Logistics is the theoretical, practical aspects of the movement, transportation, distribution of resources. The term is used in the business world, relevant for any modern enterprise. There is a logistics of raw materials, labor, money, other production resources, material, intangible. It is supposed to move the object from seller to buyer, from customer to customer, from source to consumer. The person who optimizes this process is called a logistics specialist.
Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Logistics of a manufacturing enterprise existed from the moment when relations between people providing services and selling goods arose. In our time, it is customary to perceive logistics as an independent sphere, although several decades ago it was considered as several practically unrelated parts. Nowadays, logistics at the enterprise combines a supply department, a warehouse and workers responsible for the transportation of goods. Previously, it was all divided into three divisions identified in the enterprise structure.
What does the logistics department do? His area of ​​responsibility is material, intangible flows represented at the enterprise by an interconnected complex. Information systems in logistics are used for more precise control over flows and elimination of queues, delays. This helps streamline the workflow and reduce downtime losses.
All responsibility is on the employee
The task of the logistics manager is to plan and control all stages of manufacturing and marketing of goods. He deals with the supply of raw materials, checks the quality, checks the nomenclature, monitors the time frame, the volumes of the supplied and necessary, keeps the cost under control and negotiates with suppliers if any disputes arise.
Integration assumes that the logistics at the enterprise can be reflected through the connection of deliveries that give the enterprise everything necessary for the production of goods, the provision of services to the end customer. That is, in fact, logistics is a method of ensuring that a company fulfills its obligations to consumers within a given time frame.
Logistics: subjects, objects
Material flow is an object that focuses on the attention of the logistics manager. In fact, the flow is end-to-end, but each block has unique features, specific parameters that you need to know to reduce costs. Focusing on the generally accepted formulation of the functionality of logistics, there are areas:
- Purchasing
- Production.
- Distribution.
- Transportation.
- Informing.
What does the logistics department do? All questions as a whole, but it seems reasonable to distribute tasks between specialists per one person or one group of workers for each aspect.
Logistics: we buy
Specialists responsible for providing the production process with raw materials are involved in procurement logistics. This area involves control over all material flows present in the system. A reasonable, optimized organization allows you to provide the company with the necessary materials so that the production works without downtime and loss.
For procurement from the point of view of logistics, the systematization of the work process, that is, the union of all material flows into a coherent, logical system, comes first. In the logistics department, the allocation of procurement to an independent area is justified in both production and trading companies, since everywhere there is a need for workers responsible for the procurement and delivery. In their area of ​​responsibility, not only raw materials, but also consumer goods, semi-finished products.
Subdivision into levels
It is customary to distinguish three functional aspects from the procurement:
- connection with the goals of the enterprise, adjustment of functioning taking into account macro-interests;
- the relationship of the logistics department with a specific unit, which requires taking into account the objectives of this structural formation;
- a complete independent structured system with elements, goals.
Procurement: goals
The functional areas of logistics responsible for procurement primarily form relationships with suppliers. This means that they are working on issues of economic policy, methodology, technical and technological support. Specialists who are entrusted with the management of procurement logistics work closely with suppliers, sales department, and contractors providing transport services. In fact, it is through the procurement system that the logistics department is tightly integrated into the enterprise’s workflow.
The main idea of ​​such a system is to ensure profit through a reasonable distribution of tasks and responsibilities, goods and time. This means that all specialists of the department should be aware that their goals are not the only significant ones. Each employee must be aware that the objectives of the enterprise are paramount, and only for the sake of achieving them are set and fulfill the goals of the logistics department. Procurers work for the company so as to improve the productivity of the enterprise as a whole. This works in the opposite direction: if the company's position becomes more stable, stronger, it positively affects the logistics department, strengthening its position (and at the same time helps other services of the company to develop).
Interconnection and Tasks
The tasks of transport logistics are not outlined only by the objectives of the enterprise. The department must interact with other structures in order to achieve the saturation, volume of the material flow, interacting with the sequence of the supply-production-sales workflow. In the context of this chain, the main area of ​​logistics is to ensure clear interaction between production departments and suppliers.
The most modern approach to the implementation of this task involves the use of the most modern technological solutions. Logisticians are responsible for consistency, the ability to quickly adjust the planned, including the volumes brought by suppliers. They must track changes in the production process in real time and adjust the volumes purchased from the outside and sold to consumers.
Modern approach
The interconnection of deliveries, production process, sales of finished goods is based on marketing concepts developed recently. It is assumed that the features of marketing the products are thought out first, on the basis of which production volumes are planned, and from this they decide on the amount of purchases. The marketing department only poses a common task, but other structural units are involved in the details. So, something becomes the tasks of transport logistics, logistics.
Marketing is more a science than practically applicable tools, so the task of a marketer is to coordinate technology, manufacturability, goals, available methods, formulate the tasks of the enterprise and give other departments basic information for work. Marketing does not systematize the work process and, moreover, does not consider how and where material stocks move within the company. These are the functional areas of logistics, indispensable in any modern enterprise. Logistics develops the idea put forward by marketers, applying well-known techniques, expanding concepts and translating them into reality.
Efficiency: Result
If the supply service is organized wisely, it will function efficiently, the logistics system of the enterprise will show high efficiency. It should be understood that procurement logistics is primarily contracts with suppliers and work with inventory within the enterprise.
Production logistics
Speaking about the functional areas of logistics, one cannot ignore the production sector, which is responsible for controlling the material flow, that is, monitoring the creation of material values ​​and the provision of services.
The production functional area of ​​logistics is responsible for the storage of materials in warehouses, structuring, distribution, weight measurement, packaging in containers, storage. Mostly facilities managed by production logistics are geographically compact. Specialists call them island. The people involved in the work process are linked by intra-production relations, which categorically distinguishes production logistics at the level of structural divisions from interaction at the level of enterprises that pay money and goods to each other.
Level after level: deeper and deeper
Production logistics considers complex systems, decomposed, if necessary, into simpler levels with a smaller area of ​​responsibility. In-house logistics systems using examples:
- freight hub facilities;
- warehouses of wholesale companies;
- industrial firms;
- nodal ports.
It is not that simple
These systems are studied at the macro, micro levels. Macro suggests that the logistics system is part of a macro-object that sets the rhythm of the supply of material stocks. Logistics must adapt to these conditions. How successful this will be depends on the ability to adjust the parameters of the output stream: volume, quality. That is, the most adaptable is a system in which logisticians can efficiently and quickly change the quantity and range of manufactured items.
The microlevel suggests that logistics systems are part of the enterprise and interact with each other, forming a single whole. Usually these are systems responsible for storage, acquisition, sale, stockpiling, and transportation. In addition, logistics is responsible for the awareness of the state of stocks at the enterprise - it conveys data to other departments, as well as identifies problems and, if necessary, initiates a discussion of the difficulties encountered. Production logistics is closely interconnected with the acquisition of materials and the distribution of products produced by the company, but it specializes primarily in providing all necessary production processes.
Logistics: Distribution
Distribution logistics is needed to efficiently deliver manufactured products to consumers. The specifics of the work of the logistics authority responsible for distribution in trading, manufacturing enterprises and intermediary firms are somewhat different. Distribution greatly affects the economic situation of the enterprise, therefore this area of ​​logistics attracts the attention of superiors in any company, be it a very small organization or a large international community.
If the distribution system was not organized optimally, poorly, with low efficiency, then not only the company but also the consumer may suffer. So, if some company in the region does not have a strong competitor and produces, for example, food, a poorly created distribution system can leave people without food.
Everything's under control
In fact, the material flow is under the control of the logistics division engaged in distribution, already at the stage of passing the production workshop. At the same time, it is important to think over aspects in advance: product packaging, cost, volumes of lots, availability and type of packaging. These issues are in the area of ​​distribution logistics responsibility.
Distribution logistics is not selling, selling in the traditional sense of these terms. The differences are that the system is in clear interaction with the marketing department and corresponds to the strategy developed by it, at the same time it is closely integrated into the logistics of the enterprise as a whole and is associated with the distribution processes of materials acquisition and production of goods. That is, the management of all material flows is organized centrally and systematized.