Stiff competition in the present market has compelled business enterprises or firms to invest in as well as concentrate on logistics program planning. The advancement in technology, as well as transportation technologies, have resulted in further development of logistics planning. Logistics network entails suppliers, warehouses, manufacturing centers, distribution centers as well as retail outlets. Moreover, raw materials, inventory of work-in-process as well as finished products, which flow between organizational facilities (Luo 237-239).
Logistics planning always considers every component, which has an effect on the cost. Logistics planning plays a significant role in conforming product to the requirements of customers. Moreover, it entails efficient incorporation of suppliers, warehouses, manufacturers, and stores and involves the company's activities into several categories, ranging from strategic level via the strategic to the level of operation (Rushton, Phil, and Peter 17).
Logistics planning is a challenging as well as significant activity since it acts as a boundary or integrating spanning function. Logistics planning connects suppliers with customers, as well integrates functional enterprises across a firm. With the ever-increasing competition in the present market, it becomes essential for a company to utilize its resources to concentrate on strategic opportunities or advantages (Luo 238-239). This entails many internal factors such as management style, human resources, culture, as well as many external factors such as technology, competition, and globalization. Therefore, logistics planning plays a significant role that is, assists to leverage some opportunities the company has within the market (Rushton, Phil, and Peter 16).
Recognizing the significance of balance between the main elements and minute details entailed in a product is crucial (Rushton, Phil, and Peter 18). The role of logistics program planning is to ensure that balance. Customers are the most significant assets of the firm. Customers drive the whole supply chain involving manufacturing and marketing. Consequently, it is crucial for a firm to have deep knowledge of the demands of customers and maintain the expectations of customers (Fleischmann and Andreas 274). Once a firm has a deep, understanding of requirements of its customers it formulates a tactic on how to employ logistics to accomplish it. This means that logistics program planning helps in assessment and understanding of the firm's strategic direction (Rushton, Phil, and Peter 18).
Plywood procurement and logistics program planning has; nonetheless, advanced drastically within the past few decades. The increasing customer orientation, externalization of work procedures, adaptation of logistics theories, product-based bucking, the expansion of global wood trade as well as fast growth of management methods and tools has transformed characteristics of plywood logistics planning drastically. Consequently, there exist an increasing necesity to reform the wood procurement and logistics planning (Rushton, Phil, and Peter 21).
Logistics program planning can help in stressing the interactions, which occurs between production and marketing for plywood company (Luo 236-239). Logistics planning helps in proper organization of activities linked to the flow as well as transformation of products from raw materials to customers, and the associated flows of information. Logistics planning is significant in the integration or incorporation of these activities, via enhanced supply chain relations, to accomplish a sustainable or long-lasting competitive advantage (Von der Gracht, Christopher, and Inga-Lena 80).
Logistics program planning is crucial to addressing four main challenging areas: facility location, transportation decisions, customer service goals, and inventory decisions. These challenging areas are interlinked and if planned as one or unit can help in improving systems design. Proper logistics planning of plywood import company permits decentralization of inventories as well as utilization of cheap transportation forms, without logistics planning, levels of services are pressed to upper limits, which in turn increases logistics costs at a rate inconsistent with service level (Von der Gracht, Christopher, and Inga-Lena 81).
Logistics planning helps in outlining geographic placement of logs or stocking points as well as sourcing points. The number, size, facilities' location as well as assigning market demands or needs helps in establishing the paths via which goods are channeled into the market. Through logistics planning, the lowest cost assignments or maximum profit assignments can be determined, as it is the aim of firm location strategy. Decisions of inventory denote the way inventories are controlled. Assigning inventories to the storing points against pulling them via inventory replenishment guidelines represent two distinct strategies. Logistics planning, therefore, is significant in influencing the decisions of facility locations (Fleischmann and Andreas 272). In addition, logistics program planning of a plywood import company helps in transport decisions that may include mode choice, shipments size, as well as routing and scheduling. With proper logistics planning, such decisions are affected by the propinquity of warehouses to company’s customers as well as plant, which in turn affect warehouse locations (Fleischmann and Andreas 270-272). Logistics planning also helps in making levels of inventory respond to decisions of transport via shipment size (Von der Gracht, Christopher, and Inga-Lena 84).
Regardless of the peculiar features of wood procurement, logistics theory provides an excellent system to evaluate the main processes or procedures of wood procurement. From numerous re-engineering techniques, management of wood procurement has presently been examined chiefly within the framework of supply chain management. Logistic program planning has helped management activities within the plywood import company to put emphasis on TBM (Time-Based Management), which put a strong emphasis on reducing storage costs as well as short lead times at the expense or price of the rising cost of sorting and transportation (Rushton, Phil, and Peter 19).
Logistics program planning at plywood Import Company helps in defining the factory, which makes the main conversions to customers. The requirements of companies are derived from customers’ requirements though the enterprises can have different techniques to satisfy customers’ needs or demands. Consequently, one of the basic tasks of logistics planning is to outline or draw customer service goals. For the Plywood Import Company, the primary customer service aims are price, quality requirements, ability to respond to changes, and dimension requirements (Von der Gracht, Christopher, and Inga-Lena 82). The price is often significant; though the smaller, the percentage the wood price is of the overall production expenses, the insignificant the price or cost becomes. The significance of dimensional and quality requirements rises with the increasing value of wood.
Wood is presently increasingly being transported between neighboring nations. In order to balance the raw-material need required for definite products, companies must work within the international wood market. Therefore, raw material source is not only affected by the location, but also the company’s require to determine from which sources it is appropriate to acquire raw material. This can be best achieved through logistics program planning.
Organizationally, Plywood Import Companies procurement activities are always geographically categorized into catchment areas. The borders of countries regarding wood transportation normally are dictated by wood flow directions, that is, regions are unified into blocks where the logs are transported to the company. Each block can have a different technique in terms of wood price policy, types of logs bought and market share. The boundaries of these blocks or regions and the strategies formed are the most significant strategic decisions for plywood import companies. Such significant strategic decisions can be best attained through logistics program planning (Rushton, Phil, and Peter 20).
Works Cited
Fleischmann, Bernhard, and Andreas Klose. Distribution logistics: advanced solutions to practical problems. Berlin; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 2005. Print.
Luo, Zongwei. Innovations in logistics and supply chain management technologies for dynamic economies. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference, 2012. Print.
Rushton, Alan, Phil Croucher, and Peter Baker. The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management. 4th ed. London: Kogan Page, 2010. Print.
Von der Gracht, Heiko A., Christopher Jahns, and Inga-Lena Darkow. The future of logistics: scenarios for 2025. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Gabler, 2008. Print.
