Logistics Management
Essays

In reading the text readings for this week, what one deep concept (contained within a paragraph not a page) interested you most which was relatively new information to you. How will it be helpful to you in your career?

For any enterprise, the quality of the information generated based on operations internally and interactions with customers, clients, suppliers, distribution partners and service providers can quickly determine if profitability will be achieved and maintained. Information is the catalyst of economic growth and the stabilizing force in any business. To the extent a given enterprise can quickly aggregate, analyze and create intelligence from their information systems and knowledge bases is the extent they can ward of competitors, stay more agile in turbulent markets, and deliver products on time, earning a profit in the process. The skills required to implement a highly coordinated information technologies strategy is indispensable for attaining and continually fueling competitive advantage. Considering the most critical business processes any company is based on makes this point very clear. Consider the coordinated information strategies involved with managing a global supply chain network, specifically the functions of product and supplier quality management and supplier performance data (Forslund, 2010). Both of these functions are critical for any enterprise that is involved in distribution or manufacturing to deliverable high quality products that last. There is also the need for managing suppliers to forecasts, including the requirement of supply chain accuracy and forecasting performance (Forslund, 2010). Within industries where there is significant product lifecycle churn and changes to overall marketing conditions rapidly, the use of information technologies as a strategic competitive advantage becomes clear. The intent of this analysis is to illustrate why implementing coordinated technologies do in fact deliver significant competitive advantages over time.

Review of Deming and Goldrat: The theory of constraints and the system of profound knowledge- the Decalogue

Subway Corporation: Economic Business Analysis

In the article What is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product? (Fisher, 1997) the author contends that there needs to be a precise alignment of an organizations' supply chain objectives, frameworks and strategies to…

The reliance on innovation and continual technological advances are the catalyst of economic growth in the high technology, information technologies (it) and information systems (IS) industries (Raj, Pedersen, 2010).

The Japanese Distribution System has been under a lot of scrutiny and assessment and analyses by foreigners, and these analyses have attempted to find out the reason behind the absolute 'no go' principle that they find…

Supply Chain Management in the 21st Century

There are several significant advantages of using qualitative measurements in marketing research. The most significant is the ability to capture the voice of customers that may have evaded the more structured, numerically-based approaches that force respondents to provide a specific set of answers. Qualitative research can also lead to entirely new insights into a new market or service that has not been seen in the past, given the open-ended questions inherent in this approach to research. Qualitative research techniques also can be used to capture the shared knowledge of experts as well, as the Delphi Technique is so well-known and used for. Capturing the tacit expertise and knowledge of a specific group of thought leaders can also be accomplished using qualitative techniques as well. Additional advantages of qualitative measurements include the ability to complete greater exploratory or primary research into a specific subject, often following a specific line of questions as they develop within an interview. An additional advantage of qualitative research techniques are the ability to understand how prospects and customers make trade-offs on substitute products and services. While price elasticity studies are often highly quantitative in scope, the use of interactive discussions of pricing trade-offs can be highly effective in determining just how much a prospect is willing to sacrifice price for a given feature or benefit. The total value of a brand can also be ascertained through the use of these types of qualitative techniques, providing respondents with the ability to define in their own terms the value of the experience a brand delivers. The many advantages of qualitative research are predicated on having more interactive sessions with respondents, including the ability to ascertain how they make trade-offs over time on value versus price. For the many advantages of qualitative measurements, there are several disadvantages as well. First, the results of any study predicated on this approach cannot be analyzed at the higher levels of statistical analysis. As the results of studies and research completed with qualitative measurements are by nature not nominal, ordinal or interval in terms of data orthogonality, they cannot be used to represent an entire customer or segment population. At best they can be used as a means to capture nominally-based data that can lead to only a rough approximation of an overall market size or series of market dynamics. Qualitative data can only be as useful as the means used to capture it as well; if a methodology is very informal and focused on a series of loosely-guided objectives, the overall data will of mediocre quality at best. When the goals and objectives of a research study, in addition to the sampling frame and methodology lack rigor or precise focus, the resulting research can also lack precision and meaning. It is more difficult to create greater levels of meaning and transferability of data when the methodologies are highly qualitative in scope; the data is only relevant for a specific series of objectives and often is defined by applicability to a given point in time as well. Qualitative data is often also open to interpretation, as the methodology can be debated in terms of its relative appropriateness, robustness and value over the long-term. Finally, qualitative data cannot be taken entirely on its own; it must be combined with a series of other research sources to ensure relevancy and accuracy of interpretation, especially over time. In conclusion, qualitative data needs to be taken in context and often balanced with quantitative data to ensure a 360-degree view of a given situation or strategy of interest has the greater level of insights gained from research efforts.

The history of international courier service DHL is important, but only brief history is necessary here. DHL began in San Francisco, but it spread rapidly and now covers 220 countries (History, 2004).