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More Logistics Content
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Table of Contents
More Logistics Content
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Get latest e-commerce industry news, best practices, and product updates!
Table of Contents
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More Logistics Content
Get latest e-commerce industry news, best practices, and product updates!
Logistics is an essential component of a company’s supply chain. Before, it was just perceived purely as management of warehousing and transportation. There were no solid logistics strategies to smoothen out the creases in a company’s supply chain. But now, companies seem to understand the importance of a logistics strategy as it ensures the optimum performance of the supply chain.
With rapid changes in the socio-economic climate and the e-commerce market, a company’s supply chain needs to evolve constantly. If you want to stay ahead of your competition, you need to have a logistics strategy that will keep up with the flexibility of the supply chain. Suppose you have a competent and flexible logistics strategy in place. In that case, it will help you identify how changes in the market can affect your supply chain and thus enable you to make the necessary changes to maintain and improve the competency of your supply chain.
In this article, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about logistics strategy and how it can help your business.
What is a Logistics Strategy?
We can define logistics strategy as a set of guides, principles and other driving forces that a company needs to implement to improve coordination between the different sectors of a supply chain. It helps you make plans, policies, and goals that will enhance your company’s supply chain performance and make your supply chain management process much more manageable. Essentially, it is a means that helps you find the most effective way to maintain a high level of service and figure out the most efficient way to distribute goods to your customers.
You need to remember that there can be several logistics strategies that you may need to implement in your supply chain network depending on the customer base, the country or the product itself. Logistics strategy is an essential part of your whole Supply Chain Management system.
What are the Differences between Logistics Strategy and Logistics Operations?
Logistics strategy and logistics operations are both parts of the larger picture of a business’s supply chain management system. But they are different components that focus on various aspects of the supply chain. In a logistics strategy, the firm uses management tactics to ensure workflow optimization. It includes prediction and future planning to ensure that the products, goods, services, and information flow smoothly within the supply chain even when external factors change.
On the other hand, logistics operations, even though another part of the SCM system and very closely related to logistics strategy, primarily focus on the business’s manufacturing process. Logistics operations take care of the manufacturing process of the products. For this purpose, it is used for things like handling materials and managing inventory. Logistics operations are solely related to manufacturing and other directly connected factors. Logistics strategy and logistics operations work parallelly and closely in a business organization.
You have to remember that both these systems need to be flexible enough to quickly adapt to the supply chain changes and make sure that the manufacturing and workflow are all going smoothly. The main goal of establishing all these systems in a business is to make your customer happy and satisfied with your products and services.
How does Logistics Strategy Help Business?
If you are using a new machine, you need a user manual to help guide you through the process. Similarly, suppose you imagine your business’ supply chain as a giant machine with many parts that need to be perfectly coordinated for the system to work. In that case, a logistics strategy will be the user manual of that machine.
After considering many factors and data, a business comes up with a logistics strategy to help its supply chain run smoothly. It is worth remembering that a supply chain is constantly changing and developing, unlike a typical machine. The variables in a supply chain are infinite, and that is why a business needs an effective logistics strategy to run it with utmost efficiency.
How does the 80/20 Relationship Apply to Logistics Strategy?
The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, declares that 20% efforts can bring out 80% results. This means that from 20% of the effort that you put in planning and managing a business, you can get 80% worth of results. This term is used chiefly in economics and business, especially in management.
Logistics strategy is also a management and planning strategy that helps a business optimize efficiency from its supply chain. According to this rule, if done right, little effort and changes in the logistics strategy in the right direction can bring out excellent results.
Why Implement a Logistics Strategy?
Now that we have answered the more fundamental questions about logistics strategy let us look into why a company needs to implement logistics strategies in its Supply Chain Management system. It is important to remember that even though a logistics strategy is only a part of the whole SCM system, it is different in many aspects. Supply Chain Management focuses on the entire supply chain.
A logistics strategy aims to ensure the constant and smooth flows of goods, products, services, and information in and out of the system. From the point all materials are procured to when the finished product is delivered to the customer, a good logistics strategy will ensure that the storage and movement happen without any problems.
Therefore, the central importance of a good logistics strategy is to ensure that the service level of your supply chain remains the same or improves, even when faced with external changes. That is why every e-commerce business, big or small, should implement logistics strategies in its SCM system.
Components to Examine While Developing a Logistics Strategy
Even though a logistics strategy is essentially a management plan that overlooks the flow of products, services and information within the supply chain, it also needs pre-planning to be successful. The supply chain is a multifold system consisting of many layers, and that is why there are multiple factors to consider before you develop a logistics strategy.
Transportation
You have to figure out your transportation needs before developing a logistics strategy. If you are hiring a logistics partner, like a 3PL company, perhaps, you have to discuss your transport needs and see if they can fulfill them for a reasonable price. You also have to check for multimodal transportation solutions.
Outsourcing
It can be a good idea, especially for new companies, to outsource their logistics to a partner with experience. Many companies tend to use 3PL solutions as they offer a multitude of logistical solutions. Then you will not have to think about them and will focus on product development and customer satisfaction.
Goals
It is important to remember that the entirety of your supply chain management system has to be aligned with the objective goals that you have as a company. The purpose of having a proper supply chain is to ensure reduced costs and ensure customer satisfaction. Your logistics strategy also has to be aligned with your company’s best interests and objective goals.
Competitors
With the sudden rise in the numbers of e-commerce businesses, every business has multiple competitors working amongst the same customer base. You have to continuously keep tabs on your competitors and how their business is doing to stay one step ahead of them and grab any new opportunity that arises.
Technologies
Data and information have become some of the most critical components of the e-commerce market. To build an efficient logistics strategy, you need to have access to a lot of correct data and analyze them correctly. Make sure to implement the right technology and software to acquire the data you need without any hiccups.
Steps to Develop a Winning Logistics Strategy
So far, we have assessed all the components and gathered all the critical data you need for a logistics strategy. Let’s talk about how you can devise a plan to reduce costs, delight your customers and put your business ahead of its competitors.
- While talking to your suppliers about the price of goods, use volume as leverage. Through data analytics, find out what amount of goods you will need and negotiate the price with the suppliers based on the predicted amount. This way, you can get the best price.
- Have a clear view of the goals that you want to accomplish with your supply chain. Some businesses focus on speed, some on reducing costs or accuracy. Regardless of your goal, you have to decide it beforehand and plan your supply chain accordingly. Because a supply chain system focused on reducing costs will be different from one made to be fast.
- Do not promise your customers things like same-day shipping if you are not confident. It might end up backfiring and result in customer dissatisfaction. Instead, try to focus on your strong points and improve them.
- You have to handle your warehousing process very seriously. If your warehouse is organized and efficient, it will help you save a lot of time and materials and cut costs. An efficient warehousing system will also ensure that the items are delivered to your customers faster and more efficiently.
- The main goal of any e-commerce business is to satisfy its customers. Make sure that your supply chain is optimized to ensure maximum customer satisfaction. A logistics strategy that connects the customers’ needs to the suppliers will give you a competitive advantage and make your customers happy.
- Since a supply chain is a flexible system with many variables, it also has a lot of risks involved. While creating a logistics strategy, keep in mind to develop a data analytics system optimized for risk assessment. This way, you will be aware of any future risks that may arrive.
How Can You Improve Your Logistics Strategy?
After you create a logistics strategy that suits your objectives and optimizes your supply chain system, you cannot stop. You have to figure out ways to improve the logistics strategy to keep up with the constantly expanding horizons of the e-commerce market and adapt to the changes.
Planning
With the implementation of a logistics strategy, you will have a lot more data and insight that you can use to boost precision in your supply chain. It will enable you to plan for problems beforehand rather than reacting to them. Access to more data will also stabilize your supply chain system and allow visibility into all aspects of the supply chain process. This will enable you to plan to prevent any hiccups instead of reacting to them after they have happened.
Improving
A supply chain has supply chain metrics or key performance indicators (KPI) that can help you identify the insufficiencies within the supply chain. These can help you understand how your supply chain is performing and where it needs more attention so its streamlined process and efficiency will improve. Keep a constant eye on these KPIs to improve your supply chain efficiency and reduce costs.
Reducing Waste
You can save a lot of money by reducing the amount of waste your business creates. From procuring the raw material to delivering the goods to the customers, you can reduce waste and save money in all the aspects of a supply chain. Many businesses adopt the ‘Lean Way’ and do the same successfully.
Building an Effective Logistics Strategy
Now that we have covered all the critical parts of logistics strategy, here are a few things that you should remember when you are trying to build an effective logistics strategy to help your business. Firstly, remember that the key to customer satisfaction and cost reduction is connectivity and cooperation between all the links in your supply chain system. Especially if your company works on a global scale, communication is the key to success. The supply chain solutions that work in one region might not work in others. So you have to come up with different logistics strategies for them.
Secondly, you have to build a strategy that is supple and flexible. As we mentioned earlier, the supply chain has a lot of variables that can change at any time. So your logistics strategy also needs to adapt to every change and still be as efficient, if not more.
And lastly, you have to embrace what new technology has to offer. We have come so far in data analytics that we can have reliable data at our fingertips at all times. Use this data and information to build a better system. You should also automate most of the supply chain processes to achieve more precision and speed.
Importance of Logistics Partnerships
The supply chain is the singular most crucial system that connects the different points of your business and ensures customer satisfaction through your services. You have to improve and optimize it to the best of your abilities. But sometimes, you have to delegate the logistics part of the business to focus on the other aspects of your business.
Managing logistics is hard, especially if you are not trained or experienced. But logistics partners like 3PL companies and fulfillment centers are experienced and efficient. They can improve the logistics quality of your business and make your fulfillment and delivery process more stable and quick.
It will also cost you less to hire a logistics partner than to handle it all independently. You can also rely on their massive workforce and cutting-edge technology to improve your supply chain. This is why many new e-commerce businesses are choosing logistics partners based on their business.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we would like to remind you that it is imperative that your business has a logistics strategy in place. A logistics strategy is an essential part of your supply chain management system. It can ensure the smooth and continuous flow of information, product, and services from one point of the supply chain to the other until the end when it reaches the final customer. A logistics strategy will give you access to data and information that you can use to optimize your supply chain. It is also a way to plan a system that improves customer satisfaction and reduces business costs.
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FAQs
Transportation is an integral part of the logistics of a business. There are mainly four types of freight transport through which a company transports goods and products throughout its supply chain. They are air, rail, maritime, and road shipments. Which means they ship items via planes, trains, ships and trucks.
Even though they are closely connected and often confused, transportation and logistics are different. Transportation only deals with moving the products and goods from one physical place to another in a supply chain. Logistics deals with the flow of goods, services, information and products within the supply chain. It helps improve connectivity within the different links of the system.
While planning your logistics strategy, some factors or components are transportation, competitors, outsourcing, and customer satisfaction.
A logistics strategy is a planning and management technique that improves the flow of information, products, services and goods within a supply chain by improving the connectivity of the different sectors within the supply chain.
When managing a business, it is best to delegate different aspects to experienced people. That is why, a logistics partner will be able to handle your logistical needs better than if you did it all by yourself. It will also allow you to focus on other core aspects of your business.