Advantage through Distribution Networks

How to achieve a competitive advantage through Distribution Networks

After the lesson on distribution networks, I researched to complete the training a bit more and I found how to obtain efficiency on the distribution.

“The success in the market and the competitive advantage depend on distribution network”

Without efficiency in distribution networks, the success in markets and obtaining a competitive advantage could not be achieved. This is why it’s necessary to get a balance between the maximizing customer service, the minimizing transaction costs, the investment made and the risk. A solid strategy is vital to align the decisions and actions with the objectives, but at the same time, it’s interesting to take into account some of the principles applicable to the design of the distribution networks, beginning in its preparation stage, where the bases for efficiency are laid.

Previous steps in the design of distribution networks

Before defining the applicable model of distribution networks and their different scenes, it’s essential to start with these 6 steps:

ONE.
Definition of the scope
It’s crucial not to lose alignment with the evolution of the business and the transformations that implies. The distribution chain and its processes must adapt to the sales volume, the number of customers, the variety of products, the different markets where it works, the particularities of the business and the requirements applicable to operations.

TWO.
Identification of the limitations
Every project suffers from restrictions and especially talking about the logistics chain. Storage capacity, budget limits, handling requirements of each product, transport conditions, availability or risk tolerance, among others.

THREE.
Establishment of objectives
Justifying the investment and adapting to the service requirements. The objetives must be concrete, achievable and realistic. Generally, are grouped into two categories, goals related to the reduction of costs and strategies related to improving the service. Among the former, the rationalization of inventories, the minimization of storage costs, the reduction of transport costs or the adjustment of labor costs are frequent; On the other hand, the latter refer to performance or the flexibility.

FOUR.
Study of the environment
This analysis allows to detect opportunities and threats. Being a hard struggle, which implies a high consumption of effort and resources, it is a necessary step for the elaboration of the strategy and the optimization of the design of the distribution networks. Among the data collected, are the complete description of the distribution goods, the historical records of operations, the applicable transport rates and their conditions, the addresses of suppliers and customers, the service requirements and the applicable legal regulations.

FIVE.
Forecasting
Must be carried out in order to forecast the growth of demand, inventory needs and trends that will influence the management of the distribution chain; so that the actions to be taken can be planned.

SIX.
Selection of distribution network design tools
In the market there are different possibilities of solutions to design a network of this type. In the election, it should find that the selected tool includes softwares with database analysis capabilities, calculations applicable to transport optimization, specific applications aimed at innovation to improve customer service or simulators that allow greater dynamism and precision in decision making.

With these steps we can design an optimized distribution network model that will always be subject to revision, to guarantee its updating and suitability in the business conditions.

Logistic in Lidl

This blog will be my first writing in logistics at MGEPS at UPV , so as we in this course to talk about logistics in our life and i noticed that many of the ones writes about The logistics in Mercadona and Consum , so i decided to write about the Logistics in Lidl .

Lidl is a German chain of discount grocery stores that operates in numerous countries across Europe, in UK alone Lidl have about 568 outlets / supermarket stores. Lidl’s largest market is Germany where it competes with fellow German discounter and arch rival Aldi.

Lidl  now they have over 10,500 stores and in 28 European areas, Lidl is a leading supermarket chain in the food distribution sector delivering fresh, quality produce across the UK with employing some 400,000 people.

i will focus on Lidl warehouse operations , there is a lot of jobs that are behind of product you see in the supermarkets .

watch out this video : Lidl Warehouse Operations

How do they differ from using  pallet networks and what are the advantages of using this  services?

they are one of only a few freight companies offering a truly one-stop-shop logistics solution for suppliers to the supermarket groups they serve, an integrated, timely, cost effective logistics service, If there are delays at point of delivery, they wait until it can be tipped, they do not pull out of the RDC due to delays and do not charge demurrage.

Direct Deliveries & Warehousing Group-age Services

warehouse is an exciting place to work because it sell million of products out each day , everyday they have this following process :

provide full trailer load & part load (group-age, consolidation, LTL) deliveries to Lidl in the UK.  These distribution services are supplemented by differing range of warehousing services:

• Container De-stuffing
• Palletisation
• Pallet Racking
• Reworking of Pallets
• Pick and Pack
• Labelling & Bar Coding
• Printing of Delivery Notes
• Part & Full Load Delivery
• Storage of any rejected Pallets
• Internal Storage of empty Pallets
• Consolidation of rejected loads & pallets for an economic return to the manufacturer/supplier.
• Delivery to food banks

Disadvantages of using Pallet Network system

• Pallet deliveries are expensive
• Haulier will not wait past 30 mins of booking time
• Goods get returned to hub and customer is charged for outward and return journey
• Goods need to be re-booked, customer receives notice of delivery failure
• Charged again for re-delivery

Operational Information –  Lidl Warehousing:

• Deliver to each RDC six days per week
• 9 Loading / Offloading Bays
• 24/6 with Sundays 8-5pm
• Drop Trailer facilities
• Repack, Restack, Invert, Relabel facilities
• Warehouse based in Warrington, Cheshire
• Warehouse 45 minutes from Port of Liverpool
• Proof of Deliveries all have the customers logo on

Rejection of Full Loads at Lidl RDC’s

In the event of direct deliveries in FCL or FTL getting rejected at a Lidl RDC, they provide regional repack, re-stack & re-delivery services near to every Lidl RDC in the UK. This allows Lidl to take off what they are happy to do so and prevents the whole load getting rejected. then work with the shipper/importer etc. to find a local solution to allow fulfillment of the order.

regional warehouses are located strategically throughout the UK & Ireland. partner warehouses provide repack/restack / re-delivery services in locations near to every Lidl RDC in the UK & Ireland.

container & Trailer Services – Suppliers to Lidl

they work together with shipping lines and merchant hauliers to try and avoid quay rent. This is especially important during “specials” where high volumes combine with short lead times.they operate a drop and swap system to ensure maximum efficiencies in terms of shunting to and from the Port of Liverpool , also work with line & merchant haul from other UK Ports.
Services below:

• Customs Clearance
• Duty Deferment
• Inland Haulage
• Full load collections from Europe

IKEA lOGISTIC sTRATEGy

In the phase before the products reach the store, IKEA distribution service makes sure all goods are transported from suppliers to stores. However, once in the stores, logistics handles the off-loading and arrangement of goods.

IKEA was founded in 1943, in Sweden. IKEA focused on offering a wide range of good quality, stylish, well-designed, and functional furniture at a low cost so that more people could afford it. IKEA kept cost reduction at the center of any decision making. It made efforts to improve its internal supply chain processes like packaging, warehousing, and transportation which contributed to its cost cutting objective.

IKEA’s supply chain management became the key factor for the success of the company. As a result, IKEA managed its costs better than its competitors and could offer products at 30% lower costs. Nowadays, we can say that IKEA is expanded around the world, by the year 1990, it had 89 stores in 21 countries, and it was operating 260 stores in 36 countries in 2008. At IKEA, thousands of products are handled daily. The movement of goods must be as efficient as possible, under all circumstances, guaranteeing service to our customers and ensuring that the products they seek are always available to buy. Jobs in logistics account for about 20 -25% of each store’s co-workers, all of whom

provide a vital link in our operations. Our goal is to be in full control of the space and the volumes of goods in order to maintain uninterrupted sales.

The sheer volume of goods coming in and out of each IKEA store each day makes running a logistics department an enormous challenge. A manager in this area drives the cooperation between the sales and logistics departments, knowing how to exploit every cubic meter of space. It is also the manager’s responsibility to supervise the ordering of products to the store, ensuring the correct quantities are acquired.

Where IKEA’s most innovative process comes from combining their retail and warehouse processes. Almost every store has a warehouse on the premises. This helps the company reducing transport costs. For example, imagine when someone selects a piece of furniture to buy. The item is then ordered, shipped from the manufacturer, moved from the delivery truck into storage in the warehouse, moved from the warehouse to the customer’s vehicle or delivered by the furniture retailer to the customer’s home. Every time the product is shipped, moved, and loaded, it costs money. IKEA does not have to do this as they all their products under one roof which is accessible to their customers

Sustainable Relationships with Suppliers

A key part of IKEA’s success is credited to its communications and relationship management with materials suppliers and manufacturers to get good prices on what it procures. Although Ikea fosters competition among suppliers to ensure they attain the best prices and materials, it believes in making long-term business relationships with them by signing long-term contracts, thus lowering prices of products further

 IKEA is a very high-volume retailer – it buys products from more than 1,046 suppliers in 52 countries and uses 42 trading service offices around the world to manage supplier relationships. They negotiate prices with suppliers, check the quality of materials, and keep an eye on social and working conditions.

The duties of the logistics personnel are to monitor and record deliveries, carefully check delivery notices, sort and separate the goods, and get them off to the correct sales area or designated overstock locations. Overall, they ensure an efficient flow of goods within IKEA stores, which is essential to maintaining high sales and enhancing customer loyalty.

AI in Inventory Management

             “Managers tend to overcomplicate the process and the tools, but most of the time the real benefits lay on simplifying the process and getting accurate data about the stock.”

Following an interesting course about Inventory Management, we received this phrase in a conclusion e-mail, that made me think. Indeed, there is no real solution or framework to optimize perfectly your inventory, unless you know how to predict the future and therefore I would love to meet you.

However, my interest into Data Analytics and AI resurfaced, as it’s the type of problematic that this scientific field is trying to solve during the last 20 years. The fact that there is not an all-done solution for Inventory Management, is because information is always lacking. Therefore, how can we get this information? AI, indeed, can be a great help.

The most talkative example here (of course…) the giant of retail Amazon. They developed many tools that help them to manage better their inventory, hence having the possibility to make it grow.

Inside the Warehouses: Automating and Monitoring Inventories

When a company is in the field of retail, movements inside warehouses and number of goods are growing exponentially. It’s humanly impossible to make no mistake and follow perfectly everything: thus, Amazon developed Kiva (see picture below), a small automated robot that move pallets of goods inside the warehouse in an optimized way, reducing human needs & enable the tracking of movements.

Demand Forecasting for Inventory Management:

              Automating the movements inside your warehouse will give you more information about the present activity of your inventory; but the greatest challenge of this century is to be able to predict the future.

Let’s imagine that you are an important water bottle supplier, and that you faced stock shortage during a heatwave this summer. A way to prevent this kind of event is to try to analyse your sales throughout a determined time framework, taking also into account pertinent variables, such as the temperature. Therefore, you could develop an ordering policy depending on the weather forecast and optimize even more your stocks.

This AI field related to this type of problematics is Time Series Analysis, which is also extremely used in the stock market and high-frequency trading.

If you are interested to have more insights about Time Series Analysis, I advise you to take a look at this video, that will introduce to the theory of this concept.

              To conclude, we can clearly state that AI have been developed to solve knowledge management problems, that have been and will always be an issue. However, thanks to this technology decisions are taken with more insights, and show the power of the symbiosis between humans and machines.

Inventory Management techniques And Logistic

Keywords
– Inventory
– Inventory Management

All organizations have some level of inventory which must be properly administered because they represent capital. High operational costs provide strong motivation for discerning organizations to have greater inventory management control. Various organizations have employed the basic inventory management techniques or inventory control methods to keep their inventory costs in check. This section we will review the most of techniques used in inventory management.
1- Economic order quantity (EOQ)
The EOQ models are based on a continuous-review policy and they assume that the inventory can be monitored every moment in time. In practice this is implemented by a procedure to monitor the inventory each time a change occurs. Then, if the inventory has reached a threshold, the replenishment decision will occur. the inventory management needs to be organized in a logical way so that the organization can be able to know when to order and how much to order. This must be attained through calculating the Economic order quantity.

2- Just in time technique
Just – In – Time inventory is generally regarded as an efficient inventory management system. The JIT concept of production was introduced in Japan under the name of Kanban. concept material and components are supplied to the work station just at the time they are required for use . The main purpose of using this method is to avoid waste overproduction, waiting, excess inventory, total quality control and devotion to the customer. characterizes JIT as a process that is prepared for moment response to the request without the necessity for any overstocking, either in the desire of the application being approaching or as a concern of improvident characteristics all the while.

3-
Is a supply-chain initiative where the supplier is authorized to manage inventories of agreed-upon stock-keeping units at retail locations. a VMI supplier has the liberty of controlling the downstream resupply decisions rather than filling orders as they are placed. Thus, the approach offers a framework for synchronizing inventory and transportation decisions. And identifies that upstream information exchanged to suppliers such as the current stock level and precise deals conjecture is the most vital element for the effective usage of Vendor Management Inventory.

4- ABC analysis
ABC analysis is the most popular technique used in Inventory Management, base on classify item into 3 types from A: (very important items), B: (moderately important items) and C: (relatively unimportant items), they talked about problem of these type of classifying problem in ranking.

 

Dariy 2 distribution of network

Key words:

Internactional comercial, Warehousing, Inventory, Customer-based, Servution System

Distribution of network is about knowing what is service and what is the know-how. The whole logistic supply chain is serving around targeted customers or the end users’ need by finding out features which could impact customers purchase behaviours .The marketers  are supposed to keep it in their mind firstly.

Those brick-and-mortar stores are taking into account how they can make transit with customers by performing :

1.response time

2.product variety

3.product availability

4.customer experience

5.time to market

6.order visibility

7.returnability

ALDI, the famous known supermarket,could be used as a metaphor like a mini society supply chain , who performs the intermedia agency to meet customers need by delivering food and  providing great value and quality. Since opening its first store in 1913, ‘To provide our customers with the products they buy regularly and ensure that those products are of the highest possible quality at guaranteed low prices is their business concept. Aldi’s products are sourced from hand-picked suppliers whose products are sold under Aldi’s own brand labels. Why customers get use to buy food in supermarket instead of going to those huge warehouse, it could be answered that supermarkets business model called Servution System.

Customers can have auto-service by themselves when they are selecting articles without any employees next to them.In the same time, staff in supermarkets are prepared to help solving  customers’ doubts. During the purchase process, product variety are available in shelves that’s why customers could spend time looking around the products and having a good shopping experience. Likewise, supermarket stock is for storing food and manage the products quantities if it’s still on stock or sold out, for refilling the shelves and meet customers gratifacation.

Distribution network can easily be modeled and gain benefits:

1.reduced unessary cost of distribution.

2. enhance customer satisfaction and improve its service.

3. understand cost of service, transportation, and warehousing .

4. maintain inventory stock and market need.

Supply chain management is a transport process by carrying out the goods to customer and customer. As for manufacturer, trading companies are their main customers,while retailers are the main target customers .The end user can meet their desire of wanted products in shop. It’s about Need of Things.

In the era of globalization today, Asian countries have increased the number of amout of exportation .They are making a great progress of being a huge fatory market and making a great contribution of distribution of network. Those mergered developing countries produce the wanted goods and ship them by ship, by air or by truck. This transport process establish the base for suppliers and retailers to allocate their products to customers. They are not visible as the product availability in a supermarket, but it does implement achieving customer service and meet customer needs.

Green supply Chain Management

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The Green Supply Chain Management is also called as “Supply chain sustainability” this direction that became a trend now in the business life of supply chain management, this stream has been building up in recent years, as the consciousness of consumers about the environment has been increased. Now the companies should also take the same step and become more environmentally conscious and from this point, the trend of the green supply chain has been aroused.

If we Looked at most multinational corporation’s web pages today, you will find dozens of pages on how the company is also looking to make the world a better place. The initiatives stretch throughout the value chain, from packaging to transportation and waste management. In the Following link you can know more about Green Supply Chain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl0UhiOvrdc&t=0s&list=WL&index=13

Green Supply Chain and Technology

There is significant evidence that there are points to the ongoing greening of the supply chain all over the world, which is driven by technology. Cleaner ships, trains, planes, and trucks combined with automation and clean technology introduced into cargo handling and warehousing operations are accelerating. And environmental policies at national and regional levels are driving investment and green compliance on a global scale.

The Case of Kodak: Green Technological Advancement

Since the early 1990’s, the need for technological advancement to Green Operations is becoming more popular. The ‘new economy’ has encouraged firms to be more environmentally sustainable and eco-efficient. Kodak is an example of a company that has a re-manufacturing line to the supply chain. It is reported that 310 million single-use cameras have been returned since 1990. Although the timing of returns of single-use cameras are unknown, Kodak has managed to allocate 310 million single-use cameras back into their production line. The reason for this success came from its own product design. Kodak’s single-use cameras are simple, reusable and easy to recycle, and because of this, Kodak has managed to reuse their products and save costs. Xerox Europe, US Naval Aviation are also good examples of Green Operations. Companies are encouraged to have Green Logistics due to various legislation.

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Actions towards the Green supply chain Management (GSCM)

At 2018, UPS announced it would add additional compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations and add 390 new CNG tractors and terminal trucks and 50 liquefied natural gas vehicles to its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet which has more than 4,400 vehicles. As a result of using more natural gas for its ground fleet, in 2016, UPS decreased CO2 emissions by around 100,000 metric tons.

Also, as more inner-city deliveries are made like, FedEx, UPS, DHL and other delivery providers are parking their gas guzzling vans and instead are turning towards electric vehicles, boats and bicycles

Moving forward, we’ll see more emphasis on reusable packaging also not only transportation. DHL, FedEx and UPS all offer reusable packaging but more is still needed.

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With the increased attention paid to Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) responsibility , a growing number of firms have explored “greening” (environmental-friendly) initiatives as their competitive strategic weapons

For Example In Europe, Germany and the Netherlands are leading the way with ongoing investments in green transportation and automated ports. And not least, the headlong push into supply chain software solutions is eliminating efficiencies and congestion that directly reduces energy and fossil fuel consumption.

Why Change to Green Supply Chain Management?

There are different thrusts for companies to change to a ‘greener’ supply chain than the existing one. Some organizations are simply doing this because it is the right thing to do for the environment even though some of the motivators are quite unclear.

 Studies, however, reveal that profitability and cost reduction are some of the main motivators for businesses to become ‘green’ in the supply chain. Advertising took this idea further and argued that Green Supply Chain Management practices are only about ‘win-win relationships on environmental and economic performance’.

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BARCODING

The transport and logistics companies can define the barcoding type needed to implement based on the stored information need. In addition to the 1-dimensional barcodes, there are 2-dimensional barcodes that can store up the data of a packing list, for example.

Barcoding can include: Unique number of an expedition, reference number of an article, postal code of the recipient, etc. Depending on the barcoding use, a compatible type will be chosen. The size of the bar code must be enough to guarantee that the reading is correct.

Barcoding is a technology that allows the automatic information capture and allows to identify products through a numeric code that is usually combined with an alphabetical one. This system is simple to be implemented in any type of organization, regardless of its size or function. Barcoding has two basic characteristics: speed of use, security in the transmission of informationv and standardization. A barcode can contain information of 20 characters, this can be read, decoded and entered into a computer in less than a second, constituting a time saving of seven times more compared to the manual form.

There are different barcoding types:

There are different barcoding types:

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• GTIN 13 (EAN 13)

13 digits barcode used for consumption unit’s identification. They are scanned at sale points.

• GTIN 12 (UPC-A)

12 digits barcode used for consumption unit’s identification. They are scanned at sale points.

• GTIN 8 (EAN-8)

8 digits barcode used for small sized consumer unit’s identification. They are scanned at sale points.

• GTIN-14 (DUN-14, ITF-14)

14 digits barcode used for distribution unit’s identification. They are not scanned at retail units.

• GS1 DATABAR

New barcodes developed to provide specific solutions, for example for products of variable measure, jewelry, ready to assemble products or discount coupons.

• GS1-128 (UCC/EAN-128 ó EAN-128)

Identifies and codifies corrugated. Allows to control merchandise flow as well as the information they possess.

• GS1 Datamatrix

It can contain more than two thousand three hundred alphanumeric characters and more than three thousand numeric characters.

• GS1 QR-Code

It can contain more than four thousand two hundred alphanumeric characters and more than seven thousand numeric characters.

• EPC/RFID Codes

Electronic Product Code: unique number that is stored in a tag (or electronic chip) radio frequency, which allows to identify each product in a unique way and to know where the product is at any time.

Currently, barcoding allows any product to be identified anywhere in the world, quickly and without the possibility of error.

The barcode unifies the denomination given to each item throughout the Value Network, additionally facilitates the interoperability of its applications with those of its customers and suppliers, and supports the error-free processing of information, also benefiting the consumer in the processes of purchase and payment at the point of sale.

What I HAVE learned from the queues

Most of us “believe” that we do not like to wait to get a product, service, be answered, helped … Managers of the companies do not like their customers wait neither, because it implies a cost for them, and also the possibility of that customers are not satisfied or that they do not finally consume anything.

Why do queues exist?

Firstly, the queues exist not because there is poor planning or lake of management. The queue is something that arises because you do not have full capacity in your company. Especially it is caused because of the variability – not all customers will come at the same time, not all will spend the same time with the servers, etc. Because of this the queues will grow and decrease either in arrival or in service and it will not disappear if the utilization level is high.

There is a false belief: almost all workers are overexploited in their work. This is confused with saturation at certain times: it is not about overexploitation, if that were like that, the queue would be infinite.

 In the queues there is always someone waiting: it may be customers, servers or products. When it is about product, it will not complain, but it can take space and also inquire costs. People do have feelings and that is why we say that the queue has a great emotional component:

When we find ourselves in a place with several and different queues (for example McDonalds), it will always seem to us (perception) that the queue next to us is faster than our- and in addition it is very susceptible to being real, because of probability. Also this type of queues is not convenient because you may have very few people in front of you but they just take more time.

However it should be noted that sometimes we like the queues. That’s why at the beginning of the text I say “we believe” that we do not like it: why do we positively value more the place/company that has more people waiting than the one without queue? why do we go to the restaurant that has more people instead of the one that is empty?

What would be the most efficient kind of queue then?

The single queue. Waiting in a single queue is a fairer system for the client (one row does not advance more than another), has a faster flow, etc.

But why is not it established then in all the supermarkets, for example? Because it also has disadvantages. The customer sees a longer queue and has the impression that it is going to exist more waiting time. Also because of the design problems, because it usually has a labyrinth shape and when it is empty you have to go a long way. Neither some companies, like McDonalds, are interested because you do not have enough vision to see their ads on the panels (so probably you are not going to see the newest expensive burger which they want you buy). It also happens that customers can be distracted while they wait their turn and do not realise when it is their turn (time and efficiency are lost – a server is unoccupied). On the other hand, as is the case with Carrefour, they send you to a server that is still occupied and makes you angry (but they do that in order to the server does not have to wait).

You can control the queues.

It was something that really surprised me, I have never considered it before.

I remember when I went to Aquopolis with my family and I thought: oh my god, we just went through a ticket office to pay for parking, in order to park our car all day (by the way, we waited a lot in a long queue) and again another queue more! This time for buy tickets to enter to Aquopolis… why not sell everything in the first ticket office? They are stupid! I thought. But no. They were not. They were trying to control the line, in order to not saturated the parking lot and the aquapark. The time that people takes until enter is the time to other people need to get out.

Professor José Pedro put another example that also surprised me: in the cities there are also queues to enter and they are controlled. In Valencia there are three entrances and many times they close one to avoid what is known as “Napolitan queue”: collapse the center of the city. They can also use the speed limits method and it is regulated daily (this is not widespread yet, but it will!).

Other methods of control (as we saw in class and we work with) was, the one of the case of Apple. Apple give appointments and teach how to use the web to buy without go to the stores, and because of that they reduce the variability of queues. They also influence perception: they leave you watching a video while they go to the store and thus you do not feel that you are waiting.

I also have found a video that I think is intersting to complete my article:

What do you think? Feel free to comment! THANKS

References:
Lecture notes! (I know. I take many notes in class, in Spanish there is an expression that is “ser un escribano” 😛 )!!)
BTW, apologize for my English 😦

FUTURE LOGISTICS

• Robotic warehouses

Many of warehouse activities are managed by robots.

Some distribution centers have already established part of automations in their warehouses. This prism is far from complete automation, which some corporate giants have already been able to apply. Although the consequence of the incorporation of robots to the logistic centers will cause a reduction of staff, many companies start using robots to do multiple tasks.

• Automation and Digitalization

The digitalization of the processes and automated production will help the industry to an efficient operation of the storage and transport centers, the chains seek the adoption of tools that allow them to optimize their operations and costs.

• Autonomous transport

Referring to both terrestrial and aerial vehicles (drones).

The semi-automatic trucks are becoming a reality and little by little this new technology will be improved to the point that the trucks are fully automatic.

In addition it is possible to see another type of autonomous “vehicles”. It is about autonomous forklifts that are driven by vision, which improve the speed of tasks in a warehouse. And it is also about drones, focused as not on transport and distribution, especially in urban environments.

• More green logistics and sustainability

The carbon footprint is increasingly evident on our planet. Pollution remains one of the pending subjects but it is also true that more and more companies are concerned about polluting less. Not only companies and the private sector will be made aware of the environmental impact.

Governments are to applying increasingly restrictive regulations that will affect both vehicles and circulation in large cities. It is important to pay attention to alternatives such as the new ecologically responsible supply chains, the distribution of small packages in large cities with alternative means such as bicycles or the collection of parcels in different centralized locations.

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• Development of the last mile

The system, which is designed to streamline and simplify aid delivery, consists of a handheld computer with an integrated touch screen, barcode scanner and camera, and a laptop that acts as a roaming server. It uses a local ad hoc wireless network that does not depend on connectivity though the capability is there. Since information is exchanged wirelessly – without the need for mobile phone networks, internet connections, or electricity – the technology can be used anywhere.

• Artificial Intelligence

In the era of “big data”, artificial intelligence will also have a role in transportation, where it will help optimize routes and organize the transport of goods in terms of cost and speed of arrival, and will be able to organize the delivery and collection of goods, taking into account not only current data, but also historical data that you can take advantage of thanks to your learning capacity.

• Big Data

Millions of data are handled in the logistics industry, and their analysis will allow carriers to improve efficiency, track routes, products and know delays in real time, as well as locate and avoid the risks of the supply chain

• 3D printing: New challenge in Logistics

The fact of getting to print is something that would reduce delivery times to the maximum, since it would not be necessary to wait until it was produced or arrived at the warehouse.

It is possible also start to print three-dimensional in the own stores of the different companies, what would transform the way of working, reducing manufacturing costs in small batches, and thus reducing storage budgets.

• Collaborative logistics

One of the clearest trends in transportation is based on collaboration and vehicle sharing. It is a potentially disruptive trend for the supply chain strategy.

• Blockchain

Technology that functions as an encrypted and distributed database. For some, blockchain is a new paradigm called to transform existing models in many businesses with the definition of new distributed platforms in which the figures of intermediaries or trusted third parties lose validity in favor of consensus and trust approaches (Logistec).

• ERP software for logistics

Cloud Computing as storage in the cloud, will set a trend again.

• Augmented reality

Right now it begins to be used in warehouses, specifically, for picking tasks.

• Internet of things

The internet connection between objects continues to grow as a trend in the logistics sector. The protagonist of this trend is called Smart Logistics or Intelligent Logistics.

oxxo’S history

Oxxo is one of the biggest selfservice chains in México; available now too in Chile and Colombia. It’s the first choice whenever you want or need any product or even make some payment. Here there are some interesting facts about it…

1.- Created in 1978 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon by a brewery called Cuauhtémoc. The logo was originally trying to represent a shopping car.

2.- The second cash register is only used for register new products brought by supliers. So, not the best choice if your’re in a hurry and find people before you.

3.- They’re NOW starting to use the 2nd chash for customers after their competition (7 eleven) made a joke about it on twiter.

4.- 54% of their workforce are women

5.- There are more than 17,400 stores in Mexico alone; plus 79 in Chile and 80 in Colombia. In México they are reportedly opening 3 new stores every day.

6.- You can find pretty much everything. The weirdest thing to find according to management has been beach sandals.

7.- If you live in Mexico City, you can pay for your Birth Certificate or your Marriage licence in an Oxxo.

8.- In 2001 they were the first to implement cellphones credit recharge in store.

9.- You can pay more than 5,000 services in stores. Some of them being electricity, water supply, phone services, TV, taxes, etc.

10.- You can make deposits to your or other bank accounts through an Oxxo.

This is just a little bit of information regarding one of the favorite stores in México. As you can imagine, you cannot walk 2 blocks without encountering one, and they have become real handy.

LOGiSTICs 4.0

Industrial Revolution 4.0 in Logistics?

Especially in recent years, Logistics has become one of the sectors of great growth and consolidation. In addition, it’s also one of the sectors with major changes and transformations. These changes will continue and will be accompanied by technological applications. Other challenges will be added, such as the environmental impact or working conditions.

In such a changing society where transformations take place in a matter of minutes, logistic cycles have each time shorter duration and faster and faster operations.
We just have to look at the e-commerce operations that we did 10 years ago and those that are done today. The cycles of order, preparation and delivery of ecommerce purchases are increasingly short. Nowadays, it’s considered “standardized” that in 24 hours from the completion of the order, it’s delivered at home.

“Technology as a driver of change”

The emergence of technology has already caused different changes in logistics through the transformation of operations. The introduction of barcode readers, goods positioning robots or SGAs (control and logistics management programs) are the basis of any logistics warehouse.
Surely the most important aspect is the total connectivity in the logistics chain. Through technology it will be possible to reduce efficiency errors, and with an adequate management of information, the logistics operator will obtain the progress of its procedures by reducing its production costs.

Another important aspect will be the analysis of the data generated, the big data. Through the analysis of the data, the logistics companies will predict the possible workflows to adapt structures and allocate the right and necessary resources guaranteeing the operations in an optimal way. The future of the union between client and logistics operator will be greater, producing a flow of information in real time, for good business maintenance.

Base of Logistics 4.0, the client.

Another key to the logistics of the future will be the chameleon adaptation to the client’s needs. The client will become the focus of logistics and operations will be the means to achieve adaptation to those needs.
The online channel grows overwhelmingly and immediacy will be synonymous of satisfaction, along with the personalization of the service. Thus the logistics will continue evolving in order to give a good response. But not only the immediacy will be signal logistics operations, there will be new demands in the future, as is the reverse logistics such as Spain, which is the second country at EU level with a higher number of returned shipments.
Managing returns is another fundamental role in which logistics must adapt its structures.

Conclusions

Changes and improvements that occur, won’t only be related to aspects such as technology, Big Data or robots. All this won’t work without the proper management of a human team. The transformation of Logistics 4.0 will be a mix between technological and human, with more technical profiles and good training.

Installing a sculpture in a public area

Chana Orloff (1888 -1968) is a well-known artist, who lived her whole life between France and Israël. In the 2000’s, her descendants decided to offer to the city hall of Paris a bronze print of one of her art pieces : Mon fils marin (My son sailor), and in 2008, the local administration of the 14th arrondissement of Paris agreed to install this sculpture not far from the artist’s former studio. However, because of logistics and administrative problems, it was only installed in November 2018, which means 10 years after the original decision! But why is it so difficult to transport and install a medium-size piece like this from its art-warehouse until a street of Paris?

Mon fils marin, Chana Orloff

                First step: finding a sculpture, finding a place

                You may want to install a sculpture in your city for different reasons. Sometimes, one art piece is located on the way of your future tramway, and you have to reinstall it as soon as possible. Sometimes, an artist, or its descendants, make you a gift, which can be poisoned if it is a big one (cf The Jeff Koons issue, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/koons-tulips-sculpture-will-not-be-installed-in-front-of-palais-de-tokyo-in-paris). Or, you may just want to introduce art in the everyday life of the city inhabitants, and you choose one of the sculpture sleeping in the art storage centres of the city, which are in fact located outside of the city.

                Some sculptures are tall, some of them are heavy: you will need to study the floor’s structure to make sure that you can put something at this place. In cities like Paris, whose ground was diggen by the metro, the catacombs, the old quarries, it can be a real problem, and you always have surprises when you begin to dig. The place you choose should be easily accessible by a van or by a truck, depending on the size of your art piece, but also visible, to allow the pedestrians to enjoy it (your “final consumer” in this case), and sometimes symbolic, if you want to commemorate an historic episode or pay homage to a local artist.

Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers (the architects of the Centre Pompidou in Paris), Xavier Veilhan

Second step: the administrative labyrinth

You want to install your sculpture in this beautiful park near to the Seine, but are you sure that you are allowed to? The information flow is crucial in this kind of project involving a lot of different persons, and you have to ask for the authorizations in the proper order: does the arrondissement’s mayor agree with you?  The others political representatives? What is the opinion of the artist? Are the inhabitants of the neighbourhood in favour of the project?

The crucial part of all of this is to obtain the building permit. It can take months, and be a failure for plenty of reasons. If there is a protected monument near to the place, if the simulation of the art piece in its future environment does not convince the city’s architect, if you forgot to sign one of the 24 pages of the formula, you can restart everything from the beginning.

During this time, you can start preparing the operational part, and hiring the company which will install the sculpture. The art transportation market is dominated by a few enterprises (cf https://logisticsmgepsupv.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/fine-art-logistics/), and as it is a public contract, you have to organize a bid solicitation to select the best offer – the price is usually the decisive factor.

Some parts of this process are incompressible. The objective is to organize the information flow in order to waste a minimum of resources if the project is stopped, but also to anticipate the futures steps to be efficient.

Les Rochers dans le Ciel, Didier Marcel

Third step: the operational part

Once everything is settled, you will have to manage different actors at the same time to assemble three pieces together: the floor, the pedestal and the sculpture. The floor can be prepared in advance, but you can’t let a hole in the sidewalk for a long time: technicians of the green spaces department should be here in advance and stay until the end. Besides, the climate factor can prevent you from digging and building, in winter when the floor is frozen, or if it is raining continuously during days or weeks.  However, the time limit of your construction authorization can’t be modified, which forces you to select the safest time window at your disposal.

Once this issue fixed, the art transportation company you hired must bring the statue at the right place at the right time, and so must the pedestal maker (most of the time an independent craftsman). The repartition of the tasks is crucial and must be defined before the D-Day, to know who will be in charge of assembling the pedestal with the ground, joining the sculpture and the pedestal, bringing the tools, etc.

Of course, all the signalization panels have to be present on the site during the operation, as well as the construction authorizations, especially if your project requires to stop or deviate the circulation of cars and passers-by.

Les Poings d’eau, Pascale Marthine Tayou

Fourth step: the inauguration cocktail

                This kind of project isn’t over when the sculpture is standing on the right place, but only after some mundanities and speeches gathering representatives, locals, artists and administrative employees. Booking a place, sending invitations, providing some petits fours, wine and champagne, those are the last tasks you will have to perform is order to accomplish your mission until the end!

                Installing a sculpture in a public area is always a tailored process, which relies on several factors: the size, shape and signification of your art piece, as well as the administrative, political and geographical environment in which you operate. Organizing the information flows and material can be optimized in a certain way but it’s a one-shot operation where any delay or mistake postpone the installation to the next year – a loss of time and money for the community.  This explains why it took ten years to install Mon fils marin in the Place des Droits de l’Enfant in Paris – if you go there for tourism, go take a look at it!

Grand Stabile Rouge, Alexander Calder

Dropshipping: how to destroy the meaning of “Stock”

The stock is over, or, at least, this is what Dropshipping pretends to do in next times. The world of logistics is changing a lot during these years, and the introduction of E-Commerce into our life has changed the way the new businesses (and those which want to improve their performance) act and deal. Probably you have not heard yet about this concept, but it exists for several years.

What is exactly Dropshipping and how it works?

Imagine that you own an E-Commerce and it runs efficiently while you don’t care about keeping a stock of your products. Or imagine that you are the owner of a little fashion shop in the middle of the city center without a store inside the shop to hold a minimum stock of your products. It sounds quite weird, but this business model or logistic strategy is contributing to set up new businesses.

Through the dropshipping, a company doesn’t need to possess stock, dealing and achieving agreements whit manufacturers or wholesalers, which receive the order too and who are in charge of preparing, sending and delivering the products offered by the retailer, who is, in this case, the e-commerce or the fashion shop. In other words, the retailer acts as a kind of intermediary in these sales.

A Win-Win deal

There are some benefits to both parts:

• For the owner of the E-Commerce or shop, they can sell a huge variety of products without stock, saving inventory costs among others and earning a commission over the manufacturer’s price.
• For the dropshipper is profitable too because they broaden their customer portfolio without the costs of maintaining an online shop or positioning it.

Furthermore, a lot of new businesses decide to begin the dropshipping through marketplaces like Amazon or eBay. This strategy enables them not to create an E-Commerce, generating many advantages for them and taking advantage of the image and support of large and famous companies. This type of dropshipping assures online traffic to their products and takes advantage of the good reputation of Amazon or eBay and their works in promotion and retargeting. For further information about this, you can watch the following video:

All in all, the dropshipping is presented as a key element to set up new online businesses which need to reduce their logistics costs in their early stages and offering what the costumers demand. Definitely, it is a logistic model which will be the source of much talk in the future.

MY LOGISTIC STUDY DIARY

At the beginning, I was confused and resisted to learn logistic this subject.After implanting an array of research and study page by page by myself,I realized of logistic was born for customers’ needs,which would be considered priority. I would also say, was appeared by each of us. Let’s start with example.

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We are playing one of the important role in Supply Chain

When we go to Mercadona for a carton of milk, it’s not only a simple milk that we saw. One carton of milk came from one farmer. It was supposed to be packaged well and this carton of milk needed to be brought by transportation. It could be by ship, airplane, or truck. When it arrived in to Mercadona, that’s what we saw at the end.
Since the quanty is huge, and requirement is increased, then this is about the Supply Chain of Things. This movement of bringing the goods, we called Logistic.

Supply Chain and Logistic

But why we need logistic? The answer would be responded:

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• End customer won’t be possibled to go to purchase one carton of milk in factory because of the long distance, huge quantity and they won’t sold by particular item.
• It takes over the responsibility to keep the goods in a good condition when they arrived in the stock.
• Implementing the supply chain needs the transportation. In this case, products design ,market and pallets are crucial.
• Logistic plays an important role in warehousing. When the goods arrived, it needs a big space to be received, stored and shipped again to the suppliers, then retailer and end customers.
• Recycling and economical. Once accomplished the first shippment, those pallets , containers and other relevant material will be returned , reused from end customers to the manufactors.

Summarizing those functions, logistic implement the whole supply chain and is the backbone of it. The end purpose of this complex process, is to meet customers’ need. What’ more, logistic was driven by Techcnology. It takes full advantages of controling the stock, inventory, work more efficient, improving communication rate between suppliers, factories and store staffs.

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