Strategic posture of logistics service providers in Singapore.docx

Strategic posture of logistics service providers in Singapore.docx

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StrategicpostureoflogisticsserviceprovidersinSingapore

StrategicpostureoflogisticsserviceprovidersinSingapore

Chee-ChuongSumandChew-BeenTeo. InternationalJournalofPhysicalDistribution&LogisticsManagement. Bradford:

1999.Tomo29, Nº 9;  pg. 588

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Traducirdocumentoal:

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Artículossimilares-Encontrardocumentossimilares

Materias:

Studies,  Logistics,  Outsourcing,  Globalization,  Supplychains,  Thirdparty

Códigosdeclasificación

9130 Experimental/theoretical,  5160 Transportationmanagement,  5120 Purchasing

Autor（es）:

Chee-ChuongSumandChew-BeenTeo

Tipodedocumento:

Feature

Títulodepublicación:

InternationalJournalofPhysicalDistribution&LogisticsManagement. Bradford:

 1999. Tomo 29, Nº 9;  pg. 588

Tipodefuente:

Periodical

ISSN/ISBN:

09600035

CódigodedocumentodeProQuest:

116351390

Númerodepalabraseneltexto:

6118

URLdeldocumento:

Resumen

Asorganizationsglobalizetoreachnewmarketsandachievehigherproductionandsourcingefficiencies,logisticswillplayanincreasinglyimportantroleinmovingmaterialsandproductsthroughouttheorganizations'supplychains.Formanycompanies,thirdpartylogisticsproviders（orlogisticsproviders）representaviableandeffectivealternativetofulfillingtheirownlogisticsrequirements.Amidgrowingcompetition,thelogisticsprovidersmuststrategizetodeterminehowtheywanttopositiontheirlogisticsservicesintermsofcost,quality,features,andvalue-addedtotheircustomers.ThisresearchrepresentsthefirststudythatexaminesthedifferentstrategicposturesoflogisticsprovidersusingPorter'scompetitiveframeworkandanalyzesthebusinessperformance,technologies,operationsobjectives,andfutureplansofeachstrategictype.Thedifferencesamongthestrategictypesgeneratenewmanagerialinsightsandimplicationsforlogisticsmanagersandexecutives.

Textocompleto （6118 palabras）

CopyrightMCBUPLimited（MCB）1999

Chee-ChuongSumandChew-BeenTeo:

FacultyofBusinessAdministration,NationalUniversityofSingapore,Singapore

Introduction

Thescopeandroleoflogisticshavechangeddramaticallyoverrecentyears.Inthepast,logisticshasplayedasupportiveroletoprimaryfunctionssuchasmarketingandmanufacturing.Nowthescopeoflogisticshasexpandedbeyonditstraditionalcoverageoftransportationandwarehousingactivitiestoincludepurchasing,distribution,inventorymanagement,packaging,manufacturing,andevencustomerservice（Titone,1996;BowersoxandCloss,1996）.Moreimportantly,logisticshasevolvedfromapassive,costabsorbingfunctiontobecomeacriticalfactorofcompetitiveadvantage（BowersoxandCloss,1996;BowersoxandDaugherty,1995;Christopher,1993）.AccordingtoBowersoxandCloss（1996）,firmswithworldclasslogisticalcompetencycangaincompetitiveadvantagebyprovidingcustomerswithsuperiorservice.

Thegrowingprominenceoflogisticsasacompetitiveweaponstemsfromtheworldwidetrendofcompaniesgoingglobaltoaccessnewforeignmarkets,realizegreaterproductionandsourcingefficiencies,andtaptechnologicalcompetenciesbeyondtheirowngeographicalborders（Bovet,1991;Cooper,1993;Fawcettetal.,1993）.Thefalloftradebarriers,andtheadventofadvancedinformationandtelecommunicationtechnologieshavealsoopenednewglobalmarketsandopportunitiesforcompanieswhichhavetorelyonlogisticstomovetheirproductsandmaterialstomeetproductionrequirementsandcustomerdemand（Lamb,1995;Gooley,1994）.

LogisticsinSingapore

BothregionalandinternationaltradeplaysanimportantpartinthegrowthofSingapore'seconomy.AmajorportionofSingapore'stradeinvolvesthedistributionandtransshipmentoffinishedproducts,components,sub-assemblies,andrawmaterials.Thelogisticsindustry,inparticularthelogisticsserviceprovidersorthirdpartyproviders,iskeyinsupportingthetradingsectorandestablishingSingaporeasadistributionandtransshipmenthub（StraitsTimes,1997b）.Logisticsprovidersalsoplayacrucialroleinthemanufacturingsector.Asmorecompaniesshifttheirproductionactivitiestolowercostfacilitiesoverseas,itbecomesincreasinglynecessarytocoordinatethemovementofmaterialsandsuppliestovariouslocationsinthesupplychainthroughouttheworld.

Theroleoflocallogisticsprovidershasevolvedfromprovidingstraight-forwardfunctionssuchastransportationandcargostoragetohighervalueaddedoperationssuchaslightassemblyanddistributionmanagementoffinishedproductsforthemanufacturers.Freightforwardershavealsointegratedtheirspanofoperationstoprovideacomprehensivepackageofservicesincludingpackaginganddelivery,andmanagementoftheclient'sentiresupplychain（BusinessTimes,1996）.

TheoutlookforthelogisticsindustryinSingaporeremainsveryfavorable（StraitsTimes,1997a）asstrongindustrializationandrisingaffluencecontinuetobringaboutanenormousincreaseintheflowofgoodsandservicesintheregion.ThelogisticsindustryissoimportantthattheSingaporegovernmenthasidentifiedlogisticsasoneofthefourkeygrowthindustriesinthenextmillennium,andhaseveninitiatedaLogistics2000plan.DespitethetremendousinterestinlogisticsinSingaporeandimportanceoflogisticsproviders,therehasnotbeenanyformalstudydonetoexaminethestrategiesandmanagementpracticesofthelogisticsproviders.Ourstudyrepresentsthefirsttoinvestigatethedifferentcompetitivestrategiesadoptedbythelogisticsprovidersandtoanalyzethecharacteristicsandpracticesofthevariousstrategictypes.

Specifically,ourobjectivesare:

（1）toidentifyandexaminethedifferentstrategiesadoptedbythelogisticsproviders;

（2）tounderstandthelogisticspractices（e.g.operationsobjectives,technologiesadopted）ofcompaniespursuingdifferentstrategies;

（3）toidentifythefutureplansoflogisticsproviders;and

（4）toidentifythecriticalfactorsthatwillimpactfuturelogisticsmanagement.

Thisstudyhasseveralimportantcontributions.Itrepresentsthefirsttoapplythewell-establishedPorterframeworktoidentifythedifferentstrategiesadoptedbylogisticsproviders.Thestudyalsoactsasavehicleofcommunicationsbydisseminatingtimelyandupdatedinformationonthestrategicandoperationalpostureofthelogisticsproviders.Thisinformationcanformthebasisfortheformulationandchartingoffuturegovernmentstrategiesandpoliciesfordevelopingandupgradingthelogisticsindustry.Forthelogisticsproviders,ourstudygivesvaluablebenchmarkinginformationonavarietyofoperational,organizational,andperformanceareas.Theclients/usersofthelogisticsproviderswouldalsogainadeeperunderstandingofthecompetitivemodesadoptedby,andconcernsof,theirlogisticsproviders.

AsSingaporeisrapidlyemergingasoneoftheleadingeconomicandlogisticspowerhousesinthePacificRim,thisstudyprovidesinternationalbusinessmenandmanagerswithvaluableinsightsandinformationonthecompetitivelandscapeoftheSingaporelogisticsindustry.ThehighlevelsofeconomicsuccessandgrowthofSingaporehavecapturedinternationalattention,andhavepositionedSingaporeasanappropriatesettingformanagementresearchonareassuchasstrategy,operationsandtechnology（e.g.Wardetal.,1995;Sumetal.,1995,1997）.Inthisconnection,thisstudyisthefirsttoaddressthelogisticsareainSingapore.Lastly,thisstudyaddstotheliteratureonlogisticsprovidersandSingaporelogistics,andprovidesideasandabasisforfutureresearch.

Literaturereview

Thereisgenerallyadearthofliteraturethatdealsdirectlywiththestrategiesandoperationalcharacteristicsoflogisticsproviders.Rather,mostofthelogisticsliteraturefocusesonthemanagementofthelogisticalfunctionfromtheusers'（e.g.themanufacturingenterprises）perspective（Bardietal.,1994;BowersoxandDaugherty,1995;Hill,1996;LaLondeandMasters,1994;FawcettandClinton,1996;Richardson,1995）.Studiesthatdirectlyaddressthelogisticsproviderstendtoadoptnarrowscopesandfocusonspecificareassuchasinformationtechnology（Cuthbertson,1995）,warehousing（Olson,1996）,andbenchmarking（Cooke,1996;Stanketal.,1994）.

Theoutsourcingoflogisticsactivitiestospecializedlogisticsserviceproviderscanhelpincreasetheefficiencyandeffectivenessofacompany'slogisticsfunction（Vowles,1995;Christopher,1993）.Outsourcingisalsoanoptionforcompaniesthatperceivetheexistenceofgapsbetweenwhattheywanttoaccomplishwiththeirlogisticsoperationsandwhattheycanachievewiththeirin-houseexpertise（Buxbaum,1994）.Theuseoflogisticsprovidersallowscompaniestoconcentratemorecloselyontheircorebusiness（TroyerandCooper,1995）.Otherkeydriversfortheuseoflogisticsprovidersincludeglobalizationofbusinesses（Byrne,1993;Raoetal.,1993）,implementationofjust-in-time（JIT）principles（Goldberg,1990;Trunick,1989）,emergingtechnologyandversatilityoflogisticsproviders（Trunick,1989）,marketexpansion（Maltz,1995）,andoperationalconcernssuchascostefficiencyandflexibility（Muller,1992;Bence,1995）.Acomprehensiveliteraturereviewonthetypes,drivers,andbenefitsofoutsourcingcanbefoundinRazzaqueandChang（1998）.

Richardson（1995）foundthatthirdpartylogisticsbroughtaboutseveralbenefitsforthecompaniessurveyed.Thebenefitsincludeddistributionsavings,greatercontrolofbusiness,bettercustomerserviceandsatisfaction,andtheaddi