Manufacturer-grade repair.
Whether we built it or not.

Reverse logistics is the operational discipline of moving products backward through the supply chain — from the end customer back to the manufacturer for inspection, repair, refurbishment, parts harvesting, or responsible disposal. Where forward logistics gets product to market, reverse logistics recovers value from what comes back: warranty returns, RMA units, dead-on-arrival inventory, end-of-life equipment, and field-failed products. Done well, it protects margin and brand reputation; done poorly, it leaks money on every cycle.

Depot repair is centralized component-level product repair performed at a manufacturer or contract repair facility, as opposed to field repair done at the customer site. Customers ship returned units to the depot, where technicians diagnose, repair, test, and return the product. It is the standard model for high-volume electronics, consumer products, and industrial equipment because the per-unit cost is dramatically lower than dispatching field technicians.

Industry-standard depot repair turnaround is 5 to 10 business days from receipt to shipment for routine repairs, and 24 to 72 hours for advance-exchange and field-replaceable-unit (FRU) programs where a swap unit ships immediately. Lotus targets 4-day standard turnaround on most product types, with same-day-out FRU programs available for clients running advance-exchange.

Lotus provides end-to-end post-sale support including in-house call center operations, RMA intake and processing, component-level depot repair, refurbishment, reverse logistics, asset recovery, and parts stocking — all managed from our ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified facility in Canton, Michigan, USA.

Yes. While many clients use our depot repair alongside our manufacturing operation, we also provide standalone depot repair, warranty fulfillment, and asset recovery for products built elsewhere. We frequently take over depot operations from offshore or under-performing third-party providers — the manufacturer-grade discipline transfers regardless of where the product was originally built.

Asset recovery is the process of recapturing value from returned, end-of-life, or excess products. Lotus handles intake, evaluation, refurbishment where viable, parts harvesting, responsible recycling, and detailed reporting — turning a cost center into recoverable value. Sustainability reporting is shareable with your stakeholders, documenting material recovery rates and responsible e-waste disposition.

Best practices for reverse logistics include: (1) capturing root-cause data on every return so engineering can address recurring failures, (2) running depot under the same quality system as manufacturing for traceability, (3) integrating returns disposition (repair / refurbish / recover / dispose) directly into your ERP, (4) measuring true cost of returns including warranty, transport, and labor — not just unit price, and (5) establishing clear advance-exchange programs for time-critical equipment. Lotus runs depot under ISO 9001 + 14001, which institutionalizes most of these practices by default.

Yes. Our in-house call center is staffed by agents trained on your specific products and escalation procedures. We handle customer intake, troubleshooting, RMA issuance, and case tracking. Routes warranty claims directly into our depot workflow without third-party handoffs.