From 1,400 to 1,500 people have gathered for the Reverse Logistics Association’s 2008 Conference & Expo, being held in
In his welcoming remarks, the association’s president and CEO Gailen Vick also noted that more than 600 companies who manufacture, sell, ship and recycle products are represented at the event. “We’re really amazed about that; we’re thrilled,” said Vick.
Vick recounted how he founded the association just six years ago, in 2002, and has been gratified at the growth in the RLA’s membership, events and the circulation of its magazine.
He also congratulated attendees for their recycling and energy saving endeavors. “You folks are green,” he told attendees, noting that they conserved resources with improved shipping practices and by recycling end-of-life goods rather than putting them into landfills.
While the RLA’s growth has been gratifying to him, Vick said corporations are still in the early stages of understanding the profit-and-loss aspects of reverse logistics. Many companies “are still not measuring reverse logistics costs,” he remarked.
A research report summarized for attendees by Micky Long of the Aberdeen Group reached the same conclusion. While some 61 percent of corporate respondents called reverse logistics extremely or very important, the same number—61 percent—said they were not satisfied or only somewhat satisfied with their own’ company’s reverse logistics efforts.
”The old saw applies: You really can’t manage what you don’t measure,” Long stated.