Transportation System and Management (LSCM561)

Study Notes

Transportation has been a crucial aspect of human society since the beginning of history, with its development being a measure of a society's progress.
A country's modern and efficient transportation system is a basic infrastructure necessary for its development.
Transportation plays a vital role in logistical performance, accounting for the largest variable logistics cost, with traffic departments committing and managing nearly 60 percent of a typical firm's logistics expenditures.

Transportation is critical to logistical performance, and its management is essential for procurement, manufacturing, and market distribution to meet expectations.
The role of transportation in logistics operations has changed dramatically over the last three decades, with transportation managers being responsible for arranging for inventory to be moved in a timely and economical manner.
Transportation bridges the buyer-seller gap, links two or more points in a typical supply chain, and adds value to a company by creating time and place utility.

Operational management involves equipment scheduling and yard management, load planning, routing and advanced shipment notification (ASN), movement administration, consolidation, and reactive consolidation.
Transportation management also includes proactive consolidation, negotiation control, and audit and claim administration.

Selecting the most suitable mode of transportation is critical in ensuring goods are delivered efficiently, securely, and within budget constraints.
Factors influencing this choice include the nature of the goods, urgency of delivery, allotted budget, potential weight restrictions, and emerging environmental concerns.
Evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of each transportation mode enables businesses to streamline their operations, optimize their supply chain processes, and make decisions that enhance profitability and customer satisfaction.

Transportation is a pervasive and vital function in all industrialized economies, providing critical links between producers and consumers both domestically and globally.
An efficient and effective transportation system is essential for businesses to produce and sell products and services.
Transportation is recognized as one of the critical ingredients for underdeveloped countries to improve economically, and investing in transportation infrastructure is necessary.

Transportation can be viewed as the 'glue' that holds the supply chain together and enables the underlying tactics and strategies that have catapulted supply chain management to its current level of acceptance.
Transportation has moved from playing a reactive or supporting role to a more proactive and enabling role, determining an organization's ability to compete in the global marketplace.
The concept of supply chain management has evolved from Physical Distribution Management to its current emphasis on the entire supply chain.