International Logistics Planning And Implementation- Professor Notes

Question: Create a clear identity for your organisation, including its commercial activities and locations of core operations, Clearly identify the products/services involved, Clearly map out its international logistics activities, including procurement, production, distribution, etc., Identify and discuss the challenges (potential and actual) associated with its international logistics activities, Identify and discuss the opportunities associated with the same, Clearly discuss how you would plan, implement, control and improve your organisation's international logistics activities for successful business operations taking into account the above mentioned challenges and opportunities. Answer: Planning of Logistics Activities The planning process of the logistics activities should take into account various factors for an uninterrupted flow of the logistics operation. Firstly, the planning process of WE should involve gathering of the information in the differential weight limits for the different provinces in China and knowing the specific rates. Secondly the company should plan the selection of cargo fleets based on the port capacity of different ports in China. The third important components is inventory planning strategies for estimating the fluctuations in demand and ensure good use of working capital thereby minimizing both storage and holding costs of the items. The selection of appropriate cold storage unit is important as dairy products are perishable in nature. The planning process should also keep a check on the sustainability goals, which involves selection of appropriate transportation vehicles. WE, should also plan recycling policies and incorporate green logistics into its various supply chain operations. It should also plan its supply chain activities through information technology and Global Trade management systems (Bichou 2014). Implementation strategy The implementation strategies are the set of action plans followed by the preliminary planning of the activities. In order the address the issue for differential weight limits, the containers should follow a minimum weight policy for avoiding frequent loading and unloading of cargo at different terminals. If the cargo is loaded as per the lowest weight requirement of a particular province then it can avoid the cost of weight penalty and reduce transport times. Based on the information available on the capacity of the ports WE should select its size of cargo vessels. This is important in order to accommodate with the lower capacity to dock in the harbor and avoidance of delay. The list given below shows the capacity of the top ten seaports based on the container volume. Source: (Cargofromchina.com 2016) For example we can see that port Lianyugang is having the lowest capacity in terms of volume so WE should assign smaller vessels at port Lianyugang and larger vessels in Ports Shenzen and Shanghai. It should also make necessary arrangement to notify the Chinese port authorities prior to seven days prior before making an entry into the port and getting an approval of the same from Superintendent Department of China. The company should implement inventory control techniques based on economic ordering quantities of its dairy containers. It should also categorize various dairy products as per ABC analysis, which involves segregating the products from most valuable to least valuable ones. In this way the company would be able to incorporate an efficient inflow and outflow of materials at stores and able to minimize its costs. (Torabi et al. 2012). In order to implement a sustainable action plan the company should introduce green logistics. The company should maintain a fleet of low carbon emission vehicles so that it is able to minimize air pollution and other environmental concerns. It should also redesign its reverse logistics system and recycle its glass milk bottles to reduce wastage and dumping activities. WE should make necessary arrangement for optimizing the logistics network thorough information technology. The Global trade management (GTM) can support cross border transaction in China by various software applications which can automate the process of international documentation and customs formalities. With the help of GTM, the dairy products can be integrating with core functional areas of logistics through enterprise resource planning. This will help the organization in cutting down the costs of both importers and exporters. Controlling In order ensure the consistency in performance of the logistics operations control systems play a crucial role. The various methods of controlling the logistics activities involve monitoring service level delivered to the customer, The company should ensure order cycle time is maintained as per the requirement. Service aspect also includes condition on arrival of the dairy products, availability of inventory and accuracy in invoicing and customs procedures as per the rules of Chinese Government. Controlling of warehouse activities involve proper selection of the warehouse sites. The climate condition at Chengdu is ideal for setting up the main distribution point. Continued improvement The continued growth of the company can be achieved through cost cutting in supply chain activities. This is particularly useful if the company concentrates its procurement activities from near shoring sourced. The company should focus on lean supply chain principles by relying on Chengdu Port and port of Chongqing. It should focus on minimizing wastewater as a result of cleaning operations of its containers. The customer satisfaction in terms to meeting the demand chain in shortest time is another important factor for improving the present services level of the company. In order to incorporate virtual logistics system the company should collaborate with companies such as VL Omni, which offers the Virtual logistics facility at a competitive market price (Cardoso 2013). Reference List Bichou, K., 2014. Port operations, planning and logistics. CRC Press Cardoso, S.R., Barbosa-Pvoa, A.P.F. and Relvas, S., 2013. Design and planning of supply chains with integration of reverse logistics activities under demand uncertainty. European Journal of Operational Research, 226(3), pp.436-451 Cargofromchina.com. (2016). Sea Freight Shipping from China: A Complete Guide. Torabi, S.A., Hatefi, S.M. and Pay, B.S., 2012. ABC inventory classification in the presence of both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Computers Industrial Engineering, 63(2), pp.530-537.