AN APPROACH TOWARDS OVERALL SUPPLY CHAIN EFFICIENCY

Abstract

In recent years companies and academic organizations have focused on outbound operations due to their being the customer-oriented part of the business whereas the control of the inbound operations was generally left to the suppliers. But now outbound operations have become streamlined and extracting additional benefits has become more and more difficult. Taking greater control of inbound logistics is becoming a top priority for many manufacturers and retailers. Turning attention to inbound logistics will not only reduce costs, but also a generate more collaborative relationship with internal organizations, suppliers and logistic providers, which will ultimately result in a more effective business process from which all parties will benefit. In our study, we tried to exploit a solution in which Schenker, as a logistic provider, would be actively involved so that inbound logistic performance can be more effective and efficient which would benefit all participants in the value chain. We started by investigating the unique features of the inbound logistic system with a comparison of the outbound, and this was then followed by a description of the current inbound logistic operation systems, from both an information flow and material flow perspective. We found that all inbound operations can be categorized into that of traditional demand to supply model to that of the VMI model. In approaching overall supply chain efficiency, a model hypothesis was therefore created as a future oriented solutions. Parameters were also defined to evaluate the performance of inbound logistics. Finally, with the assistance of the Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) model, a case study of Volvo car inbound logistic operations has been made to illustrate the merits of our hypothesis and its improved results.