Characteristics of an effective logistics strategic planning and project management are as follows:
- Dedicated planning resources and programs
Unless proper resources are set aside for long term planning, it will not be carried out to the level of necessity to assess ways of changing economic, technological, competitive, demographic and regulatory environments affecting long-range requirement of logistics. A dedicated logistics planning team needs to be organized. The logistics planning team should include analytical and
operational backgrounds that are required to resolve complex issues. - Formal Logistics Planning Methodology
Logistics is filled with interdependent activities, which impact other areas of the organization. Planning activity goes through three important phases such as investigation, vision and implementation. In the investigation phase, a logistics audit is conducted and the company‘s current performance and practices are compared with world-class practices. The vision phase involves application of world-class practices to the current environment. In the implementation phase, detailed project plans for completing the recommended initiatives are developed and monitored. - Strategic Logistics Planning
Business firms have been forced to reengineer or redefine their business process so that efficiency and effectiveness can be brought into the operations. The main reason for this has been the increasing globalization of business activities, intense competition, and uncertain markets. Different firms have different process of strategy formulation and implementation.
The process of strategic logistics planning has the following steps:
• Analyzing the external and internal environment, which will help to determine the resource requirements, limitations and any other factors.
• The environmental analysis identifies the company‘s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in customer service.
• SWOT enables in formulating the appropriate resources and the logistics mix or resources required for achievement of organizational goals.
• A structural design is needed to implement the strategy. The primary concern here is the strategic planning of warehouses; transportation and information flow in the entire supply chain. A proper interface between channel structure of the firm and its logistical network can be done with the help of a structural design. The efficiency of the functional elements in the movement of information and inventory across the supply chain will influence the success of the strategy implementation.
• Selection of transportation route, mode and carrier operator is a key aspect for offering and maintaining a reliable and consistent service level.
• The role of material procurement and management also cannot be ignored.
• Implementing the strategy is absolutely important and its success depends on efficiency of the human resources, equipment and the interfaces involved. A major task at the level of operation are order registration, processing, picking, replenishment and dispatching.
