Logistics Impact of 3D Printing and Micro Machining

This assignment examines the significant influence of 3D printing and micro machining on logistics. It delves into how these emerging technologies stimulate localized production for specific needs, minimizing the reliance on anticipated safety stock. The discussion highlights the shift towards on-demand production and the consequent reduction in transportation and storage requirements, leading to a more efficient and sustainable logistics system.

Principles of Logistic Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
The Interfaces........................................................................................................................................3
Order Cycle............................................................................................................................................5
Inventory Management.........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................9
References:..........................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
I am working as A Logistics Manager in Grove Juice Australia. Basically a logistics manager
is to oversee the supply chain of a product. I have to plan that customers can get their
delivery in proper time without any hassles. To ship a product I have to maintain good supply
of raw materials and finished goods with proper warehouse and storing facility which are
main factors in managing supply chain. It is a huge responsibility because a company’s
growth depends on logistics. Arrangement of raw materials and dispatch of finished goods
are basic criteria of logistics management for this organization (Lawrence, 2016).
Grove believes in utmost quality of product which is proven by its provision of technological
assistance through various training program of employees. The team inculcates a value based
culture to achieve the best performer in this segment of industry with Integrity, Trust,
Professionalism, Respect, Commitment and Honesty to satisfy customers in every level
(Techtarget, 2016).
Grove Fruit Juice was established in Brisbane in 1969 as a specialised home delivery fruit
juice business. Grove has the manufacturing process through selection of best fresh fruits,
with the production process of sanitization followed by process of extraction and bottling the
product in due time. They earned a. reputation in this way and now they are the biggest
player in Australian market in fruit juice segment (Grovejuice, 2015).
The Interfaces
Grove Juice is leading brand in Australia. It is working with agricultural sectors to acquire
best fruits and vegetables those are organic and without pesticides. So operations
management of logistics of this company is depending upon the basic interfaces of
production, marketing, accounts and finance. Grove Juice always conducts a survey before
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operation starts. The team has to ensure the right number of fleet for particular service to
provide best results and is capable of customized solutions by recommending detailed case
study in each contract. This assurance has a big impact in any business as manufacturing
process requires basic raw materials which cannot be accomplished without proper logistics
management. To ensure timely delivery, a good route monitoring is very important. GPS
enable fleets are best in this field. One can track their vehicles through GPS anytime. Route
optimisation and selection is one of the crucial parts of any logistics management for higher
delivery service.
As per John Coyle, logistics is all about getting right product, received by the right customer,
in the right quantity, in the proper condition, at the right place with right cost. So marketing is
to play big role for sustainable business in the segment. Both inward and outward movement
need care and marketing people has to focus on Company’s ability and willingness to deliver
the required products in the market (Michiganstateuniversity, 2015).
The 3rd party logistics service needs good financial condition of a manufacturing company. A
well-equipped accounts department is needed to maintain fleets, warehouse, and inventory
control. Pricing of juices are depending on cost effective transportation and that has a big
impact on Grove directly. If raw materials are not delivered in time, company has to face a
huge loss and that can adversely affect on cost and profit also. Marketing leads a big role also
due to competitiveness of the business. Grove has to endorse its products in different
platform for increasing sales (Supplychainopz, 2012).
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Order Cycle
Martin Christopher highlighted in Logistics and Supply Chain Management that supply chain
management is a network of organisations involved in various processes and activities that
produces value in products and services for end users through upstream and downstream
linkages. There are various definitions of supply chain management. Michael Hugos has told
that in Essential of Supply Chain Management. It is emphasized that supply chain
management refers to the coordination of production, inventory, location and transportation
among different stakeholders to achieve the best mix responsiveness with efficiency to serve
the market. Supply chain is not a function, instead a network and is the actually order cycle of
any company (Benjamin, 2013).
A generic order supply structure is included in the chain of Supplier, Manufacturer,
Wholesaler and Retailer. Management means basically planning, implementing and
controlling of the network. Most important attribute of order cycle is the flow of material,
information and money.
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Information sharing is very important in order supply. When demand data is not shared, there
must be a chance for speculation and that can cause higher cost. If each player tends to stock
more than the retailers demand, price must increase without valid reason and the customers
are affected in large extent. Both the diagrams are here showing the bad impact of not sharing
information (Mbaskool, 2015).
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If information is shared, cost must be lower for everyone. This lower cost has many impacts
on an economy. For this purpose ICT plays a vital role (Inboundlogistics, 2008).
So for Grove Juice, extraordinary customer care is very important to stay in business with
cost effectiveness. Its zeal with robust policies and trained staffs is basic to change the
scenario of the sector today. Logistics is concerned with both materials and information
flow. Customer response falls under ambit of logistics beyond inventory and resource
utilization. In a simple language, logistics plays a role in linking between manufacturing and
marketing operations of a company. End customers can get best results if number of
participants is higher and maintain a good flow. Higher participants make lowering the cost
of end product. Grove Juice has a very good network with manufacturing plants, warehouse
and stores. Its transportation is its biggest networking factor to determine the transportation of
goods. So overall, the company has a role to fix the cost of an end product.
Information is one of vital in today’s logistics management. Grove Juice has invested in
advance electronic data interchange, artificial intelligence and wireless communication. The
main information is based on for planning and operations. Today Grove Juice is digitized and
replaced all paper works to comply the mission of Green world.
Inventory Management
In every business, functions are interlinked to each other for optimum output. To earn profit,
inventory management is backbone of any industry, which determines the supply chain
process and financial information of that company. Every company should have objective to
optimise its requirement level by avoiding excessive or low inventory. Low or high inventory
can impact the profit making machinery. It is a dynamic and constant process to evaluate the
external and internal factors. It can be reviewed and controlled by systemic planning.
Monitoring is very important in inventory management to interface with production,
procurement and all financial needs. Inventory means stock that has economic value. It can
be held in form of packaging, transformation, processing for using or selling in near future.
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So for a manufacturing company, inventory management is very crucial which is to use
planning to increase its profit (Managementstudyguide, 2016).
Every organisation has to maintain a necessary stock of resources related to its business to
sale and for future consumption. Even inventory can be used for negative aspect like
speculation or for financial purposes. It does not mean for all ethical cause of any company
every time. Company can hold inventory in any form of products or services for further uses.
In fact inventory is assets for organisation. Grove never supports speculation.
Grove Juice, being a manufacturing company, also depends on inventory management as it
has to maintain a good supply chain management. Grove Juice has developed its technology
to fulfil present trend of software driven industry. This technology can manage revolutionary
changes in inventory management. In last decades, Grove Juice has developed its high end
customer demand products and a good customer service, which made it as a reputed brand in
the industry. Managing customers in a very effective way is very important for this business.
Timely delivery and timely stock creations are totally managed by ICT team (Tradegecko,
2016).
Inventory order can be calculated by deriving Economic Order Quantity which is directly
related to the factors like order costs, shortage costs and holding costs. This format is
elementary to reduce the cost of inventory management (Zijm, 2016).
As I am a logistics manager, I have to maintain that the shipment must be delivered in time.
So I have to check the previous batch which is about to sale with placement of order for fresh
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stocks. Before ordering new stocks, I have to manage place for storing them. Timing is a
great factor here. If it arrives too late or too early, both will hamper my supply chain. I have
to avoid a situation of out of stock.
Calculating my reorder needs time to pick, time to pack and time to ship. (457)
.
Conclusion
Logistics in manufacturing company is a key factor in today’s global economy with the
ability of raising welfare and prosperity through shipment of resources, end products and
services. It is a fact that natural resources has to move for distribution and so materials,
products are to ship in various destination to maintain a proper supply chain management.
Population is growing at a high pace and that leads increase in productivity. It is a continuous
process and so it is a challenge for a company to sustain. Grove Juice has emerged its
business through self-education and self-training method. It has improved its customer
service by upgrading technological interfaces with assigning modern software experts. Thus
it can manage in controlling inventory process in effective way to implement logistics
theories with its years of experiences. Today in Australia, more aboriginals are leaving
nomadic life and started urban life. So it is a challenge to ship in those interior areas. Initially
Grove Juice could not accustom with this change but now it is developing its ordering cycle
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according to meet their needs. All I can say that employing in this field, I also become a part
of our economic development. (198)
The process of continuing effort to urbanize is making more challenge. The trend of
conversion from agricultural to nomadic life is found in Latin America and Asia as a result of
development of resources. Number of cities with the population size of over 10 millions are
getting emerged which requires differ types of transportation and logistics facility which are
prevailing presently. This creates the situation of enhanced level interdependent factors
between management of supply chain with this design and the planning of urban set-up and
management of land utilization. Additionally for conflicting factors of political situation and
natural calamities, the estimation of logistics with humanitarian background can rarely be
done.
Due to the changing pattern of consumer behaviour for introduction of e-commerce with its
gradual development, the demand of logistics of both forward and reverse pattern increases
with respective impact on supply chain. The requirement of fast delivery is possible only by
executing the logistics plan as per need.
Additionally, the role of technology cannot be denied in this aspect to combat the challenges.
The developed design of new materials with the lightweight, mitigation with
dematerialization of items help to minimize their respective costs with the enhanced
technologies defined as 3D printing followed by micro machining enhances the use of
ecological application of technologies. These effects have substantial logistic impact like
stimulation of production to justify local for local purposes which reduces the concept of
anticipated safety stock which ensures the production as per need of place and time.
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References:
Benjamin, D. (2013, May 29). Cusomer order cycle. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from
Authorstream: http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/gunasekhar.9-1834193-
customer-order-cycle-logistics/
Grovejuice. (2015). History. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from Grovejuice:
http://grovejuice.com.au/why-grove/#history
Inboundlogistics. (2008, November). Logistics. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from
Inboundlogistics: http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/all-i-really-need-to-know-
about-logistics-i-learned-from-rudolph/
Lawrence, A. (2016, February 24). What is a logistics manager. Retrieved September 19, 2017,
from Rasmussen: http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/business/blog/what-is-a-logistics-
manager/
Managementstudyguide. (2016). Inventory Management. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from
Managementstudyguide: http://managementstudyguide.com/inventory-management.htm
Mbaskool. (2015). Order Cycle Time. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from Mbaskool:
http://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/operations-logistics-supply-chain-terms/
15582-order-cycle-time.html
Michiganstateuniversity. (2015). What is Logistics? Retrieved September 19, 2017, from
Michiganstateuniversityonline:
https://www.michiganstateuniversityonline.com/resources/supply-chain/logistics-
fundamental-to-supply-chain-success/#.WcDxAmdS3IU
Supplychainopz. (2012, April). What is Logistics and Supply Chain Management Definition?
Retrieved September 19, 2017, from Supplychainopz:
http://www.supplychainopz.com/2012/04/what-is-logistics-and-supply-chain-
management.html
Techtarget. (2016). Logistics management. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from Techtarget:
http://searcherp.techtarget.com/definition/logistics-management
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Tradegecko. (2016). What Is inventory management? Retrieved September 19, 2017, from
Tradegecko: https://www.tradegecko.com/learning-centre/what-is-inventory-management
Zijm, H. (2016). Trends and Challenges in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Retrieved
September 19, 2017, from Ercim: https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en105/keynote/trends-and-
challenges-in-logistics-and-supply-chain-management
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