Relationship Between Customer Service and Logistics Management

Logistics and supply chain management is an important aspect of a firm’s strategy for the business to achieve success by creating value throughout the logistics and supply chain. The research paper will outline the concepts that are involved in creating the logistics and supply management framework. The logistics and supply chain management strategies will drive success for the company towards fulfilling and supporting customer needs, procurement and manufacturing operations of the firm.

Logistics is the one important function in business today. No marketing, manufacturing or project execution can succeed without logistics support. 'Logistics ' is the management of the flow of resources, not only goods, between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics is one of the main functions within a company. The main targets of logistics can be divided into performance related and cost related. They are high due date reliability, short delivery times, low inventory level and high capacity utilization. But when decisions need to be made, there is always a trade off between these targets.

During last two decades, the importance of logistics has been noticed around the world. In global markets, the effects and further developments of logistics and supply chain management for corporate success has increased significantly that result in a large amount of companies have taken actual benefits in logistics, such as reducing costs, enhancing customers ' satisfaction and increasing sales. However, some people are confused with the relationship between logistics and supply chain management. Therefore, this essay will argue that logistics management and supply chain management are not exactly the same in operations because of the scope where utilized and some specific activities are similar, but some are different. In the end, this essay will also talk about the reasons for logistics management is an important strategy to manufacturing or service companies.

For example customers wanted pineapples in Morrisons then the logistics manager will need to be able to respond to this demand quickly in order to satisfy the customer, even if the product isn’t available to the logistics manager they must be able to pull few strings in order to keep their customers happy and returning to them therefore logistics managers need to be able to keep up with consumers demands. If consumers demand a lot of apples then the logistics manager needs to be able to find a big supply in order to meet consumers demands to keep their consumers happy as apples are available all year around which means that they need to find sustainable sources and suppliers.

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,

Logistics is one of the main functions within a company, and the supply chain is a complex and sometime fragile global endeavor dependent on a network of independent, yet interconnected, moving parts. It requires professional management. Supply chain professionals order the product, build it, move it, ship it, distribute it, and drive the coordination processes with marketing, sales, engineering, manufacturing, finance, and information technology. In short, they make any business effort seem effortless.

Review of related literature gives a basis for any research. Unfortunately, there are not much studies conducted in this field of Logistics Management. Following are the available related studies undergone in the area of Logistics Management.

(Bowersox, D.J., Closs, D.J., and Cooper, M.B. (2010). Supply Chain Logistics Management. (3rd Edition) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

For our current context, we are dealing logistics as limited to the warehousing, transport and integral management part of the whole supply chain of an organization. In any small to big business, logistics holds a crucial importance of cutting costs and avoiding waste of materials and the golden time resource (Anon., 2012). In our earlier assignment, we mentioned five critical global changes which are bring vital transform in the logistics functionalities of the enterprises. These changes were analyzed for the current period scenario and the coming decade in the organizations regarding Australian Context.

It emphasizes on differentiation of logistics operations, effectiveness and efficiency. Fugate analyzed the relationship between organizational performance and logistics performance and concluded that logistics performance is not only multidimensional but also a function of resources used in logistics in relation to outlined outcomes and objectives against other players’ in the industry or competitors. The authors concluded that the better the joint quality of planning, human resources logistics and customer feedback and satisfaction, the lower the levels of redundancy, waste, and inefficiency (Fugate, et al 2010.p8-22).

4.1 what are the many roles of logistics in supply chain management in an organisation

It is known to us, “in each industry, the customer is god, is operator's food and clothing parents.” This tells us that customers are important to organizations. With the current intense competition in logistics nowadays, most companies can provide high quality goods, even are willing to cut down prices if reasonable. However, how can suppliers gain a competitive advantage when high quality is expected and price must be maintained at a level to generate a reasonable return? In our views, it is no doubt that how various supplier service activities are valued by customers, more specifically, that is, the ability of logistics

SCM can be divided into three main groups: purchase, manufacture, and transport (Thomas et al., 1996). The focus is on transportation. There are different modes of transportation. These modes of transportation fall under three basic types and they are: land (road, rail and pipelines), water (shipping) and air. Transportation plays a connective role among the several steps that result in the conversion of resources into useful goods for the ultimate consumer. It is the planning of all these functions and sub-functions into a system of goods movement in order to minimize cost and maximize service to the customers that constitutes the concept of business logistics. The system, once it’s put in place, must be effectively managed (Fair & Williams, 1981). What are the advantages and disadvantages of these modes of transportation in logistics?

Following the paradigm shift on the role of logistics management in the recent decades, there has been a wide recognition of this as a very important aspect a business strategy in general. However due to the numerous factors promoting complexity of logistics management companies have adopted the idea of outsourcing their logistic activities to Third Party Logistics (3PL) providers. Hence, 3PLs have taken a critical role towards supply chains of heir customers.

The variability of logistics performance is quite relevant. ALP has not been able to guarantee a reliable service to its customers in the last years. There seems to be a lack of organization when providing the service to the customers, in the sense of establishing priorities and