IT Advancements in Logistics Management

Review of relevant literature

Concerning the impact of latest advancements of the Information Technology on the management of the logistics industry, Strandhagen et al (2017) have observed that the key implications are mostly five folds. The initial one is the necessity to design the logistic systems of both government and private organisations, as per the Brundtland Report (UN, 1978), on the basis of value addition criteria exclusively. The second one is, according to Gunasekaran, Subramanian and Papadopoulos (2017), that the IT developments could exert the potential of increasing or limiting the efficacy of organisational management mechanisms regarding the innovative abilities of such systems. The third one is comprehensible to be the prerequisite of acquisition of intimate information and knowledge concerning the utilisation information technology advancements within the framework of logistics management mechanisms. The fourth has been the prospect of the end users becoming more cognisant about the actual dimensions of the IT advancements so that greater value could be added to the existing sustainable practices of logistic management services.

Furthermore, the fifth one has been the effect of development of particular systems of logistical management within the government and the private sectors in which the advanced IT applications could be embedded in a stable but dynamic manner. The necessity of developing continuous utilisation of technology peer to peer and technology application to man system interfaces has been realised as essential for the addition of maximised value. In this context, Gao et al (2017), have highlighted that the impact of IT advancements have been critical to foster innovation regarding the generating of deliverables within the logistics and supply chain management systems. The research source has reviewed 107 papers published within 1996 to 2014 and has specified that a conceptual framework based approach is necessary to determine the best possible logistics management process to cultivate sustainability. The emphasis has been on the development of Sustainable Supply Chain Innovation (SSCI).

Apart from this, Lu et al (2018) have outlined that, evaluation of 281 files relating to procurement of eight different product categories and organisational backgrounds from 4 different states of the EU, which had been published in between 2007 and 2009, involving the application of inducement-contribution theory, has brought forth the research finding that social responsibility objectives are more readily influenced by the policies of public procurement in comparison to the environmental objectives. On the other hand, the supplier readiness measurements, undertaken through the analysis technique of structural equation modelling highlighted that delivering of environmental sustainability goals had been performed through greater proficiency by the vendors. Thus, logistics operation management could utilise the public procurement policies as levels for sustainability practices. Barreto, Amaral and Pereira (2017) have asserted the example of Nokia concerning the implementation of sustainability in the logistics and supply chain management. The example of Nokia provides the evidence of adaptation utilisation to nurture greater agility in logistics management and supplier relationship management has been courted to be the key aspect in this context. Thöni and Tjoa (2017) have outline the following as the core constituents of success for Nokia in effective logistics management:

1. Application of latest IT inventions to facilitate greater flow of information in between customers and suppliers.

2. Utilisation of IT applications to develop collaborative relationship amongst suppliers.

3. Formulation of the inventory buffers for development of critical component stockpiling.

Research Question

What is the impact of the recent improvements in information technology on the logistics industry?

Concerning the research question, the Discourse Analysis format would be utilised through a phase based process. The initial phase would involve the conductance of the speech based communication with the targeted research sample focus group which would be selected from the research sample population through purposive, stratified sampling. To reduce the spoilage rate, the confidence interval would be introduced so that the strength of the measured levels could be effective enough. The research content or data would be acquired through undertaking of research participant interviews involving semi-structured and open ended questions. The analysis would involve the mechanism of reframing under which the narrative discourse would be analysed on a frame by frame basis. This would involve the following considerations:

1. The activity in which the speaker could be engaged in while presenting the narration.

2. The perception of the research participant narrator while the narration could be underway.

3. The relevance to the general topic in context to which the entire narrative could be formulated.

This process would involve the process of observation and assumption formulation. This would further have to utilise the perceptual reactivity of the researcher regarding the measuring of the social desirability aspect which could be derived from such a specific content. In this context, the discourse analysis would have to factor in the determination of three specific research variables, namely the Experimental Variable, the Dependent Variable and the Extraneous Variable. The content analysis would involve different considerations in the following manner:

1. The particular research findings from the data categories such as individual frames.

2. The recognition of particular patterns.

3. The information derived from the patterns.

4. The recognition of the importance embedded in the derived understanding.

5. The determination of the logical linkage in between the derived understanding from the available research content through the Discourse Analysis with that of the research question.

Discourse Analysis utilisation example

Prelude

The utilisation of discourse analysis is related to the analysing of the information which could be derived from the narrative which could transcend the narrated sentence. Discourse analysis is constituted through the analysis of the flow of large segments of the narrated language including the phonetics and phonological elements, morphological aspects in the form of parts of the words, the semantics and the syntactical formats. According to Wodak and Meyer (2015). this also involves the examination of the manners in which knowledge could be produced within the various discourses and linguistic performance based styles and rhetorical devices in context to the particularity of topics.

Hypothetical research content

Father of baby Nigel attempted to cash in with demand for $100000 as compensation.

Discourse analysis

The deconstruction of the content line could indicate the fact that, form a linguistic perspective, the hypothetical content related to the linguistic expression of “Baby Nigel” could be considered to be indicative of the pattern which could be formulated on the basis of interrelationships between the different components of the narrative. In the above mentioned content, the reference to “Baby Nigel” is suggestive of the well-known facets of the entire content while this could be under the process of communication through any media, either through verbal, written or any other format. However, this is also indicative of the possibility of apparent divergence of attention of the recipients/audience of such a narrative since this communicative unit actually refers not to Baby Nigel but to his father. This apparent deterministic confusion could be addressed through a classificatory grid of the information which could readily discerned from the content analysis. Next, the taxonomy of communication units has to be considered. This could be utilised through the analysis of the term “attempted to cash in”. According to Johnstone (2018), this could be referred to in the frequented language as the attempt of taking of advantage out of a specific situation either for financial interests or through any metaphoric perspective. However, this has to be taken into consideration in context with the thematic notional analysis under which it could be understood that this term outlines a literal financial claim and that too in the most opportunistic manner. This could be understood from the correlation establishment and comparison of the literal meaning of this term with the next term of “with demand for $100000”. This is indicative of the interdependence of comprehensive notions of the various sections of the narrative and the transformability of the apparent meanings when the context of particular segments of the narration could be determined through comparison with the meaning or perceptual content of other sections of the narrative. Furthermore, the term of “cash in” has been implicative of the unsympathetic attitude of the addressing narrator towards the father of Baby Nigel with certain measure of inapparent suggestion that the narrator is regarding the perception that the father has been a travesty of a grieving parent and has been an opportunist instead. This logical process of deduction of meaning could be acknowledged as the utilisation of the notion of pragmatics from the point of view of the researcher. According to Tannen, Hamilton and Schiffrin (2015), this could be better delineated as the utilisation of any specific context to infer particular meanings. This is generally a broad approach which could be utilised for the purpose of determination of the psycholinguistic aspects of the concerned content.

Finally, the narration culminates with the word “compensation”, this could be identified to be a direct contradiction of the previous suggestions associated with the term “cashing in” since compensation is related to any actual loss which could have occurred to the person who could be the legal recipient of such compensation. In this context, the narrator is reflecting on the legal process through which the father could receive the compensatory payment. This highlights the principle of conversational implicature under which any logical suggestion could be deduced from the specific form of verbal communication or utterance by the narrator.

Identification of key logistics, operational and supply chain problem in the food sector

The logistical and supply chain management related organisational structure, within any specific sector of industrial operations, such as that of the food industry, involves the functional undertakings such as outbound and inbound transportation, inventory control, warehousing, sourcing, procurement, supply management, forecasting, production planning, scheduling, processing orders and providing customer care service as well as management of the flow of information to monitor the progress situation of the raw materials towards the finalisation of products and delivery of the same to the end users. In this context, according to Vanderroost et al (2017), the processes of plan formulation, procurement, manufacturing, marketing and the distributional frameworks generally operate with independent objectives and this could lead to conflicting objectives emerging out of the entire management undertakings. For the food sector, Christopher (2016) has outlined that objectives of extensive consumer services of the marketing operations and the objective of attainment of maximised sales output, could always come into conflict with the processing and distribution related goals. The optimisation of product processing operations and minimisation of costs culminate in the less than necessary consideration for the impact of these processes on the capabilities of distribution and inventory management. Furthermore, the negotiated purchasing process involves nothing beyond adherence to historical purchasing patterns. Thus, the problem is discernable as ‘The void of integration of logistics and supply chain management plan with the food processing organisations.’

Addressing the research problem through Hard Systems Analysis (HSA)

Identification of the problem and the opportunity

As per the observations of Bloemhof et al (2015), the primary challenge which the food industry has to contend with regarding the outcomes of such persistent problems could be highlighted as the hurdles of progression and necessity to develop a particular systematic mechanism through which the variegated functions of the organisations of this industry could be integrated. Fredriksson and Liljestrand (2015) have stated that Supply Change Management (SCM) could be considered to be the strategic system through which the food industry based organisations could meet the necessities of fomenting collaborative integration of operations to fulfil the demands of the customers to better suit the rapid changes in the hyper competitive and volatile market scenario.

Current situation description

According to Bottani, Rizzi and Vignali (2015), the food industry of the United Kingdom, including the functionalities of the food processing sectors, is comprised of the processes such as milling, brewing, confectionery, animal husbandry, baking, soft drinks, vegetable oils, fish and meat processing. Apart from these, the other segments of comprising the SCM framework could be understood, as has been pointed out by Márquez, Pardo and Nieto (2015), to be dairy products, sugar, fruits and vegetables, liquor production, wineries and the bottling operations of the water derived from natural springs and from different mineral sources. From a statistical perspective, the industry is accounted for 18% by the manufacturing and sales, involving 13.2% revenues generated by food processing and 4.9% by the beverage segments. According to Dani (2015), 17% of the gross value addition comes from the manufacturing sector and the extent of 14.5% of the complete employment sector is provided employment by the food industry.

Description of ideal objective and the present constraints

The integration of sources of physical goods and synchronised management of the processes with those of the external partners involved in the logistics management within the food industry could be considered to be ideal in this aspect. The external elements are to be identified as the following:

1. Suppliers

2. Distributors

3. Carriers

4. Consumers

The objective is to provide greater effective services to lead to the enhancement in the market share. This could herald in the lower costs of warehousing, transportation, transaction and inventory management. According to Darkow, Foerster and von der Gracht (2015), the predominant problem of dearth of proper co-ordination could be further sub-categorised into inter alia tastes of dynamic consumers and the resultant demands getting generated from such customers as well as the necessity to formulate sustainable practices for the organisations to meet the imperatives of supply chain regarding the transportation of processed food products. This further indicates the major detrimental effects related to the general decline in the competitiveness index and slump in the profit margins of the food processing organisations.

Metrics identification

1. Improvement of the supply chain management performance in the individual food processing organisation.

2. Improvement of intra-organisational and external communication.

3. Enhancement of productivity

4. Betterment of the monitoring and supervision of the supply chain management and logistics operations.

5. Overall improvement of the decision formulation and problem solving abilities.

Possible routes

1. The utilisation of either subjective or objective routes or even both scales to arrive at the best possible option regarding utilisation of any universally acknowledge valid model.

2. Greater emphasis on the determination of sales growth measures, investment extents, the prospects of growth of profit and satisfaction of customers.

Evaluation of the efficacy of routes

The evaluation, as has been outlined by Bibi et al (2017), would require specific feasibility studies through trial basis application as the following:

1. The assortment planning and pricing strategy determination considering the existing logistical integration and supply chain coordination scenario. This has to be run in tandem with the pilot testing process so that the efficacy and value of the same could be determined.

2. Category determination involving heterogeneous operations of logistical integration and collaborative co-operation development. This could involve the feasibility study based approach through modelling of a specific framework. This would be multinomial logical framework with differential structures of hierarchies.

Determination of routes

1. Specific field based management of inventory and differential operational departments.

2. Performing differential Sourcing and Marketing processes in logistical and supply chain management

3. Utilisation of information technology in effectively performing the e-business imperatives and the choices related to the distribution channels.

4. Utilisation of RFID, big data analysis and cloud computing techniques.

5. The heterogeneous operations of logistical integration and collaborative co-operation development through the application of theoretical model formulation, computations and simulations and surveys.

Utilisation of the routes and monitoring of the outcomes

This final phase of the HSA could involve phase based approach with critical segments which could demonstrate the comparability of the derived outcomes with those of the food industry based organisational objectives. The steps are as the following:

1. Comparative analysis of the total cost based approach to determine the extent of incurrence of relevant costs such as the production and purchase costs, storage and inventory management cost and transportation and handling costs, with the organisational business objectives. The changes in cost incurrence could indicate the measure of efficiency of the utilised routes.

2. The evaluation of the differentiated distribution channel functioning.

3. The consolidation of the deliverables in terms of demand, location and time so as to foster the functionalities of economies of scale. This is related to the meeting of financial objectives.

Reference List

Ala-Harja, H. and Helo, P., 2015. Reprint of “Green supply chain decisions–Case-based performance analysis from the food industry”. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 74, pp.11-21.

Barreto, L., Amaral, A. and Pereira, T., 2017. Industry 4.0 implications in logistics: an overview. Procedia Manufacturing, 13, pp.1245-1252.

Bibi, F., Guillaume, C., Gontard, N. and Sorli, B., 2017. A review: RFID technology having sensing aptitudes for food industry and their contribution to tracking and monitoring of food products. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 62, pp.91-103.

Bloemhof, J.M., van der Vorst, J.G., Bastl, M. and Allaoui, H., 2015. Sustainability assessment of food chain logistics. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 18(2), pp.101-117.

Bottani, E., Rizzi, A. and Vignali, G., 2015. Improving logistics efficiency of industrial districts: a framework and case study in the food sector. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 18(5), pp.402-423.

Burge, S., 2015. An overview of the Hard Systems Methodology. retrieved April, 18, p.2017.

Darkow, I.L., Foerster, B. and von der Gracht, H.A., 2015. Sustainability in food service supply chains: future expectations from European industry experts toward the environmental perspective. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(2), pp.163-178.

Fredriksson, A. and Liljestrand, K., 2015. Capturing food logistics: a literature review and research agenda. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 18(1), pp.16-34.

Gao D, Xu Z., Ruan Z. Y. and Lu H. (2017), From a Systematic Literature Review to Integrated Definition for Sustainable Supply Chain Innovation, Journal of Cleaner Production, 141 (4), pp.1518-1538.

Gunasekaran, A., Subramanian, N. and Papadopoulos, T., 2017. Information technology for competitive advantage within logistics and supply chains: A review. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 99, pp.14-33.

Lu H., Potter A. Rodrigues S. V., and Walker H. (2018), Exploring sustainable supply chain management: A social network perspective, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 23(4), pp.257-277.

Márquez, F.P.G., Pardo, I.P.G. and Nieto, M.R.M., 2015. Competitiveness based on logistic management: a real case study. Annals of Operations Research, 233(1), pp.157-169.

Strandhagen, J.O., Vallandingham, L.R., Fragapane, G., Strandhagen, J.W., Stangeland, A.B.H. and Sharma, N., 2017. Logistics 4.0 and emerging sustainable business models. Advances in Manufacturing, 5(4), pp.359-369.

Thöni, A. and Tjoa, A.M., 2017. Information technology for sustainable supply chain management: a literature survey. Enterprise Information Systems, 11(6), pp.828-858.

Vanderroost, M., Ragaert, P., Verwaeren, J., De Meulenaer, B., De Baets, B. and Devlieghere, F., 2017. The digitization of a food package’s life cycle: Existing and emerging computer systems in the logistics and post-logistics phase. Computers in Industry, 87, pp.15-30.

Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. eds., 2015. Methods of critical discourse studies. Sage.