Executive Summary
The current global economy is undergoing dramatic changes that make it more technologically dependent as well as information intensive. Fundamentally, the role of logistics is becoming highly crucial in all business entities with an objective to improve and satisfy the customers’ demands, taste and preferences. With the current dynamic changes in logistics networks in the supply chain, organizations are likely to face numerous logistics problems. As a result, they are required to formulate effective Logistics Management concepts and tools to help to assess various logistics problems and improve their operational performance.
This paper analyzes the application of some the Logistics Management Concepts and Tools in managing various logistics challenges in the businesses. Primarily, the paper will focus on high levels of competitiveness as one of the major logistics problems facing the Hotel Company and other service industries in the current global economy. In essence, this research will focus on the application these logistics management concepts and tools in creating competitive advantage in the hotel companies. Some of the key logistics management concepts to be addressed include transparency in supply chain management, warehouse management system, information technology systems, distribution management systems, and customer order management.
Background Information
Gaining a competitive advantage and improving business competitiveness is a crucial logistic aspect that every organization aims to achieve (Baltzan & Phillips n.p). Creating a competitive advantage involves a process of incorporating active business ideas that make the consumers value the organization’s products more highly than similar products provided by its competitors. Essentially, it aims to boosts the quality business and creates a survival mechanism in the current customer-oriented economy (Ho et al. 390).
Typically, competitive advantage is momentary since competitors apply other ways to counter the competitive advantage. In creating and maintaining a competitive advantage, the organizations have to formulate new strategies that ensure production of commodities to exceed the expectations of the customers. Using logistics systems, organizations can formulate effective Logistics Management concepts and tools to help maintain a competitive advantage over its competitors.
In this context, the paper analyzes the application of these logistics concepts in the hotel industry, specifically in The Four Queens Hotel. Primarily, Four Queens Hotel is found in Las Vegas. Founded in 1966, the Hotel is owned and controlled by TLC enterprises and has a capacity of 690. It is located near major hotels and casino like Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, The LINQ Hotel and Casino, Hilton Hotel, Platinum Hotel and Spa.
Problem Description
Today, with more than 15 hotels located in Las Vegas, each hotel company is coming up new logistics strategies to increases attractiveness over other competitors (Tse, 35). Under this situation, these hotels companies are obliged to formulate strategies to reduce various costs on their operations. Some of these strategies aim to change the labor-intensive systems to lower costs on employees’ salaries. Ideally, developing clear logistics concepts can significantly help to reduce cost efforts in their operations and improve quality and service delivery. The integration of these approaches is an important contributor to creating a sustainable competitive advantage.
This paper will focus on the application of these logistics concepts in creating a competitive advantage in Four Queens Hotel Company. Located in such major hotels and Casinos, the hotel company is facing stiff competition. Research has shown that the high level of competition coupled with high cost of production has led to the decline in the occupancy rates up to 40% (HotelNewsNow n.p.). Ideally, if integrated into the management process, these logistics concepts would help create performance efficiency and reduce costs on the operation, thus creating a high competitive advantage over the other main competitors.
Application of Logistics Management Concepts/tools
Transparency in Supply Chain Management
In every logistics system, a strong emphasis is placed on transparency as a vital requirement for meeting the sustainability standards in the supply chain. Transparency focuses on maintaining a real-time information and decision management facilitated by the computer systems. Transparency is a key Logistics concept to ensuring smooth information flow as well as promoting functionality within the delivery chain. The high complexity of these aspects in the supply chain of a business can create implementation challenges unless a transparent system along the entire supply chain is ensured.
In Four Queens hotel industry, the management has to create an event-oriented transparency system to monitor and track the movement of orders, and delivery of goods to its customers. In essence, it needs to maintain a close and permanent efficient process that monitors the delivery of services. Besides, it has to coordinate all management action to prevent any unplanned disturbances and exceptional cases. Most importantly, it has to formulate a Financial Analyst System; the system helps the management to identify value streams to eliminate unnecessary activities within the production process. It helps to reduce complexity, cost on waste and drive value. Activities like tracking, tracing, warning functions, and online organization of services in the company greatly enhances a better control and provision of efficient services to customers, thus creating a competitive advantage over other businesses. During the recruitment process, the industry should create a concrete recruitment process that includes the top managers to coordinate the process of transparency efficiently and without bias (Bonn & Forbringer, 52). The hotel managers have to ensure that though the employees have a clear understanding regarding their responsibilities, they should also hold them accountable and make them realize that the decisions they undertake will have a great influence on the company.
Distribution Management System
A well-performing logistic system operates on an efficient distribution system since it is a major determinant of how effective product supply will be. The distribution management system facilitates and coordinates various components that link together various players in the supply chain in serving various needs of the end-customer (Albright, & Albert para 28). It incorporates logistics processes in planning, implementing, and regulating the movement of goods to conform to the customers’ requirements.
Achieving efficiency and effectiveness in transport management logistics involves; improved efficiency in the modes of transport, close coordination of various transport modes, and improved collaboration between players in the supply chain including producers, distributors, and the consumers (Albright, & Albert, para 28). All these logistics transport aspects determine the degree in which an organization will regulate its surplus value production in regards to the levels of consumer consumption.
In promoting a high level of competitiveness in the production process, Four Queen Hotel Company should formulate a personalized transport network system. This includes Service Representatives, Transport Gymnast, integration logistics systems, and economical transport network. Service representative entails the process of managing risks of customer service interruptions, set up shipments, and passing the collected information to the top management to make carrier arrangements. It aims to build and maintain a trusted business relationship with customers. Through Transport Gymnast, the company needs to create innovative programs that enhance mode flexibility and optimization; these innovative programs help to manage volume fluctuations and reduce the fixed cost on reducing capacity by paying the initially shipped products. Besides, the programs help to eliminate any additional costs and redundant moves.
Customer Order Management Services
The Logistics systems include all aspects that provide outputs to the customers. They include customer service management, customer relationship management, product commercialization and development, management of production flow, order fulfillment, and demand management (Cooper & Lambert 8). The first step is to identify loyal customers to be targeted. Customer Service Management then provides customers with the products’ availabilities and shipping dates’ information. The demand management balances the supply chain capacities with the customers’ requirements. Order Fulfillment designs processes and networks to facilitate customers’ satisfaction.
In hotel logistics, customer order management service is very crucial. This aspect can be established by creating a close partnership between the management, its suppliers, and the customers. A long-term partnership within these entities creates a direct, long-term cooperation and also promotes a combined planning as well as a channel of solving various problems. Besides, this strategic interaction allows the management to coordinate a small number of essential suppliers who are equipped with skills that promote accountability for the achievement of the company as well as those who work closely to minimize time wastage while maximizing on efforts.
An efficient customer order management service helps to improve the satisfaction of customers and prevent them from going to other hotels. With numerous changes in personalized service and customization for customers, customer order management service becomes vital for corporate existence and survival. It enables the hotel to distinguish itself from other competitors and create loyalty; thus, this approach builds high value to its customers (Subba Rao 109). All activities that move products through the plants and their management are controlled by manufacturing flow management. To respond to market changes, this flow must be flexible. The flexibility aims at providing the required product at the lowest costs possible in a timely manner.
Customer order management system helps to handle operation complexities in cost reduction. By improving the service levels to meet customers’ expectations, the hotel management can handle their complexity more efficiently compared to other competing hotels thus achieve higher profits on investment. The hotel has to deal with complexities relating to customers product requests irrespective of their operation size.
Information Technology Systems
The personified role of information technology system in logistics is well defined; to promote the synchronized flow of information from the production system to the consumer. By disseminating the information across the supply chain, a demand chain is created that is directed at promoting an enhanced customer value. A company can create competitive information system strategies that work directly to shift the cost of carrying out business and reduce the operational costs (Booth, Roberts & Sikes 3). An efficient information system entails a decision-making and knowledge-based system. To achieve this objective, the hotel industry needs to incorporate an efficient information technology system that develops a differentiated approach to reducing the differentiation advantages over the competitors.
Through an information technology logistics system, Four Queens Hotel management can design a rapid sharing of demand and supply data to ensure an increasingly accurate image that reflects the nature of production processes and levels of consumer demands (Godsell 51). Integration information systems provide an increasing competitive advantage necessary for regulating surplus value production while meeting the consumer demands in the marketplace. Hotel companies that incorporate information system logistics and strategies achieve a high level of information exchange between the various partners depending on the quantity and quality of information (Yang & Fu 114). The information shared can be applied to create a competitive advantage as the partners involved understand the taste and preferences of the consumer better than their competitors, thus, can respond swiftly to any concern.
. Warehouse Management System (WMS)
The application of warehousing in the supply chain is of immense concern, especially due to the increased level of competition among businesses. Currently, business organizations are using warehousing to enhance the provision of services to customers and lower the costs of production. A major trend in the warehousing operations has been the use a warehouse management system (WMS). Essentially, WMS have been used as an effective way to achieve efficiency and increased performance of the warehousing activities required in the market. It is used to provide accurate and prompt information on the products, resources, and overall warehousing operations; it provides reports and vital information required to ensure a continuous movement of services.
Four Queen has to integrate an efficient warehouse management system; this includes inter-warehouse management, warehouse execution control, and warehouse organization definition. The inter-warehouse management service stipulates the mechanism of product distribution in the company, provides information on products inventory, especially in value addition, and facilitate a replenishment strategy for the company warehouse. Most importantly, it supports a tracking system that assesses the flow of particular products and orders. The warehouse organization definition controls the physical storage aspect of the company. Essentially, it stipulates storage rules, storage conditions, and picking strategies. Besides, it facilitates an efficient inventory control, which relates execution control reports. Thus, the company can identify changes in demands, excess stock, and obsolete products.
The warehousing execution control system plays a key role in the company’s warehouse system. In essence, it promotes execution, planning, and coordination of various processes in the warehouse; these processes entail inspection quality of stock, stock movement, customs management, as well as location control. Most importantly, the company has integrated efficient management information systems; the information system enhances communication and interaction with various management systems in the warehouse including receiving, loading, unloading and assembling activities to ensure efficiency in task performance.
Analysis of the Expected Results
As noted above, the Hotel Industry, as well as other business entities, is facing numerous global challenges including the high cost of production, reduced interaction and communication between various partners in the supply chain, and poor distribution network. The interaction of these factors leads to low levels of customer satisfaction; the levels of production decreases resulting in reduced profits margins and investment returns. In addition to the increasing levels of competitiveness among similar business entities, businesses are obliged to formulate strategic plans to continue surviving in this customer-oriented market.
Therefore, efficient logistics management concepts and tools are crucial to the success of any business entity in such a competitive market. As explained, these logistic concepts promote efficiency and performance at all supply chain levels. Most importantly, the integration of these concepts will create an efficient and synchronized approach, which will promote flexibility, reduce production costs as well as increase the utilization of business resources. The interaction of these factors contributes significantly to gaining Competitive advantage leading to increases in returns and high-profit margins. .
Conclusion
Logistics system is a continuous and ever-changing aspect that every company must strive to achieve and excel. Fundamentally, the role logistics is becoming highly crucial in all business entities with an objective to improve and satisfy the customers’ demands, taste and preferences. With the current dynamic changes in logistics networks in the supply chain, business needs to create a high level of Competitiveness to enhance their survival in the increasingly globally competitive economy. In the same way the requirements of a customer, infrastructure, and technology change from time to time, the goals of excellence in every logistic system change as well. Effective logistic systems influence all levels of a company operation, from its strategy to finance, sales of service to formulate a supply chain that provides the expected result and exceed the customer expectations while reducing cost. All these interactions improve efficiency in the business environment and create a competitive advantage over other business competitors. Implementing these logistics and supply chain systems in Four Queens hotel industry achieves tremendous success in creating a competitive advantage against its major competitors. Applying such logistics concepts improve value and enhance customer satisfaction and also capitalize on costs saving opportunities. Most importantly, Logistics concepts like Transparency in supply chain management of the business, Warehouse management system, Transport management systems, Information technology systems and Customer order management develops a cohesive logistics systems and supply chain management strategies which strengthen the operation margins, promotes efficiency, and save time. These logistics concepts lead to reduced costs in the management system due to enhanced flexibility and increase in the utilization of resources.
Works cited
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