COVER PAGE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TABLE OF CONTENT

PROJECT PLAN

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

To develop a standard reverse logistics process flow for Sleep Country’s proposed bed bank in the GTA,

and rest of Canada that optimizes cost, improves transparency, increase capture rates and percentage of

donated mattresses to the community against recycled mattresses, thereby minimizing environmental

impact, alleviating furniture poverty, and giving back to the community.

CURRENT SITUATION ANALYSIS

To meet the proposed objective, our group has to fully understand the current state and expose

weaknesses of the reverse logistics process of Sleep Country’s bed program. Factual evidence was

collected and analysed from:

-Weekly teams’ meetings with Sponsor and partner Charity organisation

-Interviews and emails with stakeholders, Sponsor, distribution center managers, cross functional

departments
-Questionnaire responses from 11 distribution center managers.

-Information from Winnipeg DC & Regina, best programs

-Bed Distribution Tracking

-Documentation for agencies pickups

-KPI tracker for DCs donated and recycled beds

-Spend on recycling mattresses

-Information on bed program trial between Sponsor and partner Charity organisation.

CHALLENGES FACED BY CURRENT REVERSE LOGISTICS PROCESS

1. Reputable risk: mattresses could be sold affecting brand image

2. Safety: risk of bed bug infestation

3. Cost factor: spend (transportation, recycling, landfill, disposal) exceeding worth or fulfilment rate

of donated mattresses

4. Limited number of partners

5. Communication: Multiple entities involved

6. Handling donations: done by Sleep Country or recyclers

7. Salvageable value of beds

8. Handicapped agencies: small agencies having pick up difficulty

9. Outsourcing transportation: recyclers low KPI for donated against recycled mattresses

10. Lack of information system: Poor paperwork /documentation resulting to inadequate and

inaccurate information

11. Data collection and retrieval: no clear information on freight costs, landed costs, transportation

costs for donated or recycled mattresses

 12. Cost not been appropriately coded in general ledger to cost centers for tracking.

13. Decentralized returns

After sharing the project plan with the Sponsor, we requested for the following information:

-Costs breakdown from Sleep Country’s finance for donated and recycled beds for the DCs spanning over

a month, at the very least for the GTA area.

-Update on the truck load of mattresses that was delivered from Sleep Country to charity organisation

on a trial basis.

The end result of our group CAPTSONE project is to come up with recommendations that can deal with

the challenges in Sleep Country’s bed program’s reverse logistics process by increasing transparency,

decreasing risk to Sleep Country, optimising cost and increasing the capture and conversion rate of

mattresses to save as much as possible from the landfill.