Logistics: Keeping it in the house

Overview: The article asserts that inventory management is inexorably linked to logistics visibility and the ability to move products quickly through the supply chain. The dialog around logistics often begins with inventory management. The article talks that the EMS giant's forecasting, inventory planning, and supply chain execution information resides and is managed in-house, but the company uses about a dozen third-party logistics (3PL) providers for inbound and outbound shipments, warehouse requirements, vendor-managed inventory hubs, international customs clearance, and shipping notifications. That allocation of responsibilities is fairly dominant in the industry, where the need for sophisticated logistics models is increasing against a backdrop of fiscal scrutiny and shortened product lifecycles Transportation, inventory management, package delivery, warehousing, and order management services rank high on the list of logistics managers' demands, according to an EBN poll. Knowing that companies are searching for ways to reduce logistics costs while maintaining control over particular aspects of the process, software vendors and logistics providers are seeking to shape the landscape. Companies have higher inventory costs if they have multiple sites, but the transportation costs are lower because it's not being delivered by air. But if companies have fewer inventory sites, the transportation speeds become more critical.

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Format: HTML | Date: Sep 2001 | Pages: 1