DHL envirosolutions Australia: End-of-life management services for e-waste

Publication Type

Case

Publication Date

10-2014

Abstract

Nichole Green, the Account Manager for Product Stewardship services at DHL Australia is reviewing regulatory changes that came into effect a month ago, in July 2013. These changes could potentially affect DHL Supply Chain’s Envirosolutions future business, particularly, its product stewardship services component. This was cause for concern as this service had been successful.

Product stewardship services relied on an Australian Government regulatory framework built on the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) – a policy that required producers to manage their product’s end-of-life segment by recycling a certain tonnage of electronic waste relative to their product tonnage imported into Australia. Envirosolutions was one of the approved providers of business-to-business logistics services for collecting and recycling waste on behalf of producers.

In response to requests by ANZRP, a competing provider, the Australian regulator decided not to separate the categories of Computers and Televisions and to set combined recycling tonnage requirements. As the in-house expert on regulation, Green decides to bring this matter up with the Senior Director of Envirosolutions, Peter Bruce and the Operations and Compliance Manager, Mark Philips. Given the regulatory changes and the entry of a new provider, they need to analyse the regulatory and competitive environment to fine-tune their future strategy. With the initial success in Australia, DHL is also evaluating the feasibility of their success in product stewardship services in other Asian markets.

This case can be discussed in classes on extended producer responsibility and reverse logistics. It is suitable for a course on sustainable operations or supply chain management. The case also lends itself to a discussion of the competitive strategy of a B2B service provider and can be used in a course on strategic management or competitive strategy.

The case has been used successfully in junior and senior undergraduate classes as well as in post-graduate settings.

Keyword(s)

Extended producer responsibility, EPR, logistics, reverse logistics, operations, supply chain management, supply chain, strategic management, competitive strategy, sustainability, sustainable operationa, e-waste, take-back regulation, audit trails, recycling, end-of-life product management, product stewardship, regulatory change

Discipline

International Business | Operations and Supply Chain Management | Strategic Management Policy

Research Areas

Operations Management

Data Source

Field Research

Industry

Logistics

Geographic Coverage

Australia

Temporal Coverage

2013

Education Level

Executive Education; Postgraduate; Undergraduate

Publisher

Singapore Management University

Case ID

SMU-14-0004

Comments

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Additional URL

https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/2111

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