Warehouse Returns Process
In the normal course of business, customers are likely to return orders from time to time due to various reasons and business should design processes the manage and accept such returns. A well designed returns management process can reduce costs and issues associated with returns or exchanges.
What do we mean by Return?
In the normal course of business, customers are likely to return orders from time to time due to various reasons and business should design processes the manage and accept such returns. A well designed returns management process can reduce costs and issues associated with returns or exchanges.
The term “Return” is understood as any goods returned to the warehouse by the end customer, retail outlet or courier for any reason, and all packed release orders where the release has been cancelled for any reason.
Returns in e-Commerce Business
Handling returns is one of the major problems for online stores. Customers often send products back without any notification and sometimes it becomes difficult to determine who returned the products and why.
Return Process
- A return is the process of handling the return of products from a customer to the distribution center (DC).
- Returns can be either created against a Return Order or created without an Order reference.
- Once the business obtains information from the end customer that the return of goods has been requested, it should create an return order
- An electronic return order shall contain reference to the original release order, scheduled return delivery date and the reason for the return
- Once a Return Order is created and confirmed, a supervisor usually authorizes the return.
- The warehouse should schedule to receive the return on the day specified in the return note
- When receiving returns with an Return Order, receipts are recorded through the Record/Report Receipt action
- Receipt of the return shall be understood as physical unloading of the delivery and preparation of the necessary documents conforming receipt of the goods in the warehouse
- The details of the receipt are entered and the receipt for the Return Order is then marked Closed.
- Returned goods need to be accepted into stock
- The closure of the receipt triggers the generation of Putaway tasks.
- During the receipt of returned goods, there may be a requirement to perform an inspection
- Discrepancies need to be recorded in the system
- A return is considered accepted when the goods appear in stock and become available for release or when all returned goods have been accepted into stock as damaged goods.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Warehouses can be places where piles of packed or loose products occupy space. If left disorganized, it will become very challenging to identify products for packing or picking. Hence, proper organization of warehouse is very important. Warehouse labeling systems eliminate this problem by making sure products are easily identified and managed during the warehousing and shipping process. Labeling is the most functional and cost-effective way to keep your warehouse organized and operating efficiently.
-
At a high level, the essential elements in a warehouse are an arrival bay, a storage area, a departure bay, a material handling system and an information management system. As part of the process for enabling a warehouse layout, you must define warehouse zone groups, and zones, location types, and locations.
-
Overview of Warehouse Processes
The basic function of a warehouse is to store goods. This means that they receive deliveries from suppliers, do any necessary checking and sorting, store the materials until it is dispatched to customers. Traditionally warehouses were seen as places for the long-term storage of goods. Now organizations want to optimize their customer experience and try to move materials quickly through the supply chain, so the role of warehousing has changed.
-
When a customer wants a product that has been stored in the warehouse, the same need to be picked off the shelf (or off the floor) and get it ready for shipping. Depending on how big is the warehouse, picking can take a while. (Many distribution centers cover more than 1 million square feet.). Hence, warehouse order picking methods are an important aspect within any warehouse.
-
Warehouses may seem like a simple, straightforward concept, but they actually include a variety of different types of warehouses that all have their own niche. The type of warehousing that’s right for you depends on your specific industry, location, and needs. From private warehousing, distribution centers, and climate-controlled warehouses, there’s an option to suit every business.
-
What is a Warehouse & why companies need them?
All organizations hold stocks. In virtually every supply chain, gaps exist between when something is produced and when a customer is ready to buy or receive it. Stocks occur at any point in the supply chain where the flow of materials is interrupted. This implies that products need to be stored during this period of gap.
-
After products have been received and passed a quality inspection, they need to be stored so that you can find them when you need them. This process is called putaway. The spot where you store a particular product is called a location. One section of a warehouse might have small locations for light items; another area may have large locations on the floor for heavy items.
-
When products arrive at a facility, there need to be a defined process to let them in. The process for accepting inventory when it arrives is called "Receiving". Any warehousing operation must be able to receive inventory or freight from trucks at loading docks and then stow them away in a storage location. Receiving often involves scheduling appointments for deliveries to occur, along with unloading the goods and performing a quality inspection.
-
Before shipping, businesses need to make sure that the items will arrive in good condition. Packaging is a form of protection against environmental threats that the product will face from the time it leaves warehouse facility until the time it reached the customer. The packaging is intended to provide protection for the item as it is being handled in the warehouse or when the item is being shipped.
-
The Outbound process starts with routing the shipments. The Outbound execution process starts from the point when pick tasks are completed for an outbound shipment and ends at the point where the outbound packages are loaded into trailers. The Warehouse Outbound process includes managing and controlling outgoing materials starting from the download of orders through to the shipping of products from the warehouse.
