Generally, logistics refers to the management of the good that flows from the processing point to the market for consumption so as to satisfy the customer’s wants and that of the manufacturing firm (Murphy & Knemeyer, 2018). Empirically, the ideal concern of manufacturing industries is to transform the raw materials into finished products. However, it is meaningless to process finished products and fail to distribute them to the respective consumers. Logistics in this context means formulating working strategies by industrial managers that ensure efficient movement of finished goods from the industry to the market where potential customers of the product exist (Ponomarove & Holcomb, 2009). Therefore, the concept of distribution and material flow in an industrial perspective is a crucial factor when designing appropriate strategies to improve business performance and the operations of supply chain management. This paper, therefore, seeks to explicitly examine the industrial logistics aspects of physical distributions and the flow of materials from the processing zone to the consumers.
Prudent resources that are managed in logistics are majorly physical items and include food, materials, and equipment. Typically, the logistics behind physical items involves material handling, production or manufacturing, packaging, inventory management, transportation, warehousing, storage, as well as, security (Christopher, 2016). Combination of industrial management facets, which ensures efficient flow of materials, is an imperative logistics whose contributions cannot be overwritten. It involves coordination and effective management of information flow to ensure on-time delivery, and safe conveyance of the products. Logistics involves physical planning and designing of strategies to sharpen the corporate competitive edge in managing the flow of items successfully subject to its rivals (Murphy & Knemeyer, 2018).
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Logistics management is described as a subset of supply chain management, which is solely responsible for planning, implementing, and regulating the efficiency and effectiveness of distribution, material flow, and storage of goods and services (Mentzer, et al., 2008). Most importantly, logistics is a prudent managerial piece that is in charge of coordinating the flow of information between the processing points to the point consumption so as to fulfill the fundamental needs of the consumer. However, effective resource utilization is the central motivating issue of significant concern in every logistics industry. This is to say that, minimizing wastage is a common practice of all industrial logisticians.
The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals upholds the concept of logistics to be a method of planning, executing, and controlling the distribution processes. This entails transportation and storage of goods and services, as well as, tracking of relevant information in order to conform to the customers’ needs (Murphy & Knemeyer, 2018). Logistics Organizations accomplish these through exercising inbound, outbound, internal, and external movements of the finished products. From the practitioners’ standpoint, the terms logistics and operations or production management can be used interchangeably especially when referring to physical distribution activities that take place within the business territory. In regards to this, effective management of distribution is viewed to encompass the reality of logistics. While the theory of distribution holds that manufactured products are ready for consumption, they still, however, need to be transported across the distribution channels based on some corporate logic (Ponomarove & Holcomb, 2009). This, therefore, justifies an imperative connection between logistics and operations management.
The activities involved in logistics management include production logistics, inbound and outbound procurement logistics, distribution and logistics, and Inventory control logistics. Inbound logistics entails the basic processes that focus on the procurement of raw materials and coordinating the movement of materials from the suppliers to the manufacturers’ warehouses for storage (Christopher, 2016). Procurement logistics encompass market research, purchase decisions, supplier management, and placing purchase orders. Empirically, procurement logisticians are concerned with minimizing the cost of procurement. On the other hand, outbound logistics relates to the storage and distribution networks of the finished products and relating information flows from the production edge to the final users, for instance, the potential consumers. Distribution logistics being the central task is responsible for ensuring proficient delivery of finished products to the end users. It entails order processing, warehousing, and transportation while maintaining an eye on the place and time utility (Mentze, 2008). This is basically because of the production quantity, time and place tangibly differ from that of consumption.
Production logistics being a central responsibility of industrial production manager ensures the machine efficiency. Therefore, it is concerned with ensuring that all machines receive the right product in the right quantity and quality at a considerable time. Prudent concerns of production logistics are with production efficiency, transportation, storage, and supply of finished products. Consequently, production logics provide the means of achieving customer needs and managing capital efficiency.
In logistics management, physical distribution entails selecting of the appropriate transport medium for the corporate goods and services. It involves a careful selection of the channels of distribution from the manufacturing point to the wholesalers, retailers, or directly to the consumers. The preferred distribution medium is mainly categorized into physical roads, air or water. This means, therefore, that logistics is another considerable wing of supply chain management that is basically concerned with material flow and safe delivery. Physical distribution and material flow activities usually embellish more attention from the production managers. The five main functions of physical distributions include inventory control, order processing, material packaging, transportation logistics and customer service (Christopher, 2016). For this reason, the processes mainly focus on improvement strategies and cost-saving modalities.
Production is the central pillar behind the existence of processing industries. Industrial production managers are in charge of managing day-to-day plant manufacturing activities. They organize, plan, and direct the plant production activities in order to create a variety of products. In the line of duty, the industrial manager employs diverse materials to ensure quality production of finished goods before being distributed to the end consumers. To ensure the effective flow of materials, first, the production managers identify the required product mix and factory load for fulfilling the customers’ needs. The second aspect is to match the needed production levels with the available resources, and finally to establish an accurate estimation of the production capacity. Some of the basic materials employed in the production of the final products are raw materials, machines, human efforts, critical thinking.
The concept of physical distribution and material flow borrows largely from logistics strategies basically to improve the business performance and the operations associated with the supply chain operations (Mentzer, et al., 2008). The duo pieces are critical in the pursuit of delivering products and services to customers. In order for organizations with complex distribution structure to score, it is imperative to employ some logistics strategies. Apart from cost minimization strategies, other substantial strategies are warehousing strategies, Transportation strategies, Parcel Shipping strategies, and Drop-Ship strategies.
Warehousing strategies depend largely on the type of business. For instance, horticultural companies may need refrigerated warehouses with enough inventories so as to minimize wastage. On this pedestal, a large warehouse should position frequently accessed items closer to the loading harbor so as to reduce time and energy that may be wasted during loading. Transportation strategies are the cornerstone for achieving the company goals of product delivery. It involves tracking options, air transport, for example, cargo, and shipping via shipping and railway trains. Cost and efficiency f each transportation medium is to be considered. However, the transportation of perishables requires refrigeration. Smaller packages prove a better option of delivering products more effectively. Manageable packages such as envelopes can easily be mailed via parcel service options hence are considered convenient to most logisticians. Moreover, the items can be easily monitored while on transit.
To conclude, physical distribution and material flow are vital components of logistics management. Logistic management is a branch of supply chain management that is concerned with the movement of finished products from the point of manufacturing to the consumer's end. Without a distribution channel, the manufacturers’ products can hardly reach the market to fulfill their intended customer needs. Therefore, physical distribution involves careful planning of the most appropriate transportation modes. It is also much concerned with the implementation of procedures, which includes inventory control, material packaging, and transportation of the finished products. Moreover, it involves tracking of relevant information in order to conform to the customers’ needs. Imperatively it is worth noting that industrial managers employ inbound, outbound, internal, and external movements of the finished products to ensure efficient and timely management of distribution and material flow from the manufacturer to the consumers.
References
Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics & supply chain management . Pearson UK.
Mentzer, J. T., Stank, T. P., & Esper, T. L. (2008). Supply chain management and its relationship to logistics, marketing, production, and operations management. Journal of business logistics , 29 (1), 31-46.
Murphy, P. R., & Knemeyer, A. M. (2018). Contemporary logistics.
Ponomarov, S. Y., & Holcomb, M. C. (2009). Understanding the concept of supply chain resilience. The international journal of logistics management , 20 (1), 124-143.
