Logistics

Case Study report of DHL Abstract The rapid development of world-wide commerce has drove logistics to shrink products lifecycles, increase answer and action aptitude and perfect investments of inventory for current concernes. Therefore, logistics plays a pivotal role in directly commerce. The objective of the report is to hash out and evaluate the existing logistics theories. Whereas, DHL allow be selected as a case study so as to delineate a further apprehension on logistics according to the analysis conduct. IntroductionAs with the growing complexity of transporting life-threatenings and provision materials for a business in worlds add up range, expertise that developed to deal with this cast of problem is imperative so logistics. The concept of logistics is no. specific, the worlds formal definition is Logistics is the direction science of supply arrange and the art of supreme and managing both(prenominal) genials of resources flow like products, discip line, petrol and counterbalance people between the origin point and the consumption terminal so as to satisfy clients strike.Logistics is in relation to the process of moving the rightfield products and services at the right quality to the right place at the right eon with right prices. It is said to be the essential part of any(prenominal) marketing or manufacturing activities. Logistics involves Literature Review Since the value of time becomes much and much important in todays international commerce, out-migration speed and delivery reliableness argon necessary for companies to repugn emulously in business surgical processs which drives logistics industry to improve service standard.In 1996, Kostecki pointed that conscientious in conformity with service determine logistics companies emulously advantage and success. To that content, an important part to be integrated into time way for logistics industry is operating business with clients effectively and innovating mor e efficiency operation skills with clients. This is important beca utilisation any inefficiencies and irregularities in operating with customers that happened in different regions bunghole affect the commerce environment significantly for logistics companies argued by Ahanori and Nachum in the year 2000.They said that the current development trend in logistics industry is just in time supply, e-commerce and growing orbiculateization circumspection. In 1998, Altabet predicted that logistics theory would be updated into supply chain forethought. The impact of effective foreshadow in the process of supply chain management on a company is significant. Kiely states that it ordain bequeath in inventory investment reduction, customer satisfactory improvement and product statistical distribution efficiency enhancement. loosely speaking, forecasting eliminates companies worry about excess inventory investment so as to increase the efficiency when operates with customers.Another import ant managerial skill for commerce is the cost management theory. Degraeve and Roodhooft point that over half of constitutional costs is b passagesheeted from remote goods and services parchment. In order to hold a competitive position in the logistics market, companies should develop a more dependable and lower cost supply chain man fix high service quality for customers. Some suggests that company can increase the cost management reliability via computer technology. With the increasing importance of globalization transaction, contracts act essential role in international trade.On account of companies ceaselessly being confronted with the fact of accomplishing orders with deadline and quotas, some suggest a management approach of Vendor management inventory to handle the problem (Waller, 1999). The management thrust help companies distribute the requirement materials more ductile and offer the possibility of cost reduction and efficiency improvement at the same time. Object ives With the purpose of understanding logistics theory in accordance with practical application and to see how enterprises apply logistics theory to enhance efficiency and reduce cost . tc. DHL, the global leading logistics player is selected for a case study about its logistics operations in this report. Logistics operation of DHL DHL is the leader of global express, international transportation and air freight. It is the worlds no 1 shipping contract logistics provider. DHL offers customers a full range of logistics solutions from documents to supply chain management. As the global biggest logistics expert, DHL is a strong logistics partner for its clients that can offer any patient of of freight transportation via water, railway, road and air. It can supply either pecial or shared operations of warehousing and distribution to any kind of industry sectors. On account of DHL is enti confide service oriented, it involves no material impressment itself but that for clients both consignor and consignee and the intermediaries as well. It just includes physical distribution and procurement. While, procurement involves in packaging materials like paper, moldable and boxes etc. the process is as follows. The first step is to weight and check for condition of the products and materials that collected from the consigners and because pack them according to their various characteristics.After that, products or services will be sent along to their destinations. DHL drive on service performance via effective forecasting. It means the estimation of time required for both collecting wares from the consigner and that arriving to the final client. The crucial point of DHLs entire business is timely delivery. The delivery documentation and process will be coordinated based on the approachability and distance to the final consignee. DHL can pulse the time that it will cost for the goods to arrive to its end-point precisely.DHL provides customers Web Shipping services that allocate a genuine user name and password for for each one client which allows goods sender and contactr to track goods status via online information center. DHL has won the reputation for its continuous development on supply chain solutions innovation that improves control. It supplies for customers reverse logistics management solutions that enable client design, accomplish and conduct materials flow and regulate corresponding information, support of the supply chain to resize values and guarantee safe-handling of products.It involves receiving, ordering, controlling and conducting returned goods. In addition, DHL offers service for manufactures of service and replacement. It enable customer receive and send manufactures replacement parts in terms of pre-designed service such as with a received deadline. Whats more, DHL offers some services other than physical logistics services such as order management, global inventory management, freight solutions, and customs solutio ns. The following three figures show the flow process of DHL. Figure 1 Process Map of DHL Figure 2 internal process map of DHL Figure 3 external process map of DHLFive objectives analysis of DHLs operation Quality DHL has a process of performance criterion so as to supervise the daily working process and understand customers voice. The company applies DePict project management approach to track every project in order to ensure their service quality. Furthermore, around units in the management system of DHL are in accordance with the system ISO 9000 which is the global quality controlling standard. Hence, DHL always keeps a high level service quality. Speed DHL provides its clients specialized solutions so as to ensure a faster response speed to the changing marketplace.For its different kind of customers such as automotive, retail and fashion, DHL offers each of them unique logistics solutions so as to enable a lower response time to the market. Dependability DHL is a leadin g player in many fields of the logistics market it operates business in about 220 countries and employs more than 31000 people. In addition, it has the worlds bangingst aircraft conk and a huge human activity of ships and vehicles. Moreover, it conducts business with advanced management methodologies and performance measurement. All of these resources ensure DHL an unrivalled ability to accomplish any kinds of logistics services perfectly.Flexibility DHL involves in many parts of logistics market and has strong enough ability in each field. It can offer many kinds of logistics service via different routes. Otherwise, DHL can provide customizing logistics or supply chain solutions to meet their specific demand. Cost As a leader in many of logistics market, the bargaining reason of DHL is much higher than most of its competitors which therefore will bring some advantages for DHL. However, for there are a lot of companies that can provide similar service or products it may lose t he price advantage in some egment market. SWOT analysis of DHLs operation Strength The biggest strength for DHL is its leader position in logistics field. It is the dominator in the area of freight transportation through air and ocean. DHLs business covers a big area of the world it provides services for over 220 countries. The leading position enable DHL enhance its economy outmatch and the power of setting price. Secondly, DHLs diversified business model enable the company to reduce the risks in business activities and discover new opportunities in emerging and existing marketplaces.DHL devotes itself to the division of mail, supply chain, freight transportation and express. In addition, DHL has the highest employee productivity based on the data from Datamonitor. Whats more, the DHL owns a large airplane fleet that can provide great transportation ability and a long-term emission reduction GOGREEN computer chopine which makes DHL as the first mover in this area. Weakness Acco rding to the data collected by Datamonitor, DHL has encountered a problem of decline in its exchange flow which results from low efficient cost management.This will reduce its resources availability when it is in pursuit of growing plans. Another problem is due to its huge airplane fleet. As with the rapid climate changing, enterprises are required to undertake their social responsibility for the environment. Large number of aircraft implies often of emission. Although DHL is trying to apply approaches to reduce aircraft emission such as using higher quality give the sack and optimal flight line, reductions on emissions will be still minimal due to the limitations in nowadays aeromechanics implies that airplane efficiency cannot be improve a lot in this aspect.Whats more, as a forerunner in the area of making effort to reduce emission, DHL will also depress the advantage in compliance with new environmental regulations in the future. Opportunities As with the rapid development o f e-commerce, online obtain nowadays grows with a steady high speed year by year. Most of consumers will move their shopping habitat from retail to online. Thus deliveries will increase significantly with the step of online sales which will promote the growing of DHLs business.Moreover, consumers nowadays require more environmental friendly products and services which result in a growing demand from enterprises to get greener logistics services, higher efficiency transportation and low century offerings. The GOGREEN policy of DHL will meet the demand of such companies and the continuation development of this kind of services will help DHL get a good hand in competence with others. Threats DHL currently is in the situation of facing fierce competition in logistics business. The scattered global logistics market brings intense competition to DHL.These may result in negative effects on the company that potentially will decrease its growth and profits. Whats more, it is said that logi stics industry produces a big percent of global emission which lead to governments from all over world aim to reduce the pollution contribution from this market. As a multi-national enterprise DHL always faces the pressure across from governments and NGOs as well. It may affects DHLs reputation since people nowadays consider more and more about a companys social responsibility. Conclusions and Recommendations To conclude, logistics is very important for nowadays global intense competitive marketplace.As is known to all, logistics is an essential part of any companies function. A good logistical operation can enable a company cut the production cost and enhance the efficiency. In this report, DHL was selected as a case study to help analysis logistics theory. DHL owns the biggest logistics network all over the world. It provides any kind of freight transportation via multiple approaches. DHL conducts its great range of logistics activities and solutions for clients across almost 220 countries. It is dedicated to provide customers separate performance and low-cost service in todays highly competitively market.In order to get the victory in the competition, DHL should set a reasonable price, provide a faster and larger meat of scheduled service, improve the function of tracking goods, enlarge the business geographic area, enhance its dependability and bring in new service for customers. In addition, DHL should make more efforts on emission reduction. The performance management and GOGREEN program may help DHL to accomplish this target. In a word, the art of logistics is essential to every organization while DHL has shown its great management and operations to enable a leading position in the worlds market.References 1. Ahanori, Y & Nachum, L 2000,Globalization of Services Some Implications for Theory andRoutledg London 2. Degraeve, Z & Roodhooft, F 1999, effectively selecting suppliers using total Cost of Ownership,The Journal of Supply Chain watchfulness , vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 5-10. 3. Kiely, D 1999, synchroneity supply chain operations with consumer demand Using customer data,The Journal of Business portent Methods & Systems, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 3-9. 4. Kostecki, M 1996, Waiting Line as a Marketing Issues,European Management Journal, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 295-303.LogisticsLogistics process Definition of logistics Logistics is a function that is flexible and changes according to the various constraints and demands imposed upon it. Logistics is Supply + Materials Management + Distribution and logistics is basically the overall management of distributions and supply. There are many different transport methods including- * Air- This is employ to deliver goods fast and also internationally. * Water- This can be apply to transport goods slower. Sometimes unreliable. * Road- This is to be used nationally, and used by the most ranges of business. This is the most popular way of transportation. Rail- This is the quicker way of transportin g goods. Royal commit use rail to transport goods to their regional offices. * Container- Containers are used to deliver goods simply because they dont adopt as much security and also cost less in transport, meaning more profits. When we compare different retail merchants, we afford to take into consideration * The amount of hold ons that the retailer has. * Where the view of the stores are * The supply chain. For example Tesco has over 7500 stores in the UK, which includes a mixture of high street, out of town and local stores.They overhear a wide supply chain which stretches globally as they try to source the cheapest products to sell in their supermarkets. Independent stores may ease up further a few stores at the most (for example Merrie England). The location of the stores are on the high street and in town centres and the supply chain will only reach nationally. elfin retailer Small retailers usually use wagons to transport from manufacturer to retailers, and mostly use wholesalers. These are more likely to stomach less suppliers to work with consequently larger retailers because of the size of the stores.Multinational retailer the retailer buys it direct from the multinational manufacturers and then supplies to the customers, normally using wagons from the distribution centres. Relationship with suppliers All retailers, whether they are small or large, have to have a relationship with their suppliers. This is so they can get the trounce products at the best price and can also introduce new products. By having a good relationship with the suppliers, they know if they are getting the best deal and can also have a good payment plan, whilst also having good interactions by using electronics.Product search * Logistics * Electronic data change over * Supply chain integration * Ordering and payment * Invoice orders The supply chain for a large and small business is more or less the same- especially the logistics and distribution stage. However, larger businesses have to have warehousing to store all of their surplus stock, or to store and to distribute to all of their stores. Examples of this can be supermarket warehouses, which take all of the bulk stock and then separate them into store deliveries, then use their wagons for store deliveries.This not only saves the business time but is also cost effective as the larger the order, the cheaper the product should be for the supermarket. This means that the stock that supermarkets and other larger businesses take will be cheaper than smaller businesses. Stock Management By having management on how much stock needs distributing to independent stores, they can reduce waste, and overall, saves the business time and money by putting them into the correct stores. It also keeps customers happy, because if the stock is to hand, then customers wont complain and/or go to other competitors. Warehousing/Stock RoomsLarger Retailers will have lots of different warehouses to meet the cust omer needs and to also deliver to different stores across the country. By warehousing and storing the products in a safe, cool and dry place, it will keep the products fresh (if they are sustenance/drink items), or safe and without the risk of overheating/getting water damage to the products. By memory the products in these conditions, they will be stay in perfect condition until you need them. Internationally Small Independents wont need to distribute internationally, so wont need to use rail or air transportation methods to deliver their stocks.Also, because of how small they are, they are also less likely to need to source their items from abroad aswell, unless they are a business that relies on international sourcing. However, larger retailers have to rely on sourcing from other countries, especially supermarkets that have to get their fresh foods (including fruit and vegetables) from other countries. This means that they have to rely on air travel to bring in their items. The y also have to rely on fast transport methods, such as containers and wagons to deliver their items to the distribution centres before delivering it to local independent stores.Use of Electronics smaller Independent shops wont need to rely on electronics as much as the larger retailers, because of how big their stores are and how they get their stock. Small independent stores will normally get their stock from cash and carrys so will normally use man power to get their items. However, larger stores will have to constantly source their items from different retailers, and have to rely on electronics to order items from the distribution areas. This means that if any problems occur with the electronics surrounding the business, they could have problems with orders and could therefore run out of products.