http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/writing/containerization--past-present-and-future.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/containerization--past-present-and-future.html Mon, 28 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500
The concept of containerization is considered as the key innovation in the field of logistics which has revolutionized freight handling in the twentieth century.

Benefits of Containerization

Goods in lots which are too small for the traditional bulk transport can be moved using containers.
Containerization is best option for high-value and delicate cargo as it provides safety from human and natural factors.
As containers are moved intact, substantial amount of time and labor cost is saved which would otherwise have incurred in loading and unloading goods.
It prevents poor handling of goods that results from bulk transport systems.
Containers can act as mode of storage anywhere along the transport route.
Container ships provide regular service to overseas ports, thus it minimizes the waiting time.
Containerization reduces the transit time which not only offers a means of marketing for the producer that bulk systems cannot provide, but also helps to reduce the inventory costs and increases reliability.

Following part explains the containerization in past, present future:

The carrying of containers through ships started in 1951 between Alaska and Seattle. The first purpose built container ship the Clifford J. Rodgers was built in Montreal in 1955 which was owned by the White Pass & Yukon Route. In its maiden trip it carried 600 containers between Skagway, Alaska and North Vancouver, British Columbia. These containers could be moved by rail, truck and ships. This way gradually, the whole inter- modal system started operating.

Malcom McLean, the US trucking industry player innovated the idea of using large containers, transferable on an inter-modal basis. With the abolition of Interstate Commerce Commission's regulatory, deregulation of maritime rates, trucking and railway it became possible to develop fully integrated system.

Present
Today containerization has become the integral part of logistics. It has revolutionized the cargo shipping. Today, nearly 90% of non bulk cargo moves by containers put on transport ships. One fourth of world’s total containers start from China.

With the use of ISO standard containers, the size and shapes of commercial vehicles carrying containers are also getting standardized.

Today, improved cargo security is seen as an added benefit of containerization. The cargo is not visible and hence less likely to be stolen and also doors of the containers are sealed so that its safety can be assured.

Worldwide standardization of sizes of containers has lessened the problems of incompatibility and gauge. Today most of the trains in the world operate on 4 feet 8½ inch gauge track but many countries like Russia, Australia, Spain and Finland while countries in Africa and South America use narrower gauges.

Some of the largest global players containerizing containers today are Bowen Exports, Theiler & Sons Goods, LLC and Patrick Global Shipping.
Types of containers available to meet different needs:
Open top bulk containers
Open side containers
General purpose dry vans
Platform containers
High cube pallet wide containers
Containers with temperature controlling facility
Ventilated containers
Tank containers
Flush folding flat-rack containers

Future

Containerization reduces time in transit, the inventory costs and increases reliability. Such benefits are forcing the industry to make it more favorable in terms of cost, flexibility and speed. As the Internet and other new communication technologies are developing, it is expected to bring more innovations which will further simplify the tasks of logistics.

Many companies are designing the freighters capable of 14000 TEU.

Container traffic from Asia is expected to grow more rapidly in near future. The containerization in terms of expansion is expected to be far rapid in China. The Asia's share of containerized exports to world’s total exports is expected to reach nearly 64 % in 2015.

Past
The effort to ship cargo in container initiated in the beginning of 19th century. These containers could be shifted from railroads to ships or trucks. The containers used at that time were much smaller than what we see today.

In the mid 1920s Milwaukee Railway and Chicago North Shore started using shippers' vehicles and motor carrier vehicles on flatcars between the route of Milwaukee and Chicago. Later, Seatrain Lines carried railroad boxcars on ships to move goods between Cuba and New York. Also, the Chicago Great Western Railway and the New Haven railroad began transporting highway freight trailers on flatcars. In the early 1950s, these flatcars got more equipped with new decks.

More Article: - http://www.shipping-exchange.com/articles/p1/shipping-industry-articles.htm

About Shipping-Exchange.com
Shipping-Exchange.com integrates shipping and logistics community worldwide to improve economies of freight. Vision and efforts of many industry professionals is helping Shipping-Exchange.com towards becoming the world's largest shipping and logistics portal. It enjoys industry support by maintaining an un-biased approach and offering all services and features absolutely free. You can visit this portal at http://www.shipping-exchange.com

Source: - http://www.shipping-exchange.com/articles/supply_chain_article/p1/wbnaacf/containerization--past-present.htm

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Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/online-business/basics-of-supply-chain-management.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/online-business/basics-of-supply-chain-management.html Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500
A supply chain network of an organization includes the location as well as movement decisions in respect of procurement of raw materials and other inputs, transformation of these materials into intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of these finished products to customers. With effective and efficient Supply Chain Management (SCM) company can improve the way it finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers. SCM is significant for both service and manufacturing organizations, although the complexity of the chain may vary greatly from industry to industry.
Supply chain management includes five basic activities: planning and strategy formulation, sourcing, transformation process, delivery, and at last handling customer complaints and excess stocks.

Planning and strategy formulation:

Company needs a strategy for managing all the resources that go toward meeting customer demands. Supply chain planning is carried out at corporate level as well as at operation level. Strategy formulated at corporate level is for long term horizon and includes decision on main objectives of supply chain in terms of customer service, formulating policies, designing supply chain, strategic alliances, etc. Operational level planning is for short term, and focuses on activities over a day-to-day basis. The effort is to effectively and efficiently manage the product flow in order to fulfill the strategic goals.

Sourcing:

First generate the list of suppliers supplying the required inputs, evaluate each of them on the basis of relevant criterion as price, quality, delivery time, etc. Now choose the best supplier. Develop a set of pricing, delivery and payment processes with suppliers and make efforts for monitoring and improving the relationships. Also make sure the proper management of inventory of goods and services received from suppliers, including receiving shipments, verifying them, moving them to manufacturing facilities and authorizing supplier payments.

Transformation process:
It includes Scheduling the activities necessary for production, testing, packaging and preparation for delivery and also ensuring the smooth production, high quality levels and improved worker productivity.

Delivery:
This part of supply chain is many times referred as logistics by many companies. It includes coordinating the receipt of orders from customers, developing a network of warehouses, arranging for pick carriers to move products to customers and setting up an invoicing system to receive payments.

Handling customer complaints and excess stocks:
This part of supply chain deal with the problems that originate while carrying out the above activities like receiving defective and excess products back from customers, Wrong order placement, delay in receiving goods, conflicts with suppliers, etc.


Integration of Supply Chain Activities
Traditionally, planning, purchasing organizations, manufacturing, marketing and distribution along the supply chain is operated independently. These activities are carried out by different departments or organizations and each have their own objectives and these are often conflicting. For example, Marketing's objective of high customer service and maximizing sales revenue conflict with manufacturing and distribution goals. Many manufacturing operations are designed to achieve lower costs with small consideration for distribution capabilities and inventory levels. Such conflict makes it necessary to integrate all the functions of supply chain network. Coordination between these functional organizations in the chain is a key to attain a balanced supply chain network.


Major Supply Chain Decisions:
There are four major decision areas related to supply chain management: location, production, inventory, and transportation.

Location
Deciding on the location of manufacturing facilities, storage points, and sourcing points is first step in creating a supply chain. These should be taken carefully with due consideration of the long term plans of the organization. The location of facilities further guide management about how to reach customer market also it has a great impact on revenue, cost, and level of service. These decisions are normally based some of these factors: proximity to raw material source or customer market, production costs, taxes, tariffs, duties and duty drawback, transportation costs, production limitations, etc.

Production
Decisions like what to produce, capacity of plant, production scheduling, equipment maintenance, workload balancing, quality control, etc. These decisions also have a great impact on the revenues, costs and customer service levels of the firm.

Inventory
Inventory includes raw material, semi-finished and finished goods. They can be in-process between locations. The primary purpose is to buffer against any uncertainty that might be in the supply chain. Decision relating to inventory should consider carrying/holding cost, ordering cost, and opportunity cost. As inventory cost constitutes the big part of the total cost, it is critical decision in supply chain operation. It also includes the determination of the optimal levels of order quantities and reorder points, and setting safety stock levels, at each stocking location. These levels are vital as they are primary determinants of customer service levels.

Transportation:
These decisions are closely linked to the inventory decisions, as the decision are based on trade-off between cost involved using the particular mode of transportation and the indirect cost of inventory associated with that mode. For example air shipments may be fast, reliable, and requires lesser safety stocks, they are expensive. While other modes like rail and road are though less costly but requires maintaining high level of safety stock due to high level of uncertainty involved. Also the customer service levels and geographic location influence such decisions.

More Article: - www.shipping-exchange.com

About Shipping-Exchange.com
Shipping-Exchange.com integrates shipping and logistics community worldwide to improve economies of freight. Vision and efforts of many industry professionals is helping Shipping-Exchange.com towards becoming the world's largest shipping and logistics portal. It enjoys industry support by maintaining an un-biased approach and offering all services and features absolutely free. You can visit this portal at http://www.shipping-exchange.com

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(Harmeet Kohli)Shipping-Exchange.com is world's largest free source of shipping and logistics news, freight quote, jobs in shipping & logistics, shipping directory, forums, education and knowledge center. We unite people who need logistics service (exporter and importer) with shipping lines, airlines, rail companies, freight forwarders, Trucking companies, NVOCC, Ports, ICD, Ship owner, Liner service, Container management, Chartering brokers, Warehouse operators, Consultants, Customs Brokers and Clearing House Agents.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/writing/public-speaking/tips-to-save-on-logistics-cost.html http://www.articletrader.com/writing/public-speaking/tips-to-save-on-logistics-cost.html Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Logistics Management is conventionally defined as the process that ensures the delivery of the right product at the right place at the right time in right quantities to its customers. Normally when logistics management is talked about, the entire supply chain is considered, from the procurement of raw material to the delivery of finished good and services to customers.

Logistics activities can be categorized as inbound and outbound logistic activities. Activities from procurement to final production are called inbound activities while activities concerned with distribution channel that is delivery of the finished goods and services to the customers from the manufacturer’s place are called outbound activities
Four main areas of logistics management are procurement, transport, transshipment and storage of goods. Supply chain logistics costs account from 5% to 50% of a product’s total cost, depending on the industry. Following are the tips to reduce cost in these four areas:
Procurement
Keep your scope wider and search for the suppliers of your required inputs who can offer you in more favorable terms. Look for import options also. This does not mean changing the suppliers very frequently but just awareness about such suppliers can strengthen your company’s bargaining power. Always try to negotiate for favorable prices.
Understand the true costs of sourcing. Consider all the costs freight, duty, inventory carrying costs, brokerage involved in procuring. Comparing these costs will help company to decide on the best option.
Work with suppliers on the design and specifications for each order to identify cost savings that allow them to lower their prices.
Switch to lower priced substitutes available for the required inputs.
Try to switch to just-in-time deliveries from suppliers that can lower a company’s inventory as well as internal logistics costs. It may also allow its suppliers to economize on company’s shipping, warehousing, and production scheduling costs that can result in a win-win situation for both the parties.
Transportation
Select the mode of transportation (air, water, rail, road and through pipeline) which best suits the quantity and quality of goods to be supplied and required delivery time. Each mode has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of costs, speed, capacity, flexibility and safety. Appropriate selection reduces the opportunity costs involved due to unavailability of goods at right time. Loss due to damage to goods during transit can be avoided.
Proper vehicle routing and scheduling can reduce the in-transit inventory. Today various mathematical and analytical methods are available to solve the problems of vehicle routing like shortest route method, transportation method, etc.
Freight consolidation can reduce the transportation cost to a greater extent. In involves bringing together smaller quantities of inventory in order to create a bigger quantity for transportation.
Transshipment
Controlling the express shipping costs, typically when a company have an entire shipment sent on an express service level basis for which higher cost is incurred. Such Panicking often results in higher costs. If the companies just do a little bit of calculating and planning it can determine the amount of goods that are needed immediately and have that amount sent by express service level, while the balance of the shipment can be sent using a standard service level which leads to lower cost.
Inventory
To build up inventory sufficient capital has to be tied up for a length of time. By proper analysis on demand and supply side and nature of the product, such capital cost can be reduced by optimizing the level of inventory. Use scientific method like EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) to decide on order quantity.
Use proper inventory control system.
Try to avail the quantity discounts from raw material suppliers by ordering in a lot.
On the basis of past experience, insure the stock against such contingency as fire, theft, accidents, etc.
Reduce the number of storage points to reduce the total variability in demand. This practice is called risk pooling. The total carrying costs get reduced with a lesser provision of safety stock at different storage points.

4 Step process of lowering logistic costs:
1. Determine the customer service targets and organizational goals.
2. Compute the current logistics costs.
3. Benchmark cost of performing a given set of activities against the best companies in similar business.
4. Develop a plan and implement the lowest cost method that meets the core business needs.

More Article: - www.shipping-exchange.com

About Shipping-Exchange.com
Shipping-Exchange.com integrates shipping and logistics community worldwide to improve economies of freight. Vision and efforts of many industry professionals is helping Shipping-Exchange.com towards becoming the world's largest shipping and logistics portal. It enjoys industry support by maintaining an un-biased approach and offering all services and features absolutely free. You can visit this portal at http://www.shipping-exchange.com


Source: - http://www.shipping-exchange.com/articles/supply_chain_article/p1/wbnaucf/tips-to-save.htm

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(Harmeet Kohli)Shipping-Exchange.com is world's largest free source of shipping and logistics news, freight quote, jobs in shipping & logistics, shipping directory, forums, education and knowledge center. We unite people who need logistics service (exporter and importer) with shipping lines, airlines, rail companies, freight forwarders, Trucking companies, NVOCC, Ports, ICD, Ship owner, Liner service, Container management, Chartering brokers, Warehouse operators, Consultants, Customs Brokers and Clearing House Agents.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>