This research gives an insight into the difficulties found to handle logistics and presents solution to manage logistics saving costs without sacrificing customer satisfaction.

The business environment has changed tremendously in the last two decades. Corporations have been forced to realign their global strategies and in order to cut costs, they started to transfer activities which were previously performed in-house to the market (e.g. IT, manufacturing or logistics) focusing instead on their core competencies. Nowadays companies outsource several of their logistics activities to so-called third-party logistics (3PL) companies and thus from being centralized, vertically integrated and with single-sited manufacturing facilities, enterprises have their network of resources globally dispersed. As a result corporate management has realized that the competitive vehicle is no longer the individual firm, with its own resources and competencies. Instead, in order to cope with shorter product life cycles and ever more demanding customers, both on industrial and consumer markets, individual firms need to strategically become part of ‘extended enterprises’; that is, networks of specialist providers of resources and competencies. However, because the capabilities to manage the entire network do not exist in any one organization, a new business organization was needed to provide the strategic knowledge and competence that will enable the complete integration of the supply chain. This new sort of firm, with core competencies on logistics processes and supply chain IT integration, besides offering consulting services on implementation and development of logistics and supply chain solutions, manages through the use of logistics control towers “the best of breed” 3PL specialists, integrating the end-to-end supply chain so that superior customer value is delivered in the most cost effective way. But how does the use of a supply chain integrator help the supply chain as a whole to achieve competitive advantages that enhance end-customer service? This paper aims to answer the above question. I felt that in order to be able to do that the most appropriate research strategy would be a qualitative study. Hence, a multi-case study was performed on three Swedish companies which differentiate themselves from the more traditional third-party logistics providers. The study was conducted by performing a set of semi-structured interviews with these companies. In order to give the study some sort of structure, I used an interview guide which was divided into three different themes; a) Organizational Design, b) Enterprise Logistics Integration and c) Logistics and Competitive advantages. Once the interviews were transcribed and summarized, the empirical findings were then analyzed in light of a theoretical framework chosen previously. These theories, which in general terms relate to organizational design, supply chain management and finance, were also divided in the same themes as above. Finally, conclusions were drawn by linking the results of the interviews with the theoretical framework. It became evident that the supply chain integrator can help the supply chain as a whole not only to reduce costs related to inventory holding but also to help its client to improve end-customer service.

This paper reports the findings of using multi-agent based simulation model to evaluate the sawmill yard operations within a large privately owned sawmill in Sweden, Bergkvist Insjön AB in the current case. Conventional working routines within sawmill yard threaten the overall efficiency and thereby limit the profit margin of sawmill. Deploying dynamic work routines within the sawmill yard is not readily feasible in real time, so discrete event simulation model has been investigated to be able to report optimal work order depending on the situations. Preliminary investigations indicate that the results achieved by simulation model are promising. It is expected that the results achieved in the current case will support Bergkvist-Insjön AB in making optimal decisions by deploying efficient work order in sawmill yard.

This thesis aims to evaluate measurement techniques for delivery precision at Holmen Paper (HP). Delivery precision is an important KPI for a business, because it gives an indication of how well the company’s  supply chain is performing. At HP, the Operation and Logistics division, wants to use the result  to  assess  that  if  they  are  doing  a  good  job  planning  HP’s  production  and  transportation.   The purpose of the thesis: “The  purpose  of  the  thesis  is  to  determine  how  the  KPI  delivery  precision ought to be measured for  various  order  types  in  Holmen  Paper’s  supply  chain.” A great deal of literature was initially reviewed on the subject of delivery precision, and different sources suggested alternative ways in which it may be determined. To understand the logistics and information flow, two flow-charts where constructed. This was done in order to obtain a holistic overview  of  HP’s  order-delivery process, and furthermore, to see where the required data could be retrieved from the system. After evaluating the supply chain, it was concluded   that   the   SCOR   models’   pre-defined Key Performance Indicator Perfect Order Fulfillment (POF) and Perfect Order Index (POI), were the best way to measure the delivery precision. Both theories are well known in the logistics sector and both are built upon lower level metrics. The metrics measure if an order is delivered satisfactorily to a customer, according the parameters of time, quantity, quality and documentation. The thesis, however, rejected the parameter of documentation in dialogue with HP (and because the parameter has little to do with the operators work at Operation and Logistics). Data  was  collected  from  HP’s  database  in  an  attempt  to  measure  the  delivery  precision  according  to   both the theories. However, it was concluded that the calculated value was unreliable. This was mainly due to fact that the data required did not exist, and the data that did exist was not reliable. The data was seen as unreliable because there was no information of when the data was collected along the supply chain. Therefore, the thesis presents a model that will help HP implement the KPI delivery precision in the future. At the completion of the study, it was concluded that HP, initially, needs to implement a system to save data regarding the reason and source of order modifications. Additionally, it is suggested that HP should try to measure the delivery precision as close to the customer as possible. Currently, the data required to do this does not exist. To obtain this data, HP needs to implement some sort of receipt when the customer receives the goods.

Purpose- The purpose of this research is to explore the role of road transport in logistics operations, and to investigate and analyze how IKEA China does operate on road transport in logistics operations. Design/methodology/approach- A single case study has been conducted at IKEA China, including semi-structured interviews and review of internal documents. Along with the case study, literature reviews have been conducted within the areas of efficient road transport in logistics operations.   Findings- The IKEA China case suggests that the logistics operations should have strong link to the efficient road transport in a manner optimized logistics operations can provide efficient road transport with less cost.   Research limitations/implications- This thesis is limited to one representative company, and the authors just focus on a study of efficient road transport in logistics operations for narrowing down the thesis. So the solutions and proposals about efficient road transport might not be adopted by other companies or be applied to other parts of the supply chain. Additionally, a study of efficient road transport can be discussed, analyzed and studied from a lot of different perspectives, even much better in a holistic viewpoint. Here, the authors just choose a few primary perspectives as research objectives to support this study, which concerns the data and information collected from IKEA China. Finally, because of the limitation of time and personal knowledge, the data collected from IKEA China may neither abundant enough nor deep enough in a manner without exploiting and expanding into all the issues and challenges refers to efficient road transport in logistics operations.   Practical implication- This research provides suitable solutions for a company towards efficient road transport in logistics operations. Consequently, it will facilitate companies to achieve the purpose of efficient road transport by optimizing their logistics operations in a manner improve the outcomes of insouring/outsourcing, merge-in-transit, consolidation point and packaging.   Originality/value- This research combines five theoretical fields in terms of sourcing strategy, merge-in-transit, consolidation point, packaging as well as economics scale of trucking cost to contribute proposals to efficient road transport in logistics operations.   Keywords Efficient road transport, Logistics operations, cost

Twenty years ago, if someone said that every object could have its own identity, no one would agree and some might even think that was crazy. However, it turns out that the wild imagination is possible today. With the help of the Internet of Things (IoT), it is convenient to identify any objects with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and control the objects via the Internet. In the near future, people will even make the IoT network visible, thus all the information on the Internet can become dynamic and much easier to understand than numbers to be.   At the moment, Guiyang Municipal Science & Technology Bureau is planning to design and apply visualization technique to logistics, the focus of Guizhou Provincial logistic network in the IoT era. This is a good opportunity for different kinds of enterprises in theGuizhoudistrict or even in the whole country.   This thesis focuses on three problems, namely, discussion on the use of visualization techniques in IoT, the necessary preparation of manufacturing industry to join in the visible IoT and measures available that the government can adopt. The exploratory case study in this thesis is about the visualization technique in IoT in manufacturing industry in theGuizhouProvince. A company was selected for the case study to explore the situation inGuizhouProvince. The related information was collected through interviews with relevant personnel and observation in the company. To bring a clear view of the situation and provide enterprises with information for reference, SWOT analysis is adopted to evaluate the strength and weakness in both the internal and external environment. Those measures that government can take to promote its development include unification in standards, support in research and development of technology and emphasis on personal privacy.   The conclusion shows that the use of visualization techniques in IoT can promote information transmission both in effectiveness and efficiency, and control the supply chain as well as special processes in an efficient way. Discussions have been conducted on four techniques which are able to realize visualization, including GPS, RFID, bar code and machine vision. The preparation that needs to be done in a progressive way, of manufacturing enterprises mainly involves three aspects: equipment, system, and management; which have been discussed in detail in this study. Only totally combining the three aspects, not a single one can be omitted, can enterprises achieve the goal of growth in benefit and costs reduction through the use of IoT. Due to immaturity of the emerging network and technology, in the future, the IoT still has a long way to go. Certainly, we should not ignore the followed huge benefit and improvement that IoT can bring.

Logistics is regard as enterprise's "third profit source" and in the process of global industrialization it plays an important role. Many industries improve logistics conditions to reduce operating costs, and they attempt to obtain a new competitive advantage. With the development of the economy, culture, ideology, public and the gradually strengthen of the awareness of logistic, there is another heat topic attracted a lot of researchers-the environmental logistics. With the effect of the environmental logistic, more and more people realize that they must emphasize and value the natural environment, and inspired by the environmental logistic there are also lots of new topic came to be discussed, i.e. the coordinated development of the green economy. The environmental logistics as the indispensable part in economic development can deal with how to help the economic and the environment harmonious coexistence with each other. Thus, the development of green logistics has become major issue for global economic development nowadays. In this paper, we make a comparison of Chinese and developed country's green logistic statue, then identify the development of green logistics problems and propose solutions. The case companies we choose are COSCO international Freight Co., Ltd and the Panalpian Ltd. company. We connect these two companies and sent out questionnaires, based on their answers, we considered some elements which affect the difference between companies in Chinese and developed countries. We test these elements on SPSS, and carry out elements effecting environmental logistics. Based on this questionnaires,  we find out huge differences between these two companies, meanwhile there are five factors we summarized which influencing the gap between China and developed country in environmental logistics. Therefore, we give some suggestions for China's environmental future logistics.

No description available.

No description available.

Purpose - The thesis is based around on of the most commonly used scientific terms in economics today, cluster. Many actors tend to claim that their regions are working clusters and when the Logkomp project was initiated, the authors wanted to research whether a logistics cluster existed in the Jönköping-Nässjö-Vaggeryd region. Methodology - This research is purely based on the involved actors’ perception whether a cluster exists or not, rather than based on calculations. The actors were interviewed with both short questions with rating from 1-10 and deeper questions where they were allowed to elaborate their answers more freely. Since the project is ran by the municipalities in the region, the municipalities role in the cluster was examined thoroughly and the companies’ perception of cooperation with the municipalities were compared to the municipalities’ perceptions of their own performance. Conclusions - Based on the interview results, the authors were able to compare the perceived situation in the region with academic definitions and models, thus evaluating the level of clusterness. It can be shown that the region is slowly becoming a logistics cluster but there is several important factors that need to be taken into consideration before this can happen. It is also apparent that all involved actors need to pull their weight and there is potential for improvement by all actors.