Information Technologies in Logistics
ICT are changing the economy and the way business is conducted in various forms. They help attract and retain customers by customizing products and services and to obtain competitive advantage. In the sphere of logistics, the ICT may be classified into three categories: identification technologies, data communications technologies, and data acquisition technologies.
As for the identification technologies, firms may appeal to barcoding and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). They facilitate logistics information collection and exchange.
Many companies of all sizes use a bar coding system to automate the inventory management process. Bar coding is a system that allows to scan an item in order to bring up stored information about it. The bar code is a series of printed lines to be read by a unique tool, called a bar code scanner. The final element to the bar coding system is a computer system where the information is stored and analyzed. With a bar code, capturing data is faster and more accurate, costs are lower, mistakes are minimized, and managing inventory is much easier.
Radio frequency identification represents a system that transmits the identity of an object wirelessly, using radio waves. The RFID device serves the same purpose as a bar code. But bar code systems often require a person to manually scan a label or a tag. RFID is designed to capture data on tags and transmit it to a computer system without any person involved. Besides, another significant advantage of RFID devices is that it does not need to be positioned precisely relative to the scanner.
Data communications technologies comprise such systems as the electronic data interchange (EDI), the fax, the Internet, the Value Added Network (VAN), the electronic ordering system (EOS), the logistics information system, and the enterprise information portals.
The logistics information system (LIS) is usually a combination of Sales and Purchasing Information Systems, Inventory Controlling Information System, Maintenance Information System, and Quality Management Information System.
LIS can be used to plan the entire logistics cycle. A user can control and monitor business events to make effective decisions. Data comes in from various modules, and it can be analyzed in various ways. Key figures can be defined in LIS to keep track of important logistics parameters. LIS even allows users to customize the reports. In a word, it is a flexible reporting and analytical tool.
In terms of data acquisition technologies, firms usually deal with a large amount of goods and data. Thus, the collection and the exchange of data are critical for logistics information management and control. Good quality in data acquisition can help firms deliver customers’ goods more accurately. Data acquisition technologies in logistics are the optical scanning, the electronic pen notepads, the voice recognition and the robotics.
The successful implementation of ICT to support the logistics processes brings a number of benefits to the firms. They include quick response and access to information; better customer service; increased competitiveness. The ICT in logistics also provides reduction on data and data re-entry, faster data collection, processing and faster communication.
However, the process of ICT adoption could be quite difficult to firms. It is associated with a large investment and firms may not have sufficient financial resources to support the high investment in hardware and software technology.
My Speciality
I’m a second year student of Moscow state university of railway engineering. My speciality is logistics and supply chain management. After graduation from the university I’m going to work as a logistics manager. I’d like to highlight some points about my speciality.
First of all, I would like to say that the collection of materials and distribution of goods is now a global industry. Thus, delivering products to the right place at the right time with minimal waste is critical for business. That’s why logistics management is needed in all companies nowadays.
Main components of logistics are purchasing, inventory control, warehousing, transportation, packaging, material handling, loading, and shipment. Currently, there are various types of logistics, I’ll name only some of them. Let’s take, for example, bulk logistics. It concerns the handling of large quantities of raw materials. Project logistics deals with the design of complex systems such as major public works and infrastructures. There is also Ram logistics, which is essential for the management of high technology products. Reverse logistics includes all operations needed to restore value to those products that have completed their life cycle.
Then, I’d like to speak about the actual job of a logistics manager, that is his or her responsibilities and role in the organization. Logistics managers handle processes of a supply chain. They liaise with parties like suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. Logistics managers must coordinate processes to ensure customer satisfaction.
Speaking about typical work activities of a logistics manager, they usually include monitoring the quality, cost, movement and storage of goods as well as coordinating the order cycle and solving logistical problems.
As for the skills needed in this sphere of work, I believe skills of communicating and negotiating are highly important as well as the ability to work under stress. You also must be aware of many business and law points about transport legislation, fuel costs, environmental pressures and many others. Thus, to be a good logistics manager means to follow recent trends in IT-technologies concerning logistics and to act efficiently in a rapidly changing world of global commerce, trade and transportation.
Currently, the logistics service market in Russia is expanding fast. So I believe that career development opportunities are excellent in this innovative industry.
Logistics is a good option if you are interested in a challenging and well-paid job. I’m sure to get it if I have a degree in logistics and supply management and some professional experience.
Logistics Centers in Transport Chains
A logistic centre is an essential part of transportation infrastructure. It is a centre in a defined area within which all logistics activities are carried out by various operators on a commercial basis. Actually, logistics is related to the transportation and the distribution of goods both for national and international transit. The operators can either be owners or tenants of buildings and facilities. Logistics centers are generally located close to airports, major highway intersections and railway hubs or ports.
Any logistics centre must render the full range of logistics services. It provides access to different shipment modes, performs broad logistic functions and serves a wide range of users. Also, a logistics center presents information technology solutions and offers value added services. That’s why a logistics center usually includes a storage area, intermodal terminals, an administration area, a service area, an exhibition and sale area, etc. They are necessary to organize the full complex of transport services. Besides, logistics centres automate the process of cargo flow control. Centres encourage economic development as well as increase traffic. They coordinate work of different transport modes and focus international flows through a country. To sum up, logistics centres provide storage, transport, distribution, assembly, direct shipment, cargo consolidation, sorting, break-bulk, delivery, package tracking, and e-commerce services.
The main task of a logistics center is to coordinate storage and transport services. One of the primary goals of any logistics centers is to encourage intermodal transport for the handling of goods. Therefore, a logistics centre should preferably be served by a multiplicity of transport modes (road, rail, deep sea, inland waterway, air). Finally, a logistics centre must comply with European standards to provide the framework for commercial and sustainable transport solutions.
Logistics centres promise benefits to a logistics network in terms of economies of scale, advanced technological systems, and merits of pooling tactics. As companies are looking for ways to reduce lead time, delivery uncertainty and logistics costs, the need for logistics centres is increasing.
Creation of logistics centers helps in economic development of cities and regions. These business units guarantee synchronized flow of products and efficiency of roads usage. Wrong localization of logistics centers causes opposite results such as difficulties in city traffic flow and quick destroy of roads because of heavy transport.
Intermodal Transport
Intermodal transport represents the flow of goods where the means of transport (road, rail, air, water) change at least one time on the existing transport route. A separate mode of transport is responsible for its part of the route in the transport chain. Intermodal transport carries freight using specially designed carrying and cargo protecting units. They can easily be swapped between several transport modes. Thus, unloading and reloading of individual items is avoided. It also results in a lower overall payload due to the duplicated load-bearing elements of the rail vehicle and the load carrying units.
Management units for transferring freight from one mode to another are containers, swap bodies, pallets or semi-trailers. Better techniques and management units have facilitated intermodal transfers. The examples include piggyback (TOFC: Trailers On Flat Cars), where truck trailers are placed on rail cars, and LASH (lighter aboard ship), where river barges are placed directly on board sea-going ships.
The most important feature of intermodalism is the provision of a service with one bill of lading. This has necessitated a revolution in organization and information control. At the heart of modern intermodalism are data handling, processing and distribution systems that are essential to ensure safe, reliable and cost effective control of freight movements.
Intermodal terminals must take into account the very different properties of the transport modes involved. For example, road with single load-units carrying stochastic traffic flows, as compared to transport by trains based on timetabled transport of consolidated loads.
Today, intermodal transport is transforming a growing share of the medium and long-haul freight flows across the globe. Intermodal transportation is a leading solution to demands of today’s global supply chains, which are increasingly congested, more expensive, and environmentally unsustainable. By encouraging coordinated movement across all forms of freight delivery, intermodal transportation can build on the best of each transportation type.
In Europe, intermodal transport is an inseparable part of transport policy mostly because of its reduction of negative impacts of road transport on environment, consumption of fuels and energy, costs on roads and highways maintenance, farmland occupation and increase of road traffic safety.
The intermodal transport integrates the system advantages of various transport modes. To give an example, railway is ecologically less harmful transport system than freight road transport. On the other hand, freight road transport is strongly flexible as far as time and access to the end points of transportation are concerned. As for water transport, it affords opportunity of even bigger transport flows with more favorable prices and energy consumption than railway transport. It significantly eliminates accident rate and unburdens land infrastructure.
