Logistics and supply chain management - creating value for every international business person

Most businesses, especially small companies or villages in rural locations, don't have the know-how, or can't afford to manage a complex supply chain of the scale and scope of the larger local and international industry players on their own.

They need support on how to get in touch with suppliers, buy raw materials in a more efficient way, as well as manufacture and sell their goods to regional and international clients. Further needs include control mechanisms for quality consistency, price stability, package design, packaging, storage, distribution centers, logistics, after sales support, feedback on quality improvements, financial support and access to materials and export markets. Another vital factor is how to encourage continuous improvement and foster creativity and innovation.

Supply chaining is a way of collaborating horizontally among suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and customers to create additional value through economies of scale and efficiency. The more these supply chains are actively integrated and utilized, the more they encourage and foster the adoption of common standards and practices between companies, so that every step of the supply chain can interface with the next encouraging cooperation, development and finally economic growth. Even developed nations have problems properly implementing these procedures, but they provide substantial value and should be implemented in every economy.

One realizes the importance of logistics only after knowing what it means to your business when delayed deliveries of raw materials result in frequent downtime and the consequent loss of production. It is the same case when your customers start complaining that their ordered goods do not reach them as promised.

Regardless of whether you are a buyer or a seller, your interest is in delivery of your order and not in the promises made to you. A seller is worth as much as his/her uninterrupted procedures and delivering as promised.

If you have to deliver quality service, you need to know the industry norms, which is easy if you undergo a professional logistics course. While there are many courses in supply chain management and logistics available online as well as regular MBA in logistics, it is imperative that you do the right course from a reputable business school.

If you aspire for a career as a logistics manager in a manufacturing organization or a third party logistics provider, you may try a postgraduate college that offers regular MBA (Logistics). If you have a job or own a business that involves a fair amount of shipping, you may opt for a general course such as a weekend MBA logistics course.

There are immense opportunities in the field of supply chain management. Logistics is a fast growing industry. Practically every business needs to manage logistics, for which purpose it either hires a logistics manager or outsource it to a service provider. If you have the entrepreneurial spirit in you, you should pursue a course in operational management or in logistics service provision.

The fact is that efficient logistics add value to an organization. If you have any doubts, then you may want to know why logistics is rated so high. Efficient logistics and supply chain management is instrumental in lowering transportation costs, increasing cash flows and reducing inventory cost. Logistics is the ability of an organization to deliver the right quantity of the right thing at the right place in the right condition and at the right price.

Production logistics is a logistic process that ensures that each machine or workstation is provided with the right item at the right time and in the right quantity. Logistics management, on the other hand, is a component of supply chain management, which is management of a network of interconnected businesses participating in the process of providing a product or service required by the end user.

This is the age of information where every industry is developing new strategies to seize market share, the persons involved in logistics management are finding it difficult to live up to the new standards being set. A diploma in logistics from a reputable business school makes it is easy for every business person in charge of a company's logistics to perform his/her duties in a responsible manner.