Roles in Logistics management

1.       Transportation/ Delivery /Truck Freight 

   Shipping management

      A product must be shipped correctly and on time as ordered by the customer. And so, shipping management plays a vital role in transportation, delivery, and truck freight.

A model workflow of shipping management starts from generating the Shipping Instruction Form up to Recording the Transaction.

Generate the Shipping Instruction Form and Necessary Documents à

Shipping Preparation à  Shipping and Delivery  à  Sales Slip creation  à Record the Transaction

The progress in the Transportation, Delivery and Truck Freight is checked using Handheld Computers in the respective fields like pickup and receiving, unloading and storage, shipping preparation and inspection, loading, delivery, and delivery completion.

2.      Storage and cargo handling

          As Storage is the most familiar term to everyone and easy to understand, it is important for us to learn the term cargo handling which involves loading and unloading at a warehouse, transportation, warehousing management, sorting, assortment, etc.

Storage is the process of storing products at warehouses and logistics centers to provide a steady supply of goods to the market. This fills the temporal gap between producers and consumers.

Cargo Handling

This process covers overall transportation activities in Warehouses and Logistics Centers. The tasks involved are loading and unloading goods, transporting goods, warehousing, picking, and sorting.

A.    Receiving Inspection

Step 1:  Receiving the Cargo.

Step 2:  Verification – with the receiving cargo list.  The products, their quantity, and quality are inspected.

Step 3:  Sent to the warehouse.

For low-volume goods, manual records on paper can be made in a ledger but commonly a warehouse and logistics center use handheld computers to enter the warehousing and inspection details as they manage a large volume of cargo. At this stage, Inventory management can also be done on cargo from storage to shipping from the data using this handheld computer when the cargo was received and inspected.

Step 4:  Goods are stored and distributed processing and packaging are executed.

B.    Material handling

Automated handling of the cargo to carry it with machines like carts, pallets, forklifts, and conveyors, industrial robots. We also need automated warehouses that reduce labor works and loading times.

C.    Taking inventory

       Inventory usually involves the task of checking the numbers, types, and quality of all items. To understand the accurate amount of profit, the number of remaining products in inventory is counted and the value of inventory is checked, which is useful for making business decisions.

        When inventory is counted, all other processes or a part of the process must be halted as it hinders the counting.  But if warehousing management is performed accurately on a daily basis, inventory duty is lessened by just adding up that data.

D.   Picking

        Gathering of products to shipment by checking the item numbers and quantities of those products written on a picking list.

·         In the Single Picking Method or order picking method, the products written on the shipping instruction form are searched for, picked for shipment.

·         In the Total Picking Method or assort method, shipping is made for a large number of selective products to a small number of destinations. Bulk collection of products is made to reduce the burden of workers.  A large space area is required for sorting the products.

·         Picking Systems- List Picking, Digital Picking System (DPS), Barcodes, RFID Tags.

E.      Sorting- The process of separation of products by their type or shipping destination. There are 2 methods of sorting done- manual sorting and automated (sorter)sorting method.

Types of sorting-

·         Inventory Type done in Distribution Center- Warehouse holds inventory and cargo picked from the inventory is sorted.

·         Pass-Through Type in Transfer Center- warehouse holds no inventory and sorts received products.

·         Distribution Processing and Inventory Type – Here the products manufactured in a factory are brought in their present condition and sorted.

F.     Shipping Inspection- The inspection of the shipment contents is done for mistakes when shipped.

·         For the contents of the order, a picking list is generated.

·         Pick the products from the picking list.

·         Perform distribution processing.

·         Inspect, pack it, and ship.

3.      Distribution Processing and Packaging

          When the products are transported in their unconcealed state through airplanes, ships, or trucks, the products are scratched, broken. Spilled, etc. and thus the quality is reduced. So, Packaging is essential to prevent this. Thus, packaging gives a value-added to the products.

  The distribution processing work involves organizing products into sets, applying labels, bagging the products, putting products on hangers, applying tags, inspecting for needles, applying price tags, and packing products into gift boxes.

Types of Packaging- categorized depending on the role and purpose.

·         Individual Packaging- packaging for individual products.

·         Inner Packaging- group individually packaged products in a bag.

·         Outer Packaging- a cardboard box or wooden crate package for units of large package.

4.      Information Systems

      From receiving the products, taking inventory, and shipping the products, these tasks can be accomplished easily, but location management, data management, and work management are comparatively very hard tasks to perform in the field of logistics operation. And logistics companies rely on information systems.

The flow of goods is effectively managed by the specialized warehouse management system (WMS). A flawless system is created that can manage date management,  location management, and work management without errors and issues for logistics. Applying an information system that is logistics-oriented can reduce the load on the sales management system.

Major Information Systems Other Than a WMS

Transportation Management System (TMS)- automatically generates attendance management, truck assignments, freight charge calculation, delivery instructions, and daily reports.

Shipping Inspection System via Barcodes- database information, the shipping list, the products, are verified by barcodes to inspect the products in order to prevent leaving out products and shipping mistakes.

And thus, efficient logistics management may lead to quick delivery, reduce cost, and add tremendous overall value with increased customer service.