No company can succeed without good logistics management
Logistics is esntial for every organization .All organizations move materials and logistics is the function that is responsible for this movement .According to a survey ,everyday millions of people are involved in this effort ,and it costs billions of dollars a year to keep everything moving .logistics is everywhere .Every time you buy ,rent ,lea ,hire or borrow anything at all ,you will be involved in the activities of logistics .We can summarize the importance of logistics by saying that without logistics no materials move ,no operations can be done ,no company are delivered ,and no customers are rved .no company can succeed without good logistics management .According to the definition ,transportation management customer rvice management are the esntial part of logistics management .Now ,I will illustrate them me by one .
Transport is responsible for the physical movement of materials between points in the supply chain .But when we talk about logistics ,most people would imagine lorries driving
down a motorway .As we know ,logistics has a far wider meaning ,but transport is certainly one of its main components .Nowadays ,more and more ,people begin to buy things in the Internet ,and e-commerce have a major effect on an organization’s logistics .But remember that it is esntial part of the information system .when you look at a company’s website you can e descriptions of its products ,nd an order and arrange payment but you still need transport to deliver it .Sometimes of cour ,you buy intangibles such as information ,software or music ,and they need transport .At the heart of logistics are transport vehicles moving goods between suppliers and customers .This is why transport in the employs 1.3 million people out of a workforce of 27 million and along with storage ,generates 6% of the GDP.
Transport does really bring many profits to companies ,if they have good management on it .But how can we manage it well ?The first thing we must to do is to learn the mode of transport .Only if we have a good knowledge of them .can we u it well .
There are basically five different options-rail ,road ,water ,air and pipeline .Each mode ha
s different characteristics ,and the best in any particular circumstances depends on the type of goods to be moved ,locations ,distance ,value and a whole range of other things .sometimes there is choice of mate ,such as rail or ferry across the English channel ;road ,rail or air between Rome and Geneva .often ,though ,there is little choice .If you want to deliver coffee from Braze to Amsterdam ,you will u shipping ,if you want to move gas from the Gulf of Mexico to paellas ,you u a pipeline ;if you want an express parcel nile across the Atlantic ,you u air freight .In practice ,the choice of mode depends on a variety of factors perhaps the main ones are the nature of materials to move ,the volume and distance .
Many other factors may be important for a final decision ,Such as the value of materials ,the transit times and so on Organizations that routinely u the cheapest male may be performing badly by some of the other measures .Remember that transport costs are often a relatively small part of overall costs ,and it can be worth paying more to get a rapid and reliable delivery .One of the early scurvies of logistic by Lewis et al .snowed that air freight can actually save money .It moves materials through the supply chain so q
uickly that organizations need fewer warehous For distribution to customers by paying more for transport they can reduce overall costs
Logistics customer rvice is a key strategy in the process of managing companies .Today ,many business claim that they are “customer-driven “.It is an excellent competitive weapon and has a special advantage over price competition .Becau if a firm cuts its lling price ,its competitions .Becau if a firm cuts its lling price ,its competitions can initiate a matching price reduction immaculately and eliminate the first company’s comparative advantage .But the logistics customer rvice can’t be imitated .Becau almost no company provides all its customers ivith the same level of customer rvice ,rvice rendered usually contains two major elements-basic rvice and value-added rvice .
The high of customer rvice can improve the status of company in customers mind ,They can be easily remembered by people especially the value-added rvice ,it can enhance the company’s competitiveness such as key customers by the firm .The reason
why the firm is willing to do so is that he trusts he can De paid for the additional rvice by the buyer ,or we can say the cost of raising rvice level can be made up for by incread price or more transactions ;such rvice surpassing the basic lever is called value-added rvice once the firms decided to devi value-added rvice scheme for customers ,they are immediately invaded in the activities of customizing ,of cour ,firms nave to undertake basic rvice promi before engaging in value-added nile .
We can e from some successful companies that they pay their most attention to build customer loyalty .Most business spend more time and energy trying to find new customers than they spend retaining the customers they have .The logic behind customer happy than to spend much more money to recruit new customers .loyal customers tell their friends about your business and will spend more money than new customers .There are many steps to build customer loyalty .scubas lect the right people .t performance standards ,survey your customers and reduce your defection rate .Identifying customers rvice needs .It is important to remember that no two customers will ever be exactly the same ,in terms of their rvice requirements .However it will often be the ca that custo
mers will fall into groups or “gments” which are characterized by a broad similarity of rvice needs .The logistics planner needs therefore to know just what rvice issuers are that differentiate customers .Market rearch can be of great assistance in understanding this rvice rearch is conducted in this crucial area .