Transportation Logistics Management

Transportation Logistics Management

New Challenges within Transportation and Logistics Management

1. Introduction

In a world that has fully embraced globalization and regional trade, transportation has become one of the most important businesses processes which enable effective carriage of raw materials to the manufacturers and manufactured goods to the end user. Currently, all the means of transportation are effectively used depending on the preference of the client. This crucial business process has led to the emergence of the transport logistics managers whose main role is to ensure that goods being transported reach their destination safely and on time. Over the years, transportation logistics has become one the most important process in the supply chain of any business as the key to satisfying customer demands and gaining a competitive advantage. However, the growth of the transportation and logistics industry has led to the development of new challenges over the years which continue to affect logistics management. The main challenge within the transportation and logistics management results from planning and risk management which has been caused by the changing environments within the industry. This paper seeks to investigate some of the planning and risk management challenges by answering the question; “what are the new challenges facing logistics managers and how can they be tackled?” It will outline three major challenges within transportation and logistics management and discuss probable solutions to each.

2. Literature Review

To research the challenges within transportation and logistics management, this paper will investigate the relationship between logistics management and supply chain management so as to specifically focus on the former throughout the research. This is because there is a strong relationship between transportation logistics management and the supply chains in that the former has become a critical element in supply chain management (Wang et al. 2016). The use of these terms in different resources has further expounded on this relationships forming the definition of these terms as follows: Logistics management is the act of organizing for the commercial transportation of goods or raw materials by ensuring that the transportation systems maintain an effective flow whereby the products being transported can reach the receiver safely and on time (Christopher, 2016). This activity incorporates different procedures such as recording data and information about the flow of goods, warehousing, and transportation.

According to Wang et al. (2016), it is the role of transportation and logistics managers to ensure quality handling of all the data and figures which account for daily operations and ensure that there is smooth coordination of tasks within a transportation logistics management company. Supply chain, on the other hand, can be defined as a systematic process which involves other interconnected operations which cater for the supply of goods or services from the producer to the final consumer. There are different processes which are included in a supply chain which include production, packaging, storage, and distribution/transportation; as such, the key players in any supply chain are the manufacturers (producers), suppliers/distributors, retailers, wholesalers, and consumers/end-user. According to Speranza (2018), logistics managers play the important role of supply and distribution whereby they are required to comply with various laws and regulations which govern their operations. However, this has not been a major issue in transportation and logistics management. According to Kasemsap (2018), planning and risk management continue to affect logistics management in this industry due to the continuous changes in the global business. The start of globalization marked the start of the need for the transportation and logistics management to adopt better business processes which will satisfy the needs of the customers. As such, logistics managers needed to ensure that the processes involved in the logistics and transportation operations were efficient and effective in achieving customer satisfaction, business development, and generating more revenues.

3. Discussion of the topic and new challenges

Currently, the challenge within transportation and logistics management, therefore, revolves around three areas; i) planning for inter-modal transportation, ii) management or the workforce, and iii) transportation crisis management. In the first challenge; planning and executing effective inter-modal transportation. This challenge is mostly experienced in ports and sometimes in distribution stores whereby managers have to plan for complex transportation sequences (Christopher, 2016). For example, it becomes challenging for managers to ensure time-efficiency when there are different transportation modes/means involved in the supply chain; in a sequence such as one which involves a truck, ship, plane, and then a truck. In such a case, it becomes difficult to guarantee that a client would receive his/her product in an exact time. This challenge may create a bad business image for the transportation and logistics firm and might lead to massive profits since the company might be required to compensate for time wastage. Additionally, the company may as well loss clients leading to a loss of business.

The second challenge; the management of the workforce, has made it impossible to improve the business process. Besides the planning for the transportation of products, logistics management requires expertise in relating to and dealing with staff members who involved in the entire process. Continued advancement in technology continues to change how business is conducted in the transportation and logistics industry. Now managers can keep track of what other employees do whereby not many employees are able to cope with the requirements and demands of certain job positions. For example, drivers will be required to work in very remote and diverse geographical locations which might not augur well to personal interests. Due to this, it becomes difficult to retain most of the employees involved in the industry.

The third challenge; transportation crisis, is mainly caused by piracy, terrorism, and natural disasters (Kasemsap, 2018). This has really crippled rail, air, and water transportation. In the recent past, this challenge has been experienced during the incidence of storms, and hurricanes which have made transportation impossible in the affected areas. This challenge has escalated the worries of transport logistics managers from worrying about loading ships, airplanes, and trucks to dealing with the natural crisis which are beyond man’s control. It becomes difficult for managers to assure clients of the safety of goods and cost-efficiency since these crises continue to threaten transportation. Generally, the whole transportation and logistics industry comes to a standstill in areas which experience such problems.

4. Discussion of new solution(s) to the problem

The solution to solving planning and risk management challenges in logistics planning will require each of the three categories of challenges to be addressed independently. First, the challenge experienced in planning for inter-modal transportation can be solved by ensuring there are smooth and seamless transitions between one means and mode of transportation to another. This will significantly improve the speed at which goods are moved from one carrier to another. The transportation manager should ensure that the transitional time is well accounted for during planning by making sure that the required labor force and equipment are ready to receive different shipments and place them in their required carriers within the least time possible. This will improve the performance of the company which will, in turn, increase profits and saves the company a lot of money which could have instead be used for compensating customer inconveniences.

Secondly, the challenge of management of workforce can be addressed by ensuring that hiring and recruitment of staff members outline clearly the requirements of an employee and that only the qualified personnel are employed. This will make it more convenient for the manager to coordinate different roles and improve the business process for the benefits of the company and the employees. Also, to ensure employee retention, the manager should ensure that the advanced technology and automation is used in the company so as to make it easier for the employees to cope with demanding working conditions (Speranza, 2018).

Thirdly, the challenge of transportation crisis is a recurring problem and can only be addressed by improving the security of the entire product movement process (Ballou, 2007). This solution can be achieved if the transportation and logistics industry to partner with governments in enhancing the safety of products through identification of hotspot areas. For example, dangerous areas in international shipping routes can be identified and the transporters can be advised on how to avoid them until strict security measures have been taken. Besides this, the government can also guide the logistics manager in planning for transportation process by ensuring that they prepare effective disaster management and resilience systems and infrastructure. This collaboration will help the logistics managers since they will be warned prior to the incidence of a natural disaster.

5. Conclusion

The results of this research show that the challenges facing transportation and logistics management have changed over the years. The common factor between the new challenges and past challenges is the importance of technology in resulting to solutions. This indicates that there is a need to adopt better and advanced technology in transportation and logistics management so as to mitigate the effects of these challenges.

References

Ballou, R. H. (2007). Business logistics/supply chain management: planning, organizing, and controlling the supply chain. Pearson Education India.

Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.

Kijpokin Kasemsap, (2018). Logistics Management and Risk Management. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-3468-6.ch006

Speranza, M. G. (2018). Trends in transportation and logistics. European Journal of Operational Research, 264(3), 830-836.

Wang, G., Gunasekaran, A., Ngai, E. W., & Papadopoulos, T. (2016). Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 176, 98-110.