The Impact Of Cross Docking On The Distribution System

Although current interest in supply-chain management overlooks certain transportation/distribution issues, substantial savings are realizable by carefully incorporating a shipment strategy with the stock replenishment decisions for VMI systems. This impact is particularly tangible when the shipment strategy calls for a consolidation program where several smaller deliveries are dispatched as a single load, realizing scale economies inherent in transportation. Formally, shipment consolidation refers to the active intervention by management to combine many small shipments/ orders so that a larger, hence more economical, load can be dispatched on the same vehicle (Brennan 1981, Hall 1987, Higginson and Bookbinder 1995). The main motivation behind a consolidation program is to take advantage of the decreased per unit freight costs due to economies of scale associated with transportation.

One of the main ‘flows’ on transport, are goods (food, objects) that will be traded with other countries. The main improvement that has taken place in recent times is the creation of the freight transport, containerization. These containers can be loaded and unloaded, stacked, transported efficiently over long distances, and transferred from one mode of transport to another—container

Innovations in transportation and telecommunications have introduced a number of opportunities for companies of all sizes and types to optimize their transportation networks. This paper provides a description concerning the design of a logistics network that consists of only one warehouse. A discussion concerning what steps will need to taken in order to design the optimal network is followed by a description of the information and data that is needed to make this determination. Finally, an assessment of the strategy will be employed in this network is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning these issues in the conclusion.

The cost associated with the physical transfer of goods is an essential piece of information in the negotiation of an international trade transaction. To maintain a product’s competitiveness, the seller must make sure that his cost is as low as possible. However, in any particular supply chain, this cost is made up of a number of cost elements corresponding to services that enable physical linkages between supply chain members. These elements cannot always be clearly quantified beforehand.

CROSS DOCKING strategy can be implemented to achieve competitive advantage. It is a logistic procedure wherein products from suppliers are directly sent to retail stores. They is no material handling hence cost involved in material handling is

Currently, the shipping and receiving departments have materials coming in and going out at the same time. With the rail handling shipping and receiving, this is creating a bottleneck of materials. By creating certain shipping and receiving times that do not conflict, this will allow for a smooth process that will help the supply chain. (Russell, R., et al., pg. 423) Not only does the actual manufacturing process need to run smoothly, but the shipping and receiving of materials needs to run the same.

Now, because of the limitation of shipping product into the international marketplace, all product shipments for international delivery go out of the receiving dock for the initial leg of shipment by rail. Prior to expansion into the international marketplace shipping had been limited to the shipping department and receiving was limited to the

This is the most economical way of shipping freight by square foot and guarantees that your items will not be misplaced or accidentally unloaded during a previous stop.

Moving the warehouse in between the shipping and receiving departments will reduce the amount of time needed to pull orders for shipment thus reducing the staging time needed. By having one location for both the finished goods and raw materials allows for the cross training between shipping and receiving as well as allows both departments to have access to each part of the building they need without adding extra work to one department.

The second source obtained for this research paper title is, Cross-Docking: A Strategy to Enhance Supply Chain Agility. This article was written by authors, Shweta Narang Arora, Dr. SM Anas Iqbal, and Dr.G.D.Gidwani, and all three of these authors have studied and work in the field of logistics, and have done credible research for the international journal of logistics and supply chain management perspectives.

International trade is defined by shipping commodities and finished goods between countries, including both exporting commodities and goods from the U.S. as well as importing commodities and goods from around the world. Logistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient flow of goods and services through the supply chain from producer to consumer. Distribution comprises all freight carriers (water, air, trucking, and intermodal) and warehousing. Until recently, most manufacturing organizations took responsibility for the warehousing

Costs include inventory an depreciation of the goods. There are several techniques that can help a business control; inventory such as the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model. Making it more cost efficient to control physical and financial inventory on products. WAREHOUSING: Is another component of the physical distribution system. Although mars has their own distribution warehouses there are many decision involved with deciding on the redistribution of products. It must be quick keeping them on the move as much as possible. Many distribution warehouses physically store goods for fewer than 24 hours before shipping them on to customers. The introduction of computer automation at warehouse level is allowing information on the product to be recorded, stored and shipped in shorter more efficient times and at a much lower rate of error.TRANSPORTATION: This is the final component of the physical distribution system. Transportation costs are largely based on the rates charged by carriers. There are two basic types of transportation rates: class and commodity. The class rate, which is the higher of the two rates, is the standard rate for every commodity moving between any two destinations. The commodity rate is sometimes called a special rate, since it is given by carriers to shippers as a reward for either regular use or large-quantity shipments. (enotes) Which ever transportation choice is made it must be

I believe that Cross Docking is something else that could be something that is beneficial for Target at their distribution centers. Cross Docking is a practice in logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or railroad car and loading these materials directly into outbound trucks, trailers, or rail cars, with little or no storage in between. If Target

In terms of communication and coordination, vertical integration leads to efficient and effective collaboration between supplier and Dell, and between Dell and customer through the physical proximity, established patterns of communications, and greater willingness to cooperate with other members of the same group. Another rationale for vertical integration is real time responsiveness and inventory management. Dell has real-time updating of order status and is able to check order status regardless of where the order is in the fulfillment process, which provided Dell with differentiating capabilities. Improved inventory

Warehouse design and operations are the two aspects considered for the performance evaluation of warehouses. The first one refers to the constraints on layout, the storage equipment and the high-level strategic decisions on the total inventory of the facility. The second aspect addresses the warehousing operation activities, such as put away, replenishment and order picking. These two aspects significantly affects the performance of warehouses and have direct impact on the level of service of the logistic chain (Accorsi, Manzini, & Maranesi, 2014)