Logistics And Supply Chain Strategies

Logistics issues in NSW

Discuss about the Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies.

The following study is regarding the current logistic issues in a huge logistics company named Qube logistics located in Australia. The company provides all the logistics facilities such as rail transport, road transport and services, warehouses at several locations and other different services related to logistics and supply chain. This company has achieved a huge success in the field of transport and logistic services and has evolved with time (Chiang, 2012).

The company has a huge customer base and a stable and reliable brand image. Since last few years, the company has emerged as a huge and a sole largest supplier of the logistics services in Australia. The company has significantly grown and changed as per the customer’s and client’s needs and has been able to grab immense trust and business from the clients. The company’s current plans and strategies include the development of new sites and hubs. The company has developed and in all the sectors and areas of logistics and is planning to emerge into the railways and other transportations. Also the company has been significantly using the high end technological equipments and tools for getting quicker and effective results (Sinitsyn, 2012).

The report is concerned with the current logistics issues faced in the New South Wales in Australia. There are numerous problems and issues regarding the logistics and transportation in NSW despite the fact that Australia has amazing geographical, demographical, political and environmental situations favorable in context to the logistics and transportation. The report aims to showcase all those current issues and their impact on Qube logistics and its supply chain. The report also emphasizes on the impact of these issues on the national and international logistics business in Australia and the challenges related to these aspects (Garc´Ä±a  et al. 2013). All the issues and challenges faced by the logistics and transportations are documented in the report.

NSW is a huge and growing state. The population and increase in the users of the vehicle users in NSW has been gradually increasing and this has affected the logistic services in a huge way.  Due to the increase in the population of the state, the number of four wheeler users has also increased. This has caused issues regarding traffic and blockage (Brynjolfsson et al. 2009). The traffic blockages have become a huge concern for the transporters during the peak hours. It has been witnessed that during the peak hours, the ratio of travelers gets high blocking the routes for the logistics vehicles.

Main problems

This causes a huge disturbance in the schedules of the transporters. There are late delivery issues faced by the companies due to such consequences. Though the government has planned to provide different routes and timings for the heavily loaded logistics vehicles, there are issues regarding the traffic and several other problems. One of these problems is construction sites. There is a huge amount of highways where the construction work is in progress. This completely delays the journey time of the transporters, making them face the delay issues. Most of the drivers are unaware about the reconstruction and get trapped in the problems (Sinitsyn, 2012).

There are some problems with the roads and in some cities these are actually built by the contractors and having some issues and challenges these are the problems while it was majorly meant for reduction of the traffic jam. As far as possible, the government has made changes and have modified the approach while it controls the congestion on the roads and the control over the traffic in local areas (Monczka et al. 2005). The problem with troll road has been taken seriously and the highway improvements in the areas where the travel time is high has been controlled with the safety purpose and the sometimes the roads are blocked from the service that is given to the general public by construction purpose. This seems that it will resist loaded vehicles that are heavy to enter on the premises of construction or some safe area. There are some confusions and the travelling time is being discussed as one of the issues that are been addressed while it considers the obstacles and some efforts which helps to improve the transportation system.

The next big issue that is been faced is the distance with the Qube logistics that is measured between cities. There are distance issues that are faced when the Sydney and Melbourne distance is measured for around 880 kilometers. While talking for other transportation, even rail journeys may not be a better option because it takes time, the petrol stations are fewer when compared to roads and are necessary when it comes to the transportation (Sainathan, 2013). The Qube logistics need to examine and properly evaluate about the time and the cost that is being taken and which is involved while travel. The logistic issues comprise of some solutions and the theories that are attached to these issues and the routes that has specific transportation are again the mining sites with the locations that are local and has a process of some complex transportation. While measuring the long distance and the journeys that are complex, it is very necessary to plan this in a careful manner where the transportation is considered with the distant places and the planning is done through alternative routes which is being helpful in the near future.

Regional challenges

While considering the transportation through trains which is actually a conducive method for the transportation, it is associated with the widespread considering the city and the country itself. These methods are very much useful and it helps to overcome the issues that are being carried in the road services. The driver exhaustion is the other issue that has been noticed because of the long distance travelling and the drivers may be burdened for the task that needs to be complete as per the deliveries in the period of time (Li and Graves, 2012). This may sometimes lead to accidents or some injuries that are painful and may reveal deaths.

There are climatic changes that are the main reason for the challenge in the transportation service, it merely tries to examine that the climate change may change and then directly affect the system of transportation (Bruns et al. 2013). The company then follows the green logistics when this is the issue or the problem. There it was noticed that minimum pollution and the waste has been the main concern that the company Qube logistics need to encounter. Qube logistics while applying the theories reveal that the main objective of the company is to generate the renewable energy which is possible with the sources and the implementation of the renewable sources that should be largely considered in the near future.

As the season changes to winter, there is snowfall and this creates the congestion and the huge jams that are the issues. There may be road closures at times which are applied in few cities due to the snowfall in cities like Sydney , Queensland and Melbourne (Bruns and Knust, 2012). In this instance, it is noticed that the travelling that was primarily on those roads are now the matter of danger and in other parts of the country specially in Victoria and southern Wales, in which the company has their terminals and some ports that are easily available. These are the factors that are creating delays and there are logistics theories that can be applied where the road closures created problems with the alternative options which are generally available. There are studded tires and moreover the solutions can be the way wherein the semi-trailers can be avoided in the routes while the transportation matters. There are rail tracks that can be a big issue when it gets stuck with the snowfall and it generally happens in the same location because of the reason of the location point.

Environmental challenges

In the season of summer, the climate is extremely hot and it is widely discovered that from the month of September to April the railway logistics are mainly affected because of the intense hot climatic conditions. There are railway lines that are buckled and this is due to conduction of the metals. The perishable items are being affected which again needs a cool temperature in spaces with the maintanance. For properly refrigerations, it is commonly managed that meat and fish items need a proper storage system.

The international trade and freight transport has been into high growth due to the logistics problems faced in the NSW. The issue sin NSW includes coordination problems, services, and development of intermodal interfaces. There are less modal which provides enough nodes, transport links which allows the cities to connect with each other. Though NWS has huge ports and companies like Qube logistics serving the logistics industry, there are very less companies which can provide large scale logistic services like railway and air transport. Also NSW faces issues of dry orts, congestion in the roads, traffic, and high emission. With the increase in import and export needs of NWS, it is very important to improve the logistics services and to provide more logistics and carriage services for faster and improved services.

The previous transport models like the Unimodal has been adopted in which the road and rail based projects were developed in a different way without more analysis and consideration regarding its future development. However, the multimodal or intermodal uses more than one mode of transport and uses these all modes for transferring goods to destination. The intermodalism includes transport nodes, links and the effective services and the development of the rail, road and seaports is emphasized.

The best solution for NSW to improve its logistics issues is to develop and implement an intermodal for transport. The intermodal for transportation includes more than one unit or mode of transport which can be used for transporting the goods. This would open up the routes of seashores, airways and the road transport for NSW. This mode of transportation would provide effective and improved services.  The ports would be developed, the international and national transport would get quicker and the import and export systems could get better. Every possible way or mode of transport like ports, airports, rivers, seas, inland ports etc would be open for transportation and logistics. Companies like Qube logistics are planning to explore these options and begin their logistics services through rail and airport services. This would provide more logistics opportunities to NSW (Li and Zhang, 2013).  Also the transport links like the railways, highways and the inland waterways can be improved by hindering the transportation issues faced by NSW. Considering the environmental issues, these transportation links can be opened up for logistics services. A master plan can be developed which connects various NSW cities with each other and regulate the logistics and transportation services. Railways were firstly created to carry freight however they now run on energies and have come into a competitive position of contributing in the transportation services. Thus the intermodal would develop the logistics and transportation services in NWS.

While using the public transportation, it is noticed that traffic flow can again be reduced with efforts that may be conducive and may help to function well. It is possible to relocate the company and may vendor in some warehouses that can be established as and when needed so that the traffic can be reduced and do not affect the transportation with the delivery time (Chen et al. 2008). There are some procedures that are allowed for heavy materials in some cities and this is fixed during the timings which can be easily followed. Special entry timings should be different while it has an excluded travelling rules and standards while transportation of heavy materials (Li and Zhang, 2013).

Another solution is to hire a planning specialists who can very well analyze the route with the heavy traffics and this may lead to a blockage if not carried out with the conditions (Verma and Verter, 2010). There are reverse conditions that are been meant with the number of trips and the increase in the loads that may not exceed with the weight of materials and the vehicle with some maximum limit that has to be given. There are bigger loads that should be supplied at this end and this is the different modes of transportation which may again help to reduce the trips to lesser modes such as railways and it is considered with the supplying of products in distant places. There are some terminals that can be considered while it is about the local suppliers and the terminals.

The logistics management theories include the contingency theory that has been noticeably applied with the Qube logistics (Cai et al. 2010). The Supply chain management is the method that has a planning and an implementation stage with the controlling of several operations in the supply chain which can be used as efficiently as possible. The supply chain management then randomly spans the movement which helps in the storage of materials and then on the next stage go, it works as work in progress inventory that realizes in the finished goods. This process starts from the point of origin and it helps to maintain till the point of consumption.

Qube logistics have many modes that involve logistics and this can be planned accordingly with the supply chain management by the NSW in an economic mode where the transportation is easy and each delivery is establishing the way it should be in the near future. The rail logistics have to be planned in an economical manner and this seems to establish and evaluate the problems and issues which the logistics company faced in regards to the railway line. There are the best kinds of deals that may be dependable and this is the main reason where the quantity of the goods is being dealt with. There are most economical logistics with the cost effectiveness that can be better planned with regards to the rail routes and climatic conditions must be considered effectively while analyzing the supply chain management in the logistics (Guo, 2009).

There are most of the solutions that are suggested that render the betterment of the Qube logistics and are majorly associated that the government has some issues. There are changes that can be applied if NSW allows equivalently with the permits and the change in the transportation system (Blackburn and Scudder, 2009). There are motorways in the companies that can be acrossly built in these contracts with the help of NSW. For road changes, these can be efficiently done when it comes to the government officials. While Qube logistics should consider the issues in Australia, the government will help the company when the company faces some challenges to build and reconstruct the avenue into a better facility. There it affects the better transportation and this may be a variant way, when NSW gives a help to the companies with their facilities and rates for reconstructions.

Conclusion

There are some challenges that are faced in Australia while the Qube logistics sector has a major challenge and an issue which needs to be analyzed and examined with the logistics theories of contingencies. The supply chain management is again a better recommendation wherein the domestic and the international form of logistics can be equally challenging and carried forward with the solutions and their proper implementations. There are some challenges that are being eliminated while some strategies are applied by Qube logistics to solve those challenges with the NSW government. For the expansion of the planning regarding the rail logistics, it is essential that the funds are available by the NSW government which is helpful in infrastructure usage.

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