Logistics Management - International Trade Logistics and Requirements - Essay Example

Logistics Management - International Trade Logistics and Requirements of the of the of the submitted Introduction The international logistics deal with transactions that involve individuals, firms in number of countries. The organized movement between them is known as logistics. The goods, services and people are involved in this organized movement. This is due to handling of the physical movement of product between one or more participants in the supply chain. The carriers, forwarders, bankers, information and communication companies, traders will facilitate international transactions in the international logistics management. This involves the complex integration of processes necessary to manage materials from their point of origin through manufacturing to final customer. If it is the case of recycling, the process includes what is beyond the final consumer. The international management of logistics involves the movements of goods, services and people also. It depends on the nature of transport. For example, in case of airlines, the movement of people dictates the movement of aircraft and thus the movement of cargo. The movement of the people beyond the borders in search of employment also can be termed as a part of international logistics. This is because they are the human resource for the companies and they move towards the company. Yet times not only the goods, even people move towards the goods. This also can be considered as logistics operation. If the borders of any two nations are peaceful, the people cross the border in search of employment, livelihood and bargains that are unavailable at home. 1 2. International Logistics Functions and Intermediaries One cannot define to pin point logistics or its systems. At present the logistics is seen as the activities that facilitate the different cycles in the supply chain. They are customer order cycle, the replenishment cycle, the manufacturing cycle, and the procurement cycle. The international logistics involves the movement across the borders of different countries. Naturally the movements between any two countries are complex in nature when compared to domestic movements. These movements when involve ships need to move through port and being at sea is time consuming. Some companies and people prefer this because this is the cheapest mode of transport. When the time taken for the transport is more, the differences between the time zones will make the movements a bit complex. The documentation required for the international shipping adds to the complex nature of the movements through ships. The documentation required for international movement involves the need of employment of experts regarding the documentation. This is due to the inventory in transit management involved in the transportation. The inventory in place increases the information management complexity and demands of international logistics. The company involved in international business should have an international logistics department that is responsible for the management of communications. The department will plan for the communications, control of the logistics activities. 2 3. International Transportation and Trade Facilitation The international transportation and trade facilitation is facing many challenges due to the explosive growth in trade between the nations. As a result the transportation is being faster and flexible to facilitate trade. This involves the fast moving container ships and improved container handling practices along with intermodal systems. This resulted in privatization of transport and information industries and this is a need for the international transportation, which is result of rigorous growth in the world economy. The deregulation of transportation and information resulted in innovative logistics like just in time and quick response services. The re engineering business systems and production and commodity flow systems are a need for the international transport and trade facilitation. The information systems should track the containers and cargoes around the world by Geographical positioning system. This makes the identification automatic and these devices will enable the shippers and carriers to do the transportation with more safe and secure processes that involve communication between land controls. The documentation experts will make easy the transition of goods from the security clearances like customs, revenue agencies and financial intermediaries. This can be done by replacing the documentation by electronic data interchange and e-commerce. The customs department can move the goods quickly in and out of the country by above mentioned systems and software. There should be laws that can deal with the frauds in the information systems. 3 4. Requirements Due to the rigorous growth the rules in the business have been changed both in developed and developing countries. This resulted in the birth of new businesses also. The intense competition between the companies resulted in increase of efficiency. This did not forget the security concerns for global travel and logistics. This resulted in dependence of the business on strategic relations. This needs a new network economy that enables the companies trade with suppliers and customers over internet in real time. This results in virtual corporation as companies can outsource a wide range of functions. These include design, manufacturing, distribution and others. This makes the company to focus on the core competencies and the quality in the products and services they offer. This results in real time automation of international business processes that can span across the trading partners. In the traditional processes like e mail, faxes, and voice mail result in delays due to the re entry of date very often or number of times. The need of business to business integration is a requirement that can make international logistics more efficient. This is because the business processes are automated and this encompass a diverse range of packaged and legacy applications and systems. This can be used by the company to deal with the supply chain members and can improve the efficiency of logistics operations. The companies should recognize that the ability to develop the business to business relationships and realizing their potential in the shortest possible time is critical. This will make the long term successes possible by facilitating the transportations that can meet the needs of real time online business. These business to business relationships can be developed in logistics operations also as the companies can temporarily or permanently tie up with other companies where they have no transportation infrastructure. The development of these types of relationships may even result in establishment of international transport organizations that can cater the need of the companies' international logistics operations. The businesses need to forge closer relationships with the customers. This is due to the fact that the customers expect to be informed from the contact to the completion of the transaction. Instead of adding the human resources, which prove costly to the company, the suppliers should be able to interact with the company through information systems. The same systems should be introduced in logistics operations also to enable the real time monitoring. The company should empower itself by enabling the movement of human resources between the nations when it is operating in number of countries. If the companies are offering their services and products in other countries, then also the movement of human resources between the nations is needed. This result in the need of developing flexible documentation processes to enable the movement of the human resources. The next requirement is the definition of supply chains. As the current business environment is e-commerce powered, the organizations find it easy to manage their own business but also the supply chain. This makes them involved in managing the network of suppliers and connects it with the network that reaches the final customer. As the real time contacts with the customer demand the development of efficient logistics network, the companies can develop the recycling units also or they can extend their logistics and transportation operations towards that aspect. This makes the companies to provide more value added products and services to the customers along with the products and services manufactured by the company.4 References 1. Wood, Donald F, 2002, International logistics, Amacom, ,electronic, 13-6-07, http://library.neumont.edu:2051/lib/nulibraries/TopchannelName=nulibraries&cpage=1&docID=10120187&f00=text&frm=smp.x&hitsPerPage=10&layout=document&p00=Logistics+Management++International+Trade+Logisitics+and+Requirements+++&sortBy=score&sortOrder=desc 2. Wood, Donald F. International Logistics (2nd Edition). Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM, 2002. p 246. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/nulibraries/Docid=10120187&ppg=260 3. Subramanian, Uma. Integration of Transport and Trade Facilitation : Selected Regional Case Studies. Herndon, VA, USA: World Bank, The, 2001. p 6. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/nulibraries/Docid=10115229&ppg=18 4. Robert B. Handfield, Ernest L. Nichols Jr., 2002, Supply Chain Redesign: Transforming Supply Chains into Integrated Value Systems, Financial Times Prentice Hall, ,electronic, 13-6-07, http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/0130603120 Read More