The label “Made in China” fills our aisles with products sporting the term from appliances to textiles to children’s toys. Americans prefer to support their country, with 78% stating they would rather buy domestically produced products over their international counterparts (Consumer Reports Magazine, 2013). Despite the strong support of made-in-America products, international production and trading dominates because of its lower costs for retailers and wholesalers who import these goods. This move to outsourcing production has forced those in business to understand the science of logistics and supply chain management more than ever before. With the international trade growth rate growing at about 5.51% per year, it’s crucial that business programs like the one taught at Northern Arizona University include courses on how supply chain management and logistics affect organizations (David, 2013).
Firstly, it’s important to understand the difference and relationship between logistics and supply chain management. Logistics, as defined by the textbook, “plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods and services to meet customers’ requirements” (David, 2013, p. 47). Logistics is focused on the physical procurement and delivery of products and services. They ensure that the items reach the customer safely, securely, on-time, and without delays for the lowest possible cost.
Supply chain management is an extension of logistics,
Logistics: that part of the supply chain process that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from the point-of-origin to the point-of-consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements (CLM, 1999).
Inspired by my multi-cultural identity and my family’s global manufacturing and printing company, my desire to pursue a career in global supply chain management continues to shape my professional life. While completing degree, I worked full time at MazGraphic Digital Company, Unified Grocers and Aerojet Rocketdyne. My involvement with these companies led me to become increasingly detail-oriented, heightened my ability to multitask and learn about different supply chain strategy. After graduating college, I joined the Munchkin Inc. team as a supply chain
4. Logistics is a critical part of a supply chain that is an integration of the logistics systems in all the organizations
Due to the large quantity of freight and the long distance that it must travel to arrive to its destination exporters and importers alike have found logistic service providers essential to engage in international trade (Rodriguez, Comtois, Slack, 2013). While some Logistics service providers focus only on the area of transportation others specialize in freight consolidation, distribution management, and warehousing (Robinson, 2014). They have enough market knowledge, information and communication systems to offer supply chain solutions tailored to the specific needs of any company be it small or large (Rodriguez, Comtois, Slack,
Recently an opening of the economies of developing nations, especially China, has allowed a huge shift in outsourced production. For the most part the products of the outsourcing are destined for North American consumption, which creates interesting obstacles to the realizations of improvements predicted. Mega Bloks Inc is a Canadian example of this trend, having recently made their own foray into outsourcing to China. An examination of supply chain issues reveals the overall complexity and number of issues which could develop for a company like Mega Bloks. More specifically, for Mega Bloks issues of logistics, regulation, control (in general and specifically of quality) come to the forefront. All of these issues can individually and
2. (p. 463) Logistics is the activity that controls the transmission of physical materials through the value chain, from procurement through production and into distribution.
Logistics is a vital component of supply chain management. Both involve the planning, carrying out and management of goods, services and information from the point of origin to the point of consumption. Logistics aligns the multifaceted pattern of traffic and transportation, shipping and receiving, import and export operations, warehousing, inventory management, purchasing, production planning and customer service. Organizations, like the one I work for, see logistics as a critical design of the supply chain. When organizations incorporate logistics as a key component of the business plan, they can use it to manage, coordinate and monitor resources needed to move products in a smooth, timely, cost effective and reliable manner.
The Supply-Chain Council defines supply chain management as “[m]anaging supply and demand, sourcing raw materials and parts, manufacturing and assembly, warehousing and inventory tracking, order entry and order management, distribution across all channels, and delivery to the customer” (Wisner, Leong & Tan 2005).
Logistics is a very important part in the world now. And it plays a major part in the supply chain process. Without logistics the supply chain is a hard to continue. In a logistics system there are some parts such as Transportation, Information systems, Customer service, Inventory management, Materials management and Warehouse management. And in this Warehouse management plays a major role in the supply chain. In the supply chain process there are some parts that needs attention. After the raw materials are provided to manufactures the goods are sent to warehouses. Warehouse is the place where they store the goods which is to be sent to customers or other businesses. A Warehouse is a place where you store goods. It’s for further processing. There are some types of warehouses such as Public warehouses, Private warehouses, Leased warehouses and Contract
(Bowersox, D.J., Closs, D.J., and Cooper, M.B. (2010). Supply Chain Logistics Management. (3rd Edition) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
The scope of this investigation is limited to a pure academic exercise of Supply Chain Analysis in a real world situation. Even though, the study aims to provide insight on how to improve Tsingtao’s Supply Chain. The report is also limited to a specific division in South China. This method was chosen to enable detailed analysis of a current supply chain in action. Moreover, anglicizing on the Tsingtao’s supply chain in general would be too complex, and therefore not generate meaningful outcomes or strategies. In addition, the availability of information limits the study to a suggestion of a series of broader initiatives.
The term Supply Chain is generally used to describe the all of the possible processes which are involved in the flow of goods starting with the raw material supplier, and ending with the customer. This includes the processes of manufacturing, distribution and transportation to the end user or consumer. Supply chain management not only involves all of the steps mentioned above, but also affects other company activities such as marketing decisions, fulfilling customer demand, and even general corporate strategy or goals. Managing a supply chain has typically been considered to be a complex and intensive process, and many methods have been developed over the years in an effort to deal with supply issues related to the logistics involved in the production and distribution of goods.
As we know that as far as the concept of global market exist it has gone beyond border and the ways of managing demand and supply are changing. In order to fulfill the basic purpose of have low production cost the companies are looking for set up in such countries where manufacturing and production cost be lowered by getting cheap labor and raw material. It is the process of acquiring the raw material and vendor to provide the right quantity, quality at right price and at right time calls for a dynamic
With global operations, becoming more complex, companies in manufacturing, retail and technology and the consulting firms that service them, they are scrambling to hire people with Supply Chain expertise, but these experts are hard to come by. Supply Chain Management has moved from a "necessary evil" to a "core competency" at companies across industries.
Logistics is concerned with getting the products and services where they are needed and when they are desired. It is difficult to accomplish any marketing or manufacturing activities without any logistical support. The main mission of logistics is to provide a means by which customer satisfaction can be achieved. The concept of logistics has moved into business to move, launch and supply inputs and outputs.