SLM Inc.'s Logistics Plan

After years of being in operations in the larger part of the United States' urban setting, particularly in Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey offering quality and affordable logistics services to our clients, Strategic Logistics Management (SLM) Incorporation is at the right spot to expand its global scope. We have had enough expertise that could extend to a global scale, and to open a branch in Australia is one step closer to realizing this goal. Australia serves as one of the most developed countries for both domestic and international business centers, and as such it poses a greater opportunity for any logistics company as far as their need of importation and exportation of goods is concerned. With the expansion of Brooks Brothers' clothing company, this would be the best time for our company to secure a contract with them, seeing as it is that they seek to import their goods from New York City, and we already have an establishment in the city, therefore could easily coordinate their shipping between the two cities. And with the advancement of our door to door services in Sydney, we could easily deliver the goods directly to their showrooms and stores. Since the company is looking to import these cloth pieces in boxes of about 48inch by 40inch units, they could easily fit in on our projected 20 foot TEU units shipping plan, thereby allowing a larger number in transportation, considering that each of the Brooks Brothers units weigh approximately about 4600 lbs. of close to 1500 clothing pieces. 

It would, therefore, suit the clothing pieces to adopt this kind of transportation for their commodity. But to effectively cater for their needs, and the needs of other potential clients in Australia, it is important that SLM designs the warehouse in a strategic location and equip it adequately with both personnel and equipment that are up to date with today's technology and client specifications. It would be crucial to set up the warehouse between the two cities in Australia; Sydney and Melbourne. It is more comfortable and cost-effective to manage one big warehouse as compared to building two separate ones in each of the cities. Management from a single point equally leads to better service providence in the sense of concentrating all the expertise towards a single goal. But since these are two vast and demanding cities, it would be impossible to store the goods in the warehouse for quite some time because we will be designed to handle quite some containers on a daily basis. It is therefore vital to establish a network of offices in the two cities which come in handy once the good have been sorted in the warehouse. It is easier for the goods to be temporarily kept at the offices awaiting the go-ahead from the clients to deliver them to their premises. These offices also serve as the link between the clients and the logistics company. Since the warehouse will be responsible for handling tens of shipment per day, it would be almost impossible to offer direct customer services to individual clients at the warehouse. 

Therefore, it would be best if we had these offices to provide the services. Plus they would be in a better place to deliver the clients' goods directly. It would make operations easier at the warehouse to sort and parcel different commodities headed to the same direction via the intermodal transportation. This import consolidation equally saves the company the financial burden incurred in transporting private goods from the warehouse. The other benefit of this strategy is the fact that it creates enough room at the warehouse for storage of the goods that need to await clearance from the customs department before they can be allowed passage into the country. These parcels once at the relevant offices are then sorted individually and delivered to the clients via smaller trucks or vans. The offices apart from helping with personal deliveries also help in managing the documents necessary for the importation of goods. They will be responsible for the fillings and necessary paperwork, allowing the warehouse to be major exclusively in handling the storage and transportation aspect of the logistics. This means therefore that they will also be in charge of booking freights for the clients both with the cargo lines and the airlines in the case of handling cargo exports from both of the two countries. 

This is in line with the other feature we are launching for our company, that is, the direct handling of any cargo export for the clients ensuring their timely movement. It would be simpler to track the progress of the exportation and importation if we were directly involved with the airlines and cargo lines as opposed to letting them do the procedures on their terms and only pick over at the ports. One advantage of this strategy is the fact that with the company providing complete documentation, it is a cheaper process, not just for the company, but it also lowers the overall cost the client is charged. These unique goals will be able to strengthen the company' competitiveness in the global market at a relatively lower cost. As stated earlier, however, the provision of these customized services comes with the need to design a versatile warehouse and a complete process that answers to all of the client's distinct preferences dynamically that ensures no client is disadvantaged at the expense of the other. To effectively do this it is essential that we concentrate on dealing with a single line of products in our shipment program as this makes it easier for to structure and equip the warehouse with the best tools and personnel that specialize on that particular field to offer the best service. 

Dealing in durable goods like clothing materials would be cost-effective since they require no special conditions in the warehouse, like precise temperatures. It would be more comfortable, therefore, to put up such a warehouse and then only modify it regarding its handling and storage capacity. In the case of Brook Brothers, their products would be a secure consignment to deal with because of the nature of clothes being durable and relatively light allowing for their delivery in large quantities per volume. They could fit comfortably in 30 carton boxes for each pallet completing the 30 by 30 full capacity of a consolidated shipment. This allows for the freight to be transported in an intermodal system. In as much as the goods, in this case, are not perishable, it would be of best advantage to use air freight transportation since they are light by nature and would not make a good candidate for the ocean mode. Flying the cargo from New York to Sydney would be faster ensuring that the goods arrive on time. This gives us the competitive advantage of not only speed but also of less handling of the cargo and documentation. This is because once the goods arrive at the airport; they are immediately picked by our trucks and transported to the warehouse as opposed to being held at the seaports awaiting port clearance, enhancing the security of the cargo due to a close follow up. And the less documentation aspect gives us more room to make the flight bookings on behalf of the clients. 

The company can pick up the goods from the production point in New York and transport them all the way to the stores in Sydney. After the truck transportation from the airport to the warehouse, the goods are transported via train to the various offices across Sydney and Melbourne, from which point they are transferred to specific trucks and vans for a door to door delivery. The use of intermodal-surface containers, in this case, a series of coordinated trains and trucks save the amount of money and time that would have been spent on manual switching of cargos across trains and truckloads since minimal effort is required to carry loads around. Containers fit comfortably into any mode and can be switched quickly. This again saves on the amount of fuel that would have been consumed in the process. The combination of these modes of transport termed intermodal mode of transport save on both time and cost of transportation opposed to relying on a particular method to cut across the entire delivery process (Taylor, 2018). Since the company has already laid down a series of coordinated and spontaneous delivery systems that save on storage space in the warehouse, it would be economical therefore to go for a smaller warehouse that is fully equipped and comfortable to run without divided interests. It is easier to concentrate our resources on more private management. 

A public warehouse does not conveniently provide room to offer tailored services to the clients since all the merchandise is subjected to a set fixed system of operations based on their nature. It is hard to deal with each client individually answering to their personal needs. Renting out space in the form of a contract warehouse, on the other hand, does not provide a serene environment for storage since sometimes clients need a more extended storage period for their goods in cases like in the case of a consignment awaiting customs clearance. It may be expensive to pay the rental fee for such a long time. Therefore running a private warehouse is the best option for SLM. Not only do we get enough room to provide customized services, but being in charge of our warehouse gives us the advantage of cost-efficient productivity since it creates the opportunity to equip it according to our strategy. On the other hand, a private warehouse creates the platform to coordinate the intermodal- surface containers right from the warehouse, which is line with our chain of supply management from the port to the client's premises. It also boosts our profitability since we could rent out the available free space to other importers that are not necessarily our clients as far as shipping their freights goes (McGinnis, Kohn, & Myers, 1990). 

Now that the company will be doing shipping across the United States and Australia, it will be compulsory to oblige to the rules of exportations and importations put by the two countries. In the case of the U.S.A, some documents have to be complied with, one of the standard ones being the Quotation that details the offer to sell the goods by the exporter that shows the nature of the products and their worth. Then there is the commercial invoice which requires the seller to state the export transaction displaying the consignment's details, the production information, the value of the shipment and custom details. The shipping documents include the packing list that the packaging details of each product in the consignment. It is crucial in preparing the Bill of Landing. Another material is the Forwarding Instruction which as the name suggests gives the freight forwarder specific instructions on how the goods should be handled. For import, the Certificate of Origin is required by the importer to eliminate the duty fees that could be charged (Thompson, 2016). The nature of our proposed supply chain management states that SLM will be responsible for the entire process of importation for the client right from the seller's location up to the buyer's premises. The best Incoterm rule, therefore, is the EXW Ex Works rule stipulating that the seller will be responsible for delivery when it places the goods at the buyer's disposal either at the seller's premise or at another named place by the buyer which could be a warehouse. The seller is not in control of loading the goods on a collecting vehicle for exportation. What this rule means is that SLM will be accountable for collecting the goods either from the seller's location or SLM's warehouse in New York. Either way, it is solely responsible for importing it to Australia, processing the customs clearance from both terminals and transporting it from the Australian ports up to the buyer's business premises (Doe, 2018). 

Since SLM will be handling the importation process for the clients it, therefore, means that it will be dealing in urgently needed goods, it will be of both parties' best interest that we implement the Just-In-Time delivery process. It not only saves time and the charge of importing commodities, but it also creates more storage room in the warehouse for other potential customers. The process can easily be implemented through the use of ‘Pick and drop' technique where the company processes all the import procedures for the consignment. Once in the country, the goods are picked from the port with trucks and taken to the warehouse where they are consolidated and dispatched on trains based on their route. Since the company is looking forward to handling at least 200 20-foot TEUs on a monthly basis, it would be satisfactory to say that it will have a daily dispatch of consolidated consignments across the country to Sydney and Melbourne. Therefore, it would be possible to process the goods out of the warehouse as soon as they arrive and send them to the various offices. This logistics encourages our clients to cut down the inventory costs by only importing goods when they need them hence having less material to unnecessarily fill up their storage capacity (Boaz, 2018). 

To effectively achieve these goals, it is essential to employ an updated, flexible and competent workforce that knows how to manage resources while at the same time delivering high-quality service. The use of high technology equipment like cranes and portable stacking racks save on both manual labor and space, thereby cutting down on operation costs. While lowering the production cost and depreciation due to too much handling, the rationale leaves SLM with a more substantial profit margin. Once the new warehouse is fully equipped it will cut down on management costs in the subsequent operations. It is, thus, reasonable to conclude that if the right strategy is adopted for this expansion, the company will be able to realize a more significant financial gain by tapping on this contract by the Brook Brothers since it will open doors for deals with a similar dimension. 

References 

Boaz, D. (2018). Just-in-time logistics services- Delivery & inventory control . Retrieved from https://www.expeditedtransportation.com/services/just-in-time 

Doe, J. (2018). Incoterms® rules 2010- International Chamber of Commerce . Retrieved from https://iccwbo.org/resources-for-business/incoterms-rules/incoterms-rules-2010/ 

McGinnis, M., Kohn, J., & Myers, M. (1990). Private Warehouse Investment Strategies.  Transportation Journal,    29 (4), 11-17. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20713052 

Taylor, T. (2018). Modes of transportation explained: Which type of cargo and freight transportation is the best? Retrieved from https://freighthub.com/en/blog/modes-transportation-explained-best/ 

Thompson, B. (2016). Understanding the import export documentation required for shipping. Retrieved from https://www.incodocs.com/blog/understand-export-import-documents-shipping-freight-trade-form-template-create-download