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Bringing it all back home – Panalpina partners to offer return logistics service

[ July 29, 2015   //   ]

Panalpina has signed a strategic alliance with Hong Kong-based Spread Logistics to offer a return logistics service for faulty consumer electronics. It will pick up the goods, carry out failure analyses and – if need be – return them to the original manufacturer in mainland China. The customer has visibility of all return materials in the supply chain and can make decisions on the reuse, repair, disposal or even redesign of its products.

According to Panalpina, under international regulations, any smart device produced in China that has a manufacturing defect or requires major repair work needs to be returned there for repair if it is still under warranty, but this has been seen as difficult, says global head of logistics, Mike Wilson. “The faulty products need to be sorted by fault code and correctly repackaged in their original form to meet Chinese customs demands before they can be sent back to their original manufacturer.”

Panalpina says that Spread Logistics is one of only a few companies that can manage the return of electronic consumer goods to Mainland China and a large proportion of smart devices re-imported to China for repair go through its hands.

Panalpina is setting up four regional consolidation points and the first in Dubai is already operational; the others will follow in the coming months. They carry out first-level failure analysis to determine the goods’ condition and clarify problems, if any are found. If Panalpina can easily repair or refurbish broken equipment, it will do so, and put products back into the supply chain as quickly as possible so that they can be reused, which h improves the cash flow of our customers.

Products that cannot immediately be reintroduced into the supply chain are forwarded to Spread Logistics for second-level analysis (checking at component level) and repackaging – the latter is crucial to meet Chinese customs demands and the products must be complete with original box, documentation and accessories.

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