Managing product returns for competitive advantage
分析了产品退货的两类原因（可控与不可控），并描述了退货流程的五个阶段，通过多个企业案例展示了如何通过改进质量、减少错误和实施供应商管理库存等策略来降低退货成本并提升客户服务。
Product returns have often been viewed by companies as a necessary evil, a painful process, a cost center and an area of potential customer dissatisfaction. However, say the authors, many successful organizations have realized that an effective product returns strategy can provide a number of benefits, such as improved customer service and customer knowledge, effective inventory management and product dispositioning. The authors? analysis divides returns into two categories: (1) controllable returns, which can be avoided or eliminated by actions taken by the company, and (2) uncontrollable returns, which companies can do little or nothing about in the short term. They then describe the five stages of the returns process ? receive, sort and stage, process, analyze, support ? and illustrate how companies as varied as Philips Consumer Electronics, Sierra Trading Post, Road Runner Sports, Altec Electronica Chihuahua, Sauder Woodworking and Estee Lauder minimize returns and their associated costs throughout the process by applying a variety of tactics, such as improvements in product quality, elimination of ?mispicks? and shipping errors, and implementation of programs such as vendor-managed inventory, efficient consumer response and prepostponement.