Logistic

1. Supply chain management consists of firm collaborating to leverage strategic positioning and to improve operating efficiency. Within a firm’s supply chain mgt, logistic is the work required to move and geographically position inventory. The supply chain mgt is driving the world’s major global companies. Ten years ago, the typical supply chain for manufacturing companies was domestic. Today-thanks to the migration of manufacturing to China and other lower-cost countries-it's just as likely to be global.

Since globalization supply chain management is a relatively new field, changes are taking place all of the time. Many of the changes are technological in nature. We can expect a continued increase in the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that link all business decision-making to a unified database. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is dramatically changing the way products are tracked and secured through the supply chain. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are enabling transportation companies to better track trucks, trains, and ships moving goods in the supply chain.

Adding some buffer to Just-in-Time: Back when many manufacturers' supply chains spanned no more than a few hundred miles, it wasn't unusual for automotive OEMs and other manufacturers to keep a mere day or two of safety stock on hand. After all, many of their lead times were measured in hours. Most of their transportation providers were known quantities. And, the routes and infrastructure they used were highly familiar and time-tested.

Today, that kind of lean inventory is a luxury most companies can't afford, because timely deliveries from global sources depend upon a far wider variety of factors that a manufacturer can't always predict or control. As a result, many companies now opt to keep several weeks rather than several days of inventory on hand at any given time. As a corollary, they're also less inclined to see warehousing as a sign of