The definition of Logistics

DHL's packaging design was recently introduced to me. The company supports shops in packaging and obtaining packaging materials, allowing retailers to easily brand their items locally. Furthermore, this service provides environmentally friendly transportation in which the company uses safe and cost-effective recyclable containers, assisting the client in minimizing waste and labor requirements. Furthermore, DHL aids customers in complying with local packaging rules, ensuring that businesses' operations are not hampered as a result of non-compliance (Abidi, Leeuw, & Klumpp,2015). This was a beneficial experience because it included the concept of sustainability into the supply chain. Besides, I perceived the experience to be positive since DHL’s additional packaging solution helps businesses to gain a competitive advantage by lowering the cost of operations hence helping the company to be a price leader in the industry. In a world where every business is trying to cut operational costs, DHL additional packaging design services are very welcome.

Question Two

Reliability is the most important customer service attribute for a company that supplies meals to an airline. This is the ability to meet deadlines, maintain a high quality of food and instill confidence in the airline that despite the circumstances, the supplier will go out of their way to deliver food (David, 2013). Research findings of a study conducted by Dominici & Guzzo in 2010 to identify the most critical aspects of customer service in the hotel industry singled out reliability as the most important characteristic since it assures the customers that they will get their meals at convenient times and in the best quality. To illustrate the need for reliability for a food supplier to an airline industry, consider Virgin Airlines where the customers place food orders on demand through their entertainment system (David,2013). If the supplier fails to deliver the food or delivers poor quality food, the customers will be dissatisfied and are unlikely to fly with the company again. Hence, Virgin America requires a reliable food supplier so that the company can meet the customer’s orders as they arise.

Question Three

Power or systems failure are likely to lead to adverse effects to a company’s online e-commerce platform and hence the need to have a strategy to reduce the impact of this failure. Having a team of IT experts can help a company in identifying vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructure and even when a system failure occurs, the IT professionals are likely to revive the system in a matter of minutes (Flanagin et al., 2014). Secondly, an effective strategy would also involve having back up power options such as a diesel power generator or solar energy to ensure that power failure does not affect the company’s online strategy (Flanagin et al., 2014). This is important since it would prevent the company from losing millions of dollars from reduced sales.

Question Four.

Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) has revolutionized the supply chain since it makes it easy for businesses to track their inventory while in practice. The RFID chips are placed on every product hence enabling the business person to identify any anomalies (Fan et al., 2014). Furthermore, RFID facilitates more consistent tracking hence owns have full control, and visibility of the goods at all times (Fan et al., 2014). Airplane manufacturers should consider installing RFID solutions in the airplane since by doing this, they would make it possible for the owners of cargo to monitor the movement of their goods. An example of an aviation company that has implemented this proposal is Boeing which installed RFID chips everywhere in the plane. This has greatly increased customer satisfaction since they are updated on a millisecond basis on the movement of their cargo.

References

Abidi, H., de Leeuw, S., & Klumpp, M. (2015). The value of fourth-party logistics services in the humanitarian supply chain. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 5(1), 35-60.

David Mc A, B. (2013). Service quality and customer satisfaction in the airline industry: A comparison between legacy airlines and low-cost airlines. American Journal of Tourism Research, 2(1), 67-77.

Dominici, G., & Guzzo, R. (2010). Customer satisfaction in the hotel industry: a case study from Sicily.

Fan, T. J., Chang, X. Y., Gu, C. H., Yi, J. J., & Deng, S. (2014). Benefits of RFID technology for reducing inventory shrinkage. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, 659-665.

Flanagin, A. J., Metzger, M. J., Pure, R., Markov, A., & Hartsell, E. (2014). Mitigating risk in ecommerce transactions: perceptions of information credibility and the role of user-generated ratings in product quality and purchase intention. Electronic Commerce Research, 14(1), 1-23.