Product Recall

Contingency planning for product recall involves nearly every function within a business. Logisticians become involved in product recall in three ways, a task force committee for recall, tracing the product and designing the reverse logistics channel.

Establish a task committee

• To pull the product back toward the manufacturer 
• Also responsible for stopping production, starting recall action and carry out the necessary steps to comply with appropriate regulatory agencies.
• Cannot be easily located within the distribution system can be very expensive operation and unnecessary. 

Tracing method using warranty card information

• It is confined to those products that use such cards, not all cards returned by customer. 
• One electronics equipment retailer requires all customers to fill out an identification card at the point of sale. 

Reverse Logistics

• Depend on the nature of the products defect and how the company plans to handle it 
• A portion of the distribution channel may be used. 
• Many small appliances and electronic goods are returned to the factory or regional service centers for repair or replacement. 
• The logisticians should be aware of the variety of channel designs available and should not necessarily confine recalled products to the existing distribution channel.