The logistics industry keeps products accounted for and on the move. Products and raw materials are moved in absolutely mind-boggling numbers around the globe. There are 5 major elements within logistics. Here is a very brief guide to all of them that should help you enhance your knowledge.
- Inventory
A well-maintained inventory is essential in every logistical operation. Inventory management involves the development of systems that account for raw materials and products within a warehousing and delivery network. Knowing what materials are coming in, going out and being lost can help a company to become far more profitable. In recent years, advanced automation in the field of inventory management has allowed companies to work with extremely tight parameters: bringing in products and materials just days before they are shipped. Although advanced inventory management allows extremely quick turnaround – and therefore smaller and easier to manage warehouses – it cannot account for global politics. During the UK’s split from the European Union, next day logistics apparatus struggled to cope with increased shipping times, for example.
Automated inventory management systems can detect trends in incomings and outgoings – automatically ordering more stock before it becomes dangerously low.
- Storage And Warehousing
A business’s inventory is typically stored in a warehouse. Supply and demand do not typically match up exactly. Manufacturers need to operate at peak efficiency – producing as much as they can. Consumers, however, do not acquire products at the same pace as they are made. This means that products need to be stored safely and accounted for accurately within warehouses before they are shipped. Companies need to avoid the possibility of maintaining vast and expensive warehouses by carefully assessing trends in sales and ordering the smallest quantity of products and materials they can whilst maintaining a constantly available level of stock.
- Shipping
Shipping work is an immensely important part of the logistical chain. Truck loads are sent directly from warehouses. Most companies try and make use of the ‘economy of scale’ by seeking to move goods for a large part of their journey by rail or ship. This is not always possible – especially in a country with such sparce rail links as the United States of America. This means that a huge amount of material is moved on the highways throughout the interior of the country. Good relationships with freight brokers and shipping companies are important in logistics.
- Picking
When orders are processed, the materials or products that have been ordered need to be quickly and accurately located on the warehouse floor and sent to be packed. While this has usually been a task completed by human pickers, some large companies have started to utilize robots in order to save money and increase accuracy. Although robots are extremely efficient, there are moral questions being asked by union representatives concerned that increased automation could be putting people’s jobs at risk in unprecedented ways. Automation has always posed a risk to labor, and the sound management of automation so as to not victimize working people is essential in the future. Training people for work in administrative and digital roles is one way to offset the damage caused by robotic automation.
- Packaging And Unitization
Products and materials need to be unitized for efficient storage and packed for safe and cost-effective shipping. The easiest – and one of the safest – packaging shapes for storage and shipping is the cube. Cuboid shapes can be accounted for and stacked extremely easily. To this end, packaging is generally made as cuboid as possible. Loose materials are often wrapped into cubes and stored on pallets, which are easily movable with fork lift trucks and pump trolleys.
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