Table 3 Flows of the “Regenerate” supply... | Emerald Publishing

Table 3

Flows of the “Regenerate” supply chain

Flow type	Supply	Operations	Demand
Material flow	Discarded items are donated by consumers, who deliver them to household waste recycling centres and place them in “a reuse container” (Regenerate manager). The material supply is characterised by: Lack of control over incoming items: In terms of type of donated items, their conditions, and timingSeasonality of supply: Fluctuations over the year and weekdays (“Mondays are always our busiest day”, Electrical department lead) visible in type and amount of items donated. For example, for bike donations, “it correlates with the weather. If we have good weather, a lot of people will be clearing out […] and they’ll be going to the recycling centres” (Lead bike technician)	Items undergo a series of steps when they reach “Regenerate”, starting with inspection, before being repaired or refurbishedOperations characteristics: Labour intensity: All operations steps require manual handling of the item: “It’s a lot more hands on, a lot more labour” (Apprentice furniture). The reason for this is the uniqueness of each incoming item, its condition and prior use and required repair or refurbish work	Diverse sales channels, including online sales, shops at recycling centres and high streets, pop-up stalls at events and markets, enable reaching a diverse set of consumers: “it can literally be everyone and anyone [who buys from us]” (Apprentice furniture). Material demand is characterised by: Seasonality: “at certain times of the year we have certain markets. Like with suitcases, […] when it comes up to May, June, July, August, then we just need to make sure we have got enough stock to go into the shops“ (Shop supervisor) Locality: using the right sales channel for an item to be sold at a good price: “in some of the other shops we do not sell the furniture very well, but we know that we sell toys and golfing equipment. So it is about using the [sales] data” (Regenerate manager)
Finance flow	Service agreement with the local authority pays Regenerate’s parent organisation for waste elimination, i.e. operating the household waste recycling centres and waste disposal	Donations to local charity projects are included in Regenerate’s contract	Finance flow from sales of reused, repaired or refurbished products to secondary end-users
Information flow	No information flow between suppliers and Regenerate: “we do not know where these items have come from. We do not know if there is any issues” (Regenerate manager)	Information creation through inspection of the supplied waste item to build a list of required repair or refurbish work and assess the “labour costs, how long it takes to restore a piece” (Apprentice furniture). This assessment is complemented with market research about trends and needs in demand to be able to identify “the resale [value]. Just so we can sort of cover all bases before you even start any work” (Lead bike technician)	Customer needs are ascertained through sales data, giving a quantitative overview of which items sell across shops and online channels. In addition, some items are donated to charitable causes
			These key times for different items are captured in a seasonal stock calendar capturing times of demand, such as national holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.) or seasonal activities, such as gardening
			“Customers sometimes email with what they want” (Online sales operative)
		Signalling to customers: “[For} the online shop, I will take photos, put the manufacturer, the model, will give it a price and will also grade it [to reflect the item’s condition]” (Electrical repairs Lead)

Flow type	Supply	Operations	Demand
Material flow	Discarded items are donated by consumers, who deliver them to household waste recycling centres and place them in “a reuse container” (Regenerate manager). The material supply is characterised by: Lack of control over incoming items: In terms of type of donated items, their conditions, and timingSeasonality of supply: Fluctuations over the year and weekdays (“Mondays are always our busiest day”, Electrical department lead) visible in type and amount of items donated. For example, for bike donations, “it correlates with the weather. If we have good weather, a lot of people will be clearing out […] and they’ll be going to the recycling centres” (Lead bike technician)	Items undergo a series of steps when they reach “Regenerate”, starting with inspection, before being repaired or refurbishedOperations characteristics: Labour intensity: All operations steps require manual handling of the item: “It’s a lot more hands on, a lot more labour” (Apprentice furniture). The reason for this is the uniqueness of each incoming item, its condition and prior use and required repair or refurbish work	Diverse sales channels, including online sales, shops at recycling centres and high streets, pop-up stalls at events and markets, enable reaching a diverse set of consumers: “it can literally be everyone and anyone [who buys from us]” (Apprentice furniture). Material demand is characterised by: Seasonality: “at certain times of the year we have certain markets. Like with suitcases, […] when it comes up to May, June, July, August, then we just need to make sure we have got enough stock to go into the shops“ (Shop supervisor) Locality: using the right sales channel for an item to be sold at a good price: “in some of the other shops we do not sell the furniture very well, but we know that we sell toys and golfing equipment. So it is about using the [sales] data” (Regenerate manager)
Finance flow	Service agreement with the local authority pays Regenerate’s parent organisation for waste elimination, i.e. operating the household waste recycling centres and waste disposal	Donations to local charity projects are included in Regenerate’s contract	Finance flow from sales of reused, repaired or refurbished products to secondary end-users
Information flow	No information flow between suppliers and Regenerate: “we do not know where these items have come from. We do not know if there is any issues” (Regenerate manager)	Information creation through inspection of the supplied waste item to build a list of required repair or refurbish work and assess the “labour costs, how long it takes to restore a piece” (Apprentice furniture). This assessment is complemented with market research about trends and needs in demand to be able to identify “the resale [value]. Just so we can sort of cover all bases before you even start any work” (Lead bike technician)	Customer needs are ascertained through sales data, giving a quantitative overview of which items sell across shops and online channels. In addition, some items are donated to charitable causes
			These key times for different items are captured in a seasonal stock calendar capturing times of demand, such as national holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.) or seasonal activities, such as gardening
			“Customers sometimes email with what they want” (Online sales operative)
		Signalling to customers: “[For} the online shop, I will take photos, put the manufacturer, the model, will give it a price and will also grade it [to reflect the item’s condition]” (Electrical repairs Lead)

Source(s): Author’s own work