Global Logistics Management Research Articles

The Importance of Boundary-Spanners in Global Supply Chains and Logistics Management in the 21st Century

The important and required evolution of the logistics boundary-spanner due to changes in the marketplace (i.e., automation and a hypercompetitive global marketplace forging strategic alliances and lean logistical value chains) has often been overlooked by many firms and consequently, these firms have lost a competitive venue. A Market Orientation approach is used in discussing the importance of strategic alliances and the maintenance of these relationships along the supply chain. The paper explores the need for firms to recognize that logistic boundary-spanners must be relationship-focused to acquire market/firm-specific knowledge from the strategic alliance partners; a far cry from the traditional role. IOIS/Internet migration in relation to lean logistics and boundary-spanners is analyzed.

On the compact presentation of the lead times perturbations in distribution networks

At the end of the second millennium global logistic networks management emerges as a new management paradigm and as one of the last unexplored frontiers of management science. In a global marketplace, getting the right goods at the right time at the right place is as important as low costs. It is essential for enterprises to develop the visibility of flows in the network and to understand management tools needed to supply network logistics. One of such tools is extended material requirements planning (MRP) model, which is extended in distribution and/or recycling (reverse logistics) formalization. In the concept of a global integrated supply network the location of the activity cells influences the storage and distribution costs, and especially the response time, where demand is stochastic by nature. The problem of where is the best facility location and what is the optimal capacity of the facilities to achieve optimal response time is presented in the lead time study in the frequency space, where different perturbations can appear. MRP is presented and Input–Output approach is used in frequency space, using Laplace transforms. The suggestion how to consider the perturbations of lead times is given. The sensitivity analysis approach to the lead time perturbations is suggested.

Inventory Cost Effect of Consolidating Several One-Warehouse Multiretailer Systems

Consolidation of warehouses is a new trend in global logistics management, and the reduction in order processing and inventory costs is often cited as one of the main motivations. In this note we show that when retailers face constant demand rates and their ordering costs are independent of the warehouse that services them, consolidated systems are rarely suboptimal and always lead to close-to-optimal inventory replenishment costs. In particular, we prove that using two (one) properly selected warehouses, the systemwide inventory replenishment cost is in the worst case at most 2% (14.75%) more than the optimal.

Challenges For Multimode Transport In International Logistics Park:A Case Of Taiwanese Ports

The derived demand of transport depends on the domestic and international trade. The growth of a region is directly dependent on the strength of its external exchanges with other regions. We could consider a bottom-down or a top-up scale of transport system in terms of integrated, co-ordinated, seamless, flexible, reliable and door-to-door service where fragmented transport at the very early stage. Since the revolution of containerisation has passed in the mean time four decades and during age of globalisation it is quite realistic to assume that the transport system of any country is not at the very primitive stage. The growing progression in the use of containers as standardized unit and the creation of joint venture in maritime industry and the trend to Post-Panamax container ships have put pressure on seaports to respond in such intermodalism. The concept of hinterland is becoming obsolete because the use of containers provide the intermodality and so remove monopolistic position of ports in its next influence area. Efficient sea transportation is heavily dependent on the smooth operation of multimode transport. That means that intermodal transfer is a key point to successful shipping operations with their massive transhipment in major seaports. This study will focus on a short-term objective to approach the long-term vision by establishing the port logistics system and global logistics management mode. In this paper, we will discuss about the strategy for the intermodal freight transport system, comparing with the interior and exterior environmental situation for the intermodal development in international logistics park. Final paper will describe strategic planning methodology by adopting AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method from the comparative point of view with container ports that use those maritime intermodal facilities.

Planning enterprise resources by use of a reengineering approach to build a global logistics management system

Theoretically and ideally, enterprise resource planning (ERP) seeks to streamline and integrate operation processes and information flow within a company. Practically, ERP system implementation involves a much broader scope and in‐depth consideration within an organization as a whole. Concurrently, in response to this need for resource optimization, the impact of globalization has caused the emergence of a new business operation format, global logistics management (GLM). This pertains to the overall management system of a corporation’s undertaking of worldwide market distribution, product design, customer satisfaction, production, procurement, logistics, suppliers and inventory. Suggests building an ERP as the backbone for implementation of a GLM system, while minimizing the impact of changes by use of information system reengineering technology (ISRT). Proposes a novel development framework that applies ISRT and ERP to developing a GLM system to economize on the system implementation cost and minimize the impact of changes within the corporation as a whole.

Impact on inventory costs with consolidation of distribution centers

The consolidation of Distribution Centers (DCs) is a new trend in global logistics management, with a reduction in inventory costs often being cited as one of the main benefits. This paper uses an analytical modeling approach to study the impact on facility investment and inventory costs when several DCs are consolidated into a central DC. In particular, our model suggests that consolidation leads to lower total facility investment and inventory costs if the demands are identically and independently distributed, or when they follow independent but possibly nonidentical Poisson processes. This agrees with the conclusion of the classical EOQ and newsvendor models. However, we show by an example that, for general stochastic demand processes, the total facility investment and inventory costs of a consolidated system can be infinitely worse off than that of a decentralized system. This arises mainly because the order replenishment fixed cost yields a cost component proportional to the square root of the mean value of the demand, while the demand uncertainty yields a cost component proportional to the standard deviation of the demand. Whether consolidation is cost effective or not depends on the trade-off between these two components, as indicated by an extensive numerical study. We also propose an algorithm that solves for a distribution system with the total facility investment and inventory costs within √2 of the optimal.

Recent Reforms in Customs Administrations

Positioned at the nexus of import/export flows, customs authorities represent a significant node in a firm's global supply chain network. In light of the traditional need for physical inspection of goods by customs authorities, the significance of this node is often viewed in terms of its potential disruption to the network flow. Customs reforms that aim to facilitate the international flow of goods (trade facilitation) are thus easily regarded as measures to reduce the supply chain inefficiencies of these disruptions. The readiness with which the resulting improvements can be envisioned and have been cited contrasts sharply with the limited research into the corresponding potential challenges involved in global logistics management. This paper's primary purpose is to deduce the nature of these challenges, not only for practice in the area of global logistics, but also for research in that area, an area in which the significance of customs authorities has received little treatment. Systematic qualitative analyses of existing and proposed reforms based on the trade facilitation philosophy provide the bases for the deductions.

ISO10303 compatible data model and its applications for PC configuration management

This paper focuses on identifying and defining standard data model for conducting configuration management (CM) of Personal Computer (PC) design and redesign. ISO product data representation and exchange standard (ISO10303) is adopted to support the realization of PC industry's global logistic management. The required data types are studied, identified and interpreted using ISO10303 Application Protocol 203 (AP203) to support the ISO10007-based standard CM procedure. This research enables the CM-related data being exchanged using a common data model among heterogeneous PDM systems of the supply chain partners for data sharing and virtual enterprise integration.