How Do We Operate the Distribution Network?

Linda：M  Fan：W

Linda: I understand distribution is a corecomponent of logistics operation.

Fan: True! Without distribution, the logisticslink would not be complete.

Linda: And the product would not reach the endusers.

Fan: Exactly.

Linda: But what activates does the distributionprocess involve?

Fan: In general, it involves stock-up, storage,processing, pick/groupage, shipmetn and delivery service.

Linda: What do you mean by stock-up.

Fan: It means getting goods available for the nextprocess.

Linda: How about groupage?

Fan: If the items form a single customer cannotreach the full payload of the delivery vehicle, we may group items from severalcustomers.

Linda: In order to make full use of the vehiclecapacity.

Fan: That’s right.

Linda: We have a great quantity of customers. Andeach store has its specific requirements. They order different items; thelocation is different so that the travel route is complex; and delivery timealso varies.

Fan: In fact, there are far more problems thanthese.

Linda: For example…

Fan: Occasionally some stores require us todeliver the goods at midnight. This means we must have someone on duty even atnight time. Let alone traffic jam, which may delay the delivery service.

Linda: Then how do we coordinate such complexproblems?

Fan: Well, we tackle such problems on acase-to-case basis. It is difficult to generalize.

Linda: But we must have some rules to tackle theseproblems, right?

Fan: Most of these problems are anticipative, andwe have established measures and techniques to cope with them.

Linda: Give me an example, please.

Fan: Take vehicle routing for instance we havespecial personnel to design the route for each delivery task.

Linda: I see. In this way, we can have the shortestreasonable distance and minimal travel time.

Fan: Exactly.

 Chap.7 How Do We Operate the Distribution Network.mp4(下载附件 6.57 MB)