An analysis of the management of returnable transport items

Abstract

This master thesis analyses the management of Returnable Transportation Items in Belgian organizations in order to obtain a broader view of what is happening in the field and to identify the several issues that could be encountered. The research has been carried out in four main steps: The first part of the thesis corresponds to a theoretical analysis, a literature review, to gain insights about the previous works addressing the subject. This encompasses the following points: the terminologies, the history of RTIs and the development of technology in the field. The second step consists in a series of face-to-face interviews with senior executives from various companies in order to capture more information on RTIs management. In the third step, the results obtained from the former stage are used to develop a larger-scale mail survey with the aim of reinforcing the problems and improvements wished by organizations. At last, based on all the information gathered, some recommendation and potential solutions are proposed to improve the management of these Returnable Transport Items.