Increase in Air- and road freight vers. Green logistics

European’s environment Agency announced in March that road and air freight have grown faster than the European Union economy. Road freight grew by 43 percent and Air freight by 35 percent (1997 – 2007). On the other hand, rail and water transportation lost market shares in the same time period.

In the mind of European Union the major factor for the increase in air and road freight was the lack of rail into the old-Soviet bloc countries. If you wanted to supply this countries economies with goods you needed to use mainly road and air transportation.

The EU is concerned by this increase in road and air transport as they are some of Europe’s biggest polluters, contributing heavily in climate-warming emissions. Cleaner methods of transport namely rail and water transport declined. The EU has reported that emissions from internal transport now account for around 19 percent of overall emissions in Europe.

Green logistics – more than marketing campaigns?

DHL Formula 1 Logistics

Formula 1 Grand Prix of EUROPE

While thinking about buying tickets for the upcoming Formula 1 Grand Prix in Valencia, end of June, I had some thoughts on the high logistic request needed by formula 1 teams.

They need to transport lots of equipment from race to race (different parts of the world) and all within really limited time.

I found that nice video, describing the solution.

TCHIBO GMBH: LOGISTIC SYSTEM

Tchibo GmbH – LOGISTICS

Company description:

• About 3.2 bn € sales
• One of the biggest German, international operating retail-companies
• 5th biggest coffee producer in the world
• Multi Channel retail system:

• 45.000 outlets in supermarkets, drug-stores,… (worldwide)
• 1.200 shops, most with Coffee Bar
• Online shops for most EU countries

Tchibo GmbH sells coffee products as well as non-food articles. Beside coffee products Tchibo offers a  product range with about 60 non-food articles which changes every week. Due to their differing size, weight and packaging logistic has a high importance for Tchibo in order to allow a highly automated commissioning and consolidation. The company purchases every article only once in order to retail it afterwards as fast as possible. To fulfill varying sales amounts for each store, stores send their current sales numbers to the head office on a daily base. Based on that information the amount for the 2- to 4 day weekly supply is generated. All is supported by the use of MySAP retail.

STOCK ACCURACY

STOCK ACCURACY:

Stock accuracy measures how much book data of your stock are different from the physical values in terms of location and quantity.

Stock accuracy impacts on so many aspect of a successful manufacturing business. Typical consequences of inaccurate inventory are:

BULLWHIP EFFECT

BULLWHIP EFFECT:

Bullwhip Effect is a phenomenon observed in forcast driven distribution channels. In order to have the fitting amount of inventory, forecasts are done to estimate the future customer demand.

Companies have to invest in extra capacity to meet the high variable demand. It is called “safety stock”. If we look at the whole supply chain, we observe that, starting with end-consumer up to raw materials supplier, each participant has a greater need for safety stock as they have greater observed variations in demand.

JUST IN TIME

JUST IN TIME (JIT):

JIT is a method to plan the time and optimize the complete supply chain from raw material (production) until the purchase of the good to the end customer.

The basic idea of this method, which was developed in the years around 1980 in Japanese companies, is to decentralize the material procurement and to adjust it in the short run, depending on the manufacturing and order situation. Thus, stocks can be reduced and resulting cost reduction takes place. JIT is mainly used in high volume industries such as automotive industry.

http://wissen.de/just-in-time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_%28business%29

JIT Case example: Production and Logistic of SMART

UNIT LOAD

UNIT LOAD:

Alan Rushton wrote: ‘The idea of a unit load for logistics was developed from the realization of the high costs involved in the storage and movement of products – particularly in the inefficient manual handling of many small packages.’

As a result, an ‘Unit Load Conept’ has been developed, where unit load enables  goods and packages to be grouped together and further on handled and moved more effectively using mechanical equipment.

The two main unit loads are:

• Wooden Pallet (Euro pallet)
• Large shipping containers

FLEET MANAGEMENT

FLEET MANAGEMENT:

It is the management of a company’s vehicle fleet. Fleet Management is a function which allows companies which rely on transportation in their business to remove or minimize the risks associated with

SINGLE MINUTE EXCHANGE OF A DIE (SMED)

SINGLE MINUTE EXCHANGE OF A DIE (SMED)

SMED is one a lean production method for reducing needed time and waste in a manufacturing process. With the help of SMED a company gets a rapid and efficient way to convert a manufacturing process from running the current product to running the next product. Thus it is possible to have a more flexible production (smaller production lots), as the production changeover needs less time. The phrase one minute has not to been taken by word, it only means that the needed time for each production change should stay below 10 minutes.

INTRODUCTION TO LOGISTICS

1. INTRODUCTION

GENERAL THINGS AND KNOWLEDGE OF LOGISTICS

• World’s GDP was growing nearly by the factor ten, since 1990.
• World trade in manufacturers multiplied by 80, in the last 50 years.

–> Why did the world trade grow so much/ Which changes happened?