibility? The answer is a combination of supply discipline and SARSS data, coupled with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology; both are in use throughout the Army but are nowhere more prevalent than in U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR). " ...