Logistics Management

Introduction to Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Definitions of  Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers (Harland, 1996). Supply Chain Management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption (supply chain).

Another definition is provided by the APICS (The Association for Operations Management) Dictionary when it defines Supply Chain Management  as the “design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand, and measuring performance globally.”… Read the rest

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Logistic information system and it’s objectives

Logistic information system is nothing but a part of Management Information System to manage, control and measure the logistical activities. These activities occur within the organization or as well as overall across the supply chain.

Logistics information systems are important for achieving logistics efficiency and effectiveness. In an enterprise, logistics information system seeks to achieve the following:

  • It ensures of logistics functional operations into a process pursuing customer satisfaction at the lowest total cost.
  • Information system facilitates planning and control of the logistical activities related to order fulfillment.
  • It makes the firm more competitive, by making better tactical and strategic decision for the benefits of the firm and its customer.
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Concept of Strategic Logistics Planning

Strategic logistics planning is defined as a unified, comprehensive, and integrated planning process to achieve competitive advantage through increased value and customer service, which results in superior customer satisfaction, by anticipating future demand for logistics services and managing the resources of the entire supply chain.

Strategic logistics planning carried out within the framework of the overall corporate goals and plan. It therefore requires an in-depth understanding as to how the different elements and logistics activities relate in terms of trade-offs and the total cost to the organisation. Logistics can therefore best formulate its own strategy only by understanding the overall corporate strategy.… Read the rest

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Categories of logistics

Logistics is the process of accurately interpreting customer requirements or orders or marketing strategy, as also providing manufacturing operations support, with precise execution of the process of reaching the product material from the point of origin to the point of requirement consumption ensuring suitable care of the product material throughout to avoid damage deterioration, continuously ensuring the lowest possible cost throughout the process. Logistics is concerned with getting products and services where they are needed when they are desired. The responsibility of logistics is the temporal and spatial positioning of raw materials, work in progress, and finished inventories when and where required.… Read the rest

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Functions of logistics

What is Logistics?

“The service of providing the right resources at the right time and right place for efficient and effective performance of a goal-oriented activity, including consumption is called as logistics.”

In simple words, “Logistics is the process of anticipating customer needs and wants; acquiring the capital, materials, people, technologies, and information necessary to meet those needs and wants; optimizing the goods- or service-producing network to fulfill customer requests; and utilizing the network to fulfill customer requests in timely way.”

Logistics is the support element of the enterprise. It helps in managing the movement and storage of:

  • Material into the enterprise.
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Business Objectives of Logistics Systems

The General objectives of the logistics can be summarized as:

  • Cost reduction
  • Capital reduction
  • Service improvement

The specific objective of an ideal logistics system is to ensure the flow of supply to the buyer, the:

  • right product
  • right quantities and assortments
  • right places
  • right time
  • right cost / price and,
  • right condition

This implies that a firm will aim at having a logistics system which maximizes the customer service and minimizes the distribution cost. However, one can approximate the reality by defining the objective of logistics system as achieving a desired level of customer service i.e., the degree of delivery support given by the seller to the buyer.… Read the rest

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