LOGISTICS PRACTICES IN INDUSTRY

Logistics Practices in Industry

Logistics Practices in Industry

Introduction

“Supply management” can be viewed as both an emergent ?eld of practice and an emerging academic domain. Neither perspective is fully mature but each has considerable promise. The future progress of each will be enhanced and indeed is ultimately dependent upon the other. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to take stock of developments in theory and practice to date and to identify barriers and possibilities. Moreover, given the off-remarked acknowledgement of the crucial importance of the behavioural and people dimension but the relative neglect of this in any substantive form, we give special attention to this aspect. Supply (chain) management is ultimately about in?uencing behaviour in particular directions and in particular ways. The underlying logics, drivers, enablers and barriers merit and require close attention(Anderson, 1994)(Abrahamsson and Wandel, 1998,, 181).

What are commercial best practices and why does the Army need them to achieve the Revolution in Military Logistics (RML)? Methodologies and applications used in private industry that set a commercial enterprise above the competition are referred to as "commercial best practices." Best practices enable leading-edge organizations to deliver world-class standards of performance to their customers.

These best practices and standards of performance have generated a lot of interest within the Army logistics community, where we constantly are being asked to do more with less. The emergence of commercial best practices took place because of downsizing and a hunger for profitability, or doing more with less, so it stands to reason that there could be a great deal of benefit to Army implementation of these best practices.

The leveraging of commercial best business practices appears frequently in the literature and during presentations concerning the Army of the future, the RML, and the Army After Next (AAN). The RML, as a precursor and roadmap to the AAN, could be accelerated greatly by investigating and embracing many commercial logistics best practices. Integrated supply chain management, industry's changing view of logistics, electronic commerce, automated identification technology, direct vendor delivery, load optimization, outsourcing, and smart simple design are all examples of commercial best practices that could be very useful in helping the Army achieve the RML. This article will briefly discuss the emerging trends, capabilities, and best practices of commercial firms that perform the logistics function and move assets and information throughout the supply chain. The parallels with the RML and the Army's modernization of business practices and information technologies are striking(Ackerman, 1996,, 35).

Integrated Supply Chain Management

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines integrated supply chain management (ISCM) as a process-oriented, integrated approach to procuring, producing, and delivering products and services to customers. In this context, ISCM has a broad scope that includes suppliers, customers, and internal information funds flows. Thus, the scope of supply chain management includes the supplier's supplier and the customer's customer. In recent years, supply chain management software providers and consultants have emerged as multibillion-dollar businesses.

The information technology and software solutions offered by global vendors, many of whom ...