Logistics English
Luo De,Jin Bo.
Logistics English[M].HIGHER EDUCATION PRESS.2007,(1)
Service respon logistics activities
Service respon logistics has three primary activities: waiting time, capacity, and delivery (e Figure 4.1). Waiting time refers to the management of the time a customer must wait before the rvice is consumed or rendered. Capacity is the management, scheduling, and staffing of people and equipment to meet a predetermined level of customer rvice that is consistent with preestablished cost trade-offs. Scheduling too little capacity may lead to lost sales, while 家乡的英语
scheduling too much may enhance customer rvice levels but unprofitable increa operations costs. The third rvice respon logistics activity is delivery. It is defined as choosing the distribution channels to deliver the rvice to the customer.
The three rvice respon logistics activities must operate together to meet customer rvi
ce requirements. If they do not operate as a system, they do not yield the full benefits. Also, rvice respon logistics must coordinate with the rest of logistics. Almost all products have rvice attached to them, and many rvices have attached products. That is why the model in Figure 4.1 shows traditional logistics activities and rvice respon activities as a coordinated system.
Evolution of the integrated logistics concept
To tho not involved in integrated logistics, it appeared from out of the blue. This is far from the truth! Integrated logistics has been around throughout human history. The great explorers like Alexander the Great, Columbus, and Magellan applied logistics concepts to expand territories and find shorter trade routes. The term “logistics” as ud today originated in the military during World War Ⅱ. Military logistics focud on the strategic movement of military personnel and supplies. When military logisticians returned from the war, they began to apply what they had learned to the problems of business logistics.
In the early 1960s, Peter Drucker brought the concept to the forefront. In an article entitle
d“The Economy’s Dark Continent,”Drucker said that:“We know little more today about distribution than Napoleon’s contemporaries knew about the interior of Africa. We know it is there, and we know it is big, and that’s about all.”
In that same article, Drucker also pointed out that distribution was a last frontier for top management to find strategic efficiencies. Then, distribution referred to many of the activities included in today’s concept of integrated logistics.
Many variables affected the evolution and growth of integrated logistics. The first was the growth of consumer awareness and the marketing concept of the 1960s Product lines expanded to meet the rising demand for more lections. This product line expansion put great pressure on distribution channels to move more products and keep costs down, especially in transportation and inventory.
A cond factor was the introduction of the computer. Computer experts and integrated logistics managers quickly found a multitude of computer applications for logistics. The applications offered still greater efficiency in transportation routing and scheduling, invent
ory control, warehou layout and design, and every aspect of integrated logistics. In fact, computers allowed integrated logistics managers to model integrated logistics systems and then analyze the effects of propod changes; this application greatly advanced the system’s approach.
The third variable leading to the growth of integrated logistics was the worldwide economy in the 1970s and 1980s.Global recessions and rising interest rates ca限制的近义词
ud many firms to refocus attention on reducing costs, especially in transportation and inventory. To maintain a cost advantage, many firms were forced to reevaluate overall transportation needs. Also, rising interest rates turned attention to maintaining minimum inventory levels becau of the cost of capital.
Globalization of business and the development of world trade blocks are a fourth factor influencing the growth of integrated logistics. Most firms competing internationally find it increasingly difficult to compete on price without more effective and efficient delivery of their products. Integrated logistics can provide firms with表情猜成语
a cost advantage. Furthermore,
trading blocks in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas (European Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Southern African Development Community, North American Free Trade Agreement and now the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) require integrated logistics to tie the participating countries into single marketplaces.
The final factor affecting integrated logistics is the growth of just-in-time manufacturing (JIT), supply management, transportation, and electronic data interchange (EDI) in the 1980s and 1990s.As manufacturers adopted total quality management (TQM), JIT, and EDI, integrated logistics management has come to the forefront. Effective TQM and JIT require optimizing the inbound and outbound transportation and more efficient inventory management. EDI has helped make this possible. EDI applications in integrated logistics, especially in warehou management and transportation, aid in efficient storage and fast movement of product.
