Logística reversa de pós-venda para alimentos derivados de carne e leite : análise dos retornos de distribuição

Abstract

Reverse logistics has conquered more importance and space in the companies logistics operation, mainly for its economic potential, but also for the change in the customers consumption culture and for the increase of the importance of environmental preservation. However, the lack of studies in this direction makes it difficult to visualize the advantages of the reverse logistics application. In such a way, the objective of this study is to understand the reverse flow configuration, as well as its critical points, the inherent performance measures to the process and the strategic use of after-sale reverse logistics to the reverse flows management in meat and dairy food distribution channels. Qualitative studies have been developed, in France and Brazil, with the multiple-cases study methodology. In France, two dairy manufacturers and a food retailer have been interviewed and, in Brazil, four meat and dairy manufacturers and three food retailers have been interviewed. In the thesis, the results have been presented and analyzed for each country, and they also have been compared with literature. From the results analysis, it was possible to identify that after-sale reverse logistics has a strategic use for the industrial companies. The main processes of reverse logistics used by the studied companies are the resale in original market, the resale in other markets, the landfill and the loads consolidation for manufacturer collection. The gatekeeping (mainly for the retail) and the existence of collaborative relations between the companies have been considered the most critical factors to reverse logistics management. However, the brazilian companies have affirmed that the retailers uses the coercive power, mainly, to impose to the industry a way to manage the reverse flows. Moreover, the performance measures used by the manufacturers and retail companies in the meat and dairy food distribution channel have been shown. The most used performance measures are: total reverse logistics cost, cost of returned merchandises, cost of deteriorated products, cost of pallet and packing returns, perfect order fulfillment, return percentage and return reason. With this analysis, it was possible to provide recommendations and reference parameters for reverse logistics of perishable food as the derivatives of meats and milk.