What is Integrated Logistics?
1) Overview of Integrated Logistics
In the current times, the ecommerce industry has grown considerably with influence in almost all sectors of the economy. With more and more people relying on ecommerce it has become increasingly important for ecommerce businesses to optimize and enhance their operations to fulfil all their orders. This is where integrated logistics come into play. Integrated logistics is an integral part of the ecommerce industry and is essential to ensure everything is interconnected. In this article, we will provide an in-depth analysis of integrated logistics and its parts.
2) What is Integrated Logistics?
Integrated logistics is a supply chain organization system and business management model in which, businesses, processes, resources and products are integrated to flow in the same direction. It is an integral strategy to ensure flexible supply chain management that is used to optimize and improve product delivery and enhance customer satisfaction. Integrated logistics is the process of actively understanding and anticipating business and customer needs and on the basis of it form an interconnected network to fulfil those needs in a smooth and timely manner. Integrated logistics is a service-oriented process and incorporates the use of all the departments of the business to help move the product from the raw source material to the final customer.
3) What is involved in Integrated Logistics?
The different operations involved in Integrated logistics are:
Inbound logistics: It deals with procuring supplies and resources. It is the flow of materials from the supplier/producer to the business.
Conversion/operations: It deals with the relationship among the different departments of the business and how they interact with each other to move the materials towards the final product.
Outbound logistics: It deals with the logistical relationship between the business and its customer. It is the process of transporting the finished product to the final customer.
Each of these relationships is executed on the basis of 5 primary logistical activities that are- transportation, warehousing, inventory management, material handling and communication.
4) How to implement integrated logistics solutions?
The implementation of integrated logistics depends on many factors like-
All employees must have perfect knowledge of their roles and responsibilities in supply chain management.
Manufacturing techniques for different products must be optimised and checked properly to keep up with customer expectations.
Implementing proper communication channels to ensure transparent data sharing between different departments.
Proper organization of production and storage areas.
Transport and delivery should be improved in order to fulfil orders in time and gain customer loyalty.
Integrated logistics must anticipate the needs of the customer and be ready to provide efficient service and order management.
5) What are the benefits of integrated logistics?
Integrated logistics provides several benefits or advantages to ecommerce businesses like:
Increases delivery speed. Integrated logistics eliminates obstacles and optimizes delivery operations.
Lower business costs. Properly managing supply chains and implementing improvement measures reduces overall logistics costs.
Operational flexibility. Integrated logistics can be adapted to manage the ever-changing business environment and solve logistics problems.
Efficient inventory management. Integrated logistics include the operations of all the departments and promotes sharing of all information, roles and responsibilities thus providing more efficient inventory management to provide timely customer service.
6) Conclusion
Integrated logistics has become an essential strategy for all ecommerce businesses to ensure smooth and efficient inventory and supply chain management. It also helps to anticipate the needs of the business and the customers and fulfil those in a timely manner.
