Reverse Logistics Management: A Review

This assignment delves into the crucial topic of reverse logistics management. It encourages students to analyze quantitative models employed in closed-loop supply chains, understand the significance of reverse logistics for businesses, and evaluate its role in fostering sustainable practices within the supply chain.

Running head: LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT
Logistics management
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Logistics network and management................................................................................................3
Issues with the current logistics network in New South Wales.......................................................4
Resolution techniques......................................................................................................................7
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The report is prepared to focus on the management of networks and logistics departments
at Qube Holdings Limited. The ways by which it has managed a good infrastructure by enabling
various operating divisions to ensure successful management of import and export cargo supply
chains in the area of New South Wales, Australia will also be illustrated here. The management
of logistics is one of the major components of the supply chain management that has helped in
meeting the demands and preferences of the customers and maintained proper control, planning
and implementation of the supply chain resources for moving or storing goods and services from
the point of origin to the delivery. The report will illustrate the various issues related to the
logistics network and management by Qube at New South Wales, Australia. The resolution
strategies will also be provided to ensure that the expenditures re reduced and the customers’
services are improved as well, which are considered as major benefits of logistics management.
The issues that are faced by the company and the resolution techniques will be created with the
utilization of various logistics models and concepts and furthermore will provide useful
recommendations for managing successful logistics network all throughout.
Logistics network and management
One of the major aspects of supply chain management is the logistics management that
has helped in meeting the demands and preferences of the customers through proper planning,
control and coordination. It has facilitated the processes of making movements and storage of
goods and services along with important data and information from the source to the destination
point. The logistics management allows for managing the process of accumulating the raw
materials and resources until the process of final production and delivery to the clients and other

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businesses (Allen, Browne and Cherrett 2012). To respond to the needs and preferences of the
customers, the management of logistics has managed to facilitate the process strategy and even
planned for necessary approaches. This was done for implementing the most suitable strategies
and manages the logistics network and departments with ease and effectiveness.
Qube Logistics has set up a new operational unit at New South Wales where operations
that are managed include Port Botany Empty park, Macarthur Intermodal terminal, Yennora
Intermodal terminal and Port Botany Freight Terminal. The New South Wales’ logistics unit
managed by Qube manages freight depots, warehousing activities and store goods in the
containers. The rail terminal network is huge and the size of the rail fleet includes 750 wagons
and 65 locos. The logistics management and networking activities at Qube Logistics Holding Ltd
are managed by operating services through covering of rail and road transportation, management
of warehousing activities and distribution of products and services (Beske 2012). All these kinds
of services were combined together for developing an integrated solution and meet the demands
and expectations of the business clients. Qube Logistics has even expanded its logistics’
operations and delivered the best quality logistics services by developing the infrastructure
through innovation and wide network management. More strategic logistics hubs are developed
at inland places and even at the ports to enhance the abilities of the company and allow rail, road
and air transportation facilities too. Qube Logistics Holding has developed and implemented
enhanced technologies and applications for providing the customers with the best quality supply
chain solutions (Bruns and Knust 2012).

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Issues with the current logistics network in New South Wales
Various important activities are involved with the logistics management at Qube
Logistics including selection of the most appropriate vendors who can provide the best quality
transportation facilities. Selection of the best route for transportation of the goods and services
from one place to another, identification of the most competent methods of delivery and finally
usage of various software and IT components for managing the supply chain solutions and
logistics activities are also important. Because of so many things involved during the logistics
and network management, issues tend to arise when wrong decisions are made. In case the
delivery of goods and services is not on time, then the customers may feel dissatisfied while the
damage of goods and services during the transportation activities can also lead to negative
mindset created among the customers (da Mota Pedrosa, Näslund and Jasmand 2012). With the
inappropriate planning of logistics networks, the expenses would increase and there even might
be issues while implementing the logistics applications and software. There could also be issues
related to outsourcing activities and managing delivery of goods and services without availability
of enough resources might even bring inaccurate results (Abc.net.au 2014).
Due to high traffic congestion on roads, the goods’ transportation has been affected and
there is delay. Due to tool roads, the people who were assigned with the responsibilities of
transporting the goods by road had to pay substantial amount of money. By paying the amount of
money, an electronic tag was provided to the vehicles while passing through the tool gates. There
were few regional issues as well including the large distance between the source and the
destination. It is known fact that kangaroos are major hazards on the roads in various parts of the
country. While transporting the goods, these animals have got killed, which could even cerate

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major threats not only for the equipments and vehicles but also threaten the human life by
causing accidents at the middle of nowhere (Dekker et al. 2013).
The logistics industry is highly competitive and this has created few major issues for
Qube Logistics in New South Wales, Australia, both due to internal and external factors. It has
deteriorated the system functioning and even issues due to lack of maintenance of laws, rules,
regulations, national policies, state transport strategies and through investments in infrastructure.
The various activities were even changed through relocation from Port Jackson to Port Botany,
which created major issues like the dividing of containers. There were many containers that were
transported previously to Port Jackson through rail transportation and after that those were
transported to Port Botany by using road transportation (Fawcett, Ellram and Ogden 2013). Due
to heavy traffic, the transportation faced major issues like delay of goods and services reaching
the concerned location and even degrading the efficiency of multi modal transport access in
logistics operations management largely. There were conflicts and misunderstandings between
the employees and staffs of Qube with the other import or export companies at New South Wales
regarding the violation of environmental laws, rules and regulations. The Australian Government
even prevented the utilization of the road network for transferring freights, rather it was told to
select the rail networks for transportation purposes (Fernie and Sparks 2014).
Due to huge volumes of freights and other goods, the container was not effective for
storing all those. Thus, the lack of storage in the containers and lack of terminal space were
considered as other issues faced in the New South Wales location of Qube Logistics. The
containers could reduce the costs of expenses and manage records of the shipments and the entire
location was the source of containers, so with the increased demands and expectations of
customers and better business outcomes, the storage of containers wand terminal space was not

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sufficient (Abc.net.au 2014). When the containers consisting the freights and goods are
transferred, those are being checked for managing the reduction of costs and keeping track of the
records of shipping. From the records, it was seen that there was limitation of space for storing
those containers though more than 60 hectare of area was not used until then (Forslund 2012).
There were also other issues related to the recycling and privatization of assets to ensure that the
freights are transported properly without any delay that might be caused due to the network
traffic. At New South Wales, the recycling and privatization of wastes were needed to be done,
because of which, there was a plan for setting up an underground route to prevent traffic on
roads. It was just after the elections and the ruling Government changed, which created a huge
issue for the development of the underground path and resulted in sudden changes in plans too.
Due to lack of investments and division between the various parties, much more complexities
arose, which further created issues while managing the logistics network (Ghadge, Dani and
Kalawsky 2012).
Other issues arose when acquisitions were done and this even weakened the logistics
services efficiency and transactions in the short term planning. The climatic and weather
conditions change from time to time and due to severe climatic conditions, the road network
might create chances and risks of accidents during the transportation and delay of air transport
facilities too. While transporting the freights to the New South Wales location of Qube through
water transport facilities, critical weather conditions could increase the sea level and result in
destroying the coastal locations (Hu and Sheu 2013).

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Resolution techniques
To overcome the issues and ensure successful logistics management, it is important for
the company to implement the best and most effective logistics management practices and
strategies for focusing on the collaboration efforts rather than prioritizing on the competition
within the logistics industry. By promoting good communication among the providers if
transportation facilities, vendors and purchasers, it could be easy for the Qube Logistics
department at New South Wales to reduce the expenditures and at the same time, facilitate the
management of networks. This would not only make the business achieve success but could also
result in generating more revenue in business and attain competitive advantage as well. It was
understood from the above section that the Australian Government enabled the company to use
rail networks rather than the road networks for the transfer of freights. Afterwards, the rail
authority made an effective business decision and ensured that most of the freights, i.e., nearly
more than 70 percent of the freights in the containers should be transported through the rail
networks from the source location to the Port Botany in New South Wales (Jacobs and Chase
2017). It facilitated the multi modal transport access and even improved the effectiveness of the
logistics and network management largely for Qube Logistics, Australia (qube.com.au 2018).
Analysis
There are various strategies that are implemented to resolve the issues faced within the
logistics and supply chain management at Qube Logistics Holding Ltd in Australia. The
company must work with other business partners to focus on the making of cooperative decision
and at the same time make an effective decision for the success of the business and even align
the logistics alliance aligned with the organizational goals and objectives. There were other
issues related to the lack of enough storage in the containers for storing the freights and goods

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(Lai and Wong 2012). The rolling horizon approach could be undertaken for managing the
various containers with inbound, outbound and transit containers altogether. This would help in
allocating the storage functions properly and at the same time reduce the workload by ensuring
that the same plans were not repeated (Zhang et al. 2013). The reverse logistics network and
management also helps in managing the products and services that may not be used or there is no
need to be managing those. The reverse logistics mechanism is useful for reusing the materials
and recycling the products and services while moving those from the source to the destination at
New South Wales. The four major benefits that could be obtained by using the reverse logistics
could be the reduction of costs, manage substitute products and services, reuse and recycle the
elements properly too (Manuj and Pohlen 2012).
Logistics concepts and models
The reverse logistics could be used as a quantitative model by dividing those into three
major components including the planning for distribution, control and management of
inventories and planning for production. The non-linear model could also be developed for
considering both the return and forward networks and at the same time resolve the issues of
limited capacity by making sufficient numbers of trucks, vehicles, warehouses and machines
required for transportation activities and also for the purpose of logistics and network
management. The strategy implemented could also help in ensuring that the vehicles, once
emptied the freights at the destination, were used again as soon as possible (Myerson 2012). The
costs could be used with the use of model through proper management of return trips and making
sure that the trucks and vehicles were properly managed. This could enhance the safety level
while transporting goods from one place to another.

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The intermodal transportation could be used for allowing faster delivery of the freights
and goods and reduce the chances of risks like damage of property and losing those. The
intermodal transportation could also be beneficial for moving the freights from the source to the
destination, i.e., New South Wales location conveniently and appropriately. The JIT approach is
another effective way of moving the freights and manage successful logistics network within the
allocated time frame. There could be situations when shipments and freights must be delivered at
the right place at the right time, which could result in the satisfaction of customers. By managing
the emergency and regular shipments properly, it would be easy for easing the jobs that might be
complex and ensure successful delivery of the products at the right time and place, furthermore
should keep the customers satisfied and allow the company to gain more profit in business
(Huscroft et al. 2013). While using the JIT or Just In time model, various factors must be
considered including the time of delivery, cost and quality.
The transshipments could help in managing the system of distribution considering the one
to many approach and even when the goods and services were not delivered to the right location
and at the right time. The major functions of the transshipments included the breaking down of
bulk amounts of freights and transferring those n the form of smaller components while
consolidation could be another major function. Consolidation could allow the company to join
the smaller shipments of freights altogether and combine those into a larger one and then get that
delivered to the concerned location. The empty space in the location would be covered and the
space of containers could be enhanced for storing more goods (Huscroft 2016). To gain the best
economies of scale, the size of vehicles used for the transportation purposes should be different
at different stages during the process of delivery of freights from the source to the destination.

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Recommendations
It is recommended to optimise the entire supply chain management activities in a
cooperative way for achieving the long-term relationships and ensure successful management of
logistics at Qube. The improvement of rail networks should be done as well for enhancing the
freight storage and allow for reduction of risks and high investments done. By enabling global
restructuring, the spaces of containers as well as the ports would be enhanced. It is also
recommended for the Australian Government to ensure that the reconstruction and expansion of
certain areas in logistics network and management should be done for fulfilling the requirements
and preferences of the logistics services and ensure proper financing to the public infrastructure
(Verma, Verter and Zufferey 2012). According to the Government of Australia, here are various
acts, laws, legislations and rules that are needed to be implemented like the Heavy Vehicle
National Law and Road Safety Remuneration act. This could not only create positive impacts by
lowering down the costs of providing the internal training and developmental programs but
would also enhance the safety level, furthermore prevent the regulatory bodies from any sort of
overlapping or contradictory orders. It is also recommended to make investments for the
improvements of organizational infrastructures and furthermore resolve the political and social
issues and at the same time, decrease the costs and taxpaying abilities. This would rather help in
investing on the projects that could benefit both the community and enhance the efficiency of the
New South Wales location (Winter and Knemeyer 2012).
Conclusion
The report was developed for focusing on the most important concepts of logistics and
network management considering the business organisation Qube Logistic Holding Ltd. The
company has managed to store its freights and delivered those to the new location in New South

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Wales for easy transportation and delivery to the clients with ease and effectiveness. There were
certain issues while relocating and moving the freights and goods from one location to another
and because of that it was important to enable various logistics management approaches for
ensuring successfully delivery and this could result in the satisfaction of the customers. Few
issues were damage and loss of goods and services during the transportation, high traffic that
could lead to congestion on roads and unstable weather conditions. The company could follow
various legislations, laws, rules and regulations to make sure that the Government support should
be obtained and the shipments and freights were transported properly to the concerned location at
Port Botany in New South Wales.

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