Supply Chain Management

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 1
Supply Chain Management
Name
Institution

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 2
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Deutsche Post DHL Group is a global logistics and mail organization. The company
focuses on being the first choice for investors, customers, as well as employees in its core
business globally. DHL makes a global contribution by connecting people along with making it
possible to trade globally while remaining committed to corporate citizenship, responsible
business practices, as well as purposeful environmental activities. Under the Group’s Deutsche
Post and DHL brands, it provides a global service portfolio that comprises of express delivery,
supply chain management, letter and parcel dispatch, e-commerce solutions, and freight
transport. The Group’s customers include Abbot, Evonik, Schneider Electric, Cisco, Andritz,
Dupont, Schmitz Cargobull, ZF, and Deutsche Post DHL Group. DHL generally works with the
retail, automotive, life sciences and healthcare, consumer and technology sectors. The company
has an approximate of 550,000 employees globally. DHL’s management styles are democratic
and employee participation is encouraged in every aspect of the working of the company. The
workers are allowed to give their opinions as well as present their ideas to help better the
organization and the employees. Democratic management is effective for the Group because it
facilitates the understanding of social along with the cultural differences that exist in the
workplace. DHL’s organization structure is such that the DHL region is headed by an Executive
Chairman. Below the executive chairman is the managing director, operations director, and
senior operations manager. The sustained growth in global trade flows and a boom in e-
commerce led to DHL’s revenue to rise by 1.8% (€61.6bn). The organizations have more than
1,400 warehouses and deliver their services in more than 220 countries globally. DHL’s logistics
and supply chain activities will be addressed in this report.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 3
Supply Chain Structure
DHL’s supply chain’s structure is made up of six departments. The main role of
department A is receiving. DHL receives online orders and calls for orders from the customers.
To strengthen its internal network of transferring data and e-movement internationally, the
Group has installed the Network Management System (NMS) (Al Zaabi, Al Dhaheri & Diabat,
2013). The system aims at reducing the downtime as well as delays in transferring shipment
details to the company’s various offices globally, in instances of network failure.
Department B is the reweight department. The primary purpose of this department is to
reweight documents and parcel by use of a reweight machine. The importance of this department
is often associated with instances when the customer attempts to cheat the employee on weight
with the intention of saving cost (Azadi, et al., 2015). As such, the employee should determine
the correct weight and charge the right price.
Department C is the packing department. Using the RFID technology, the department
packages documents. At times, a customer can send a parcel without extra packaging. As such,
the employee should take care of the parcel to prevent damage or theft.
Department D is the classification department. The staff classifies parcels and documents
that need to be sent to a certain service center. The department ensures the delivery of items of
the same destination is grouped together to enhance efficiency (Brandenburg, et al., 2014). Data
Warehouse is applied to feeding all management and reporting tools.
Department E is the shipping department that contains the logistic department that is used
to ship the products. The Transport Management System is used entailing planning the transport

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 4
modes along with schedules, manage the execution as well as tracking shipments across the
supply chain.
Department E is the inventory or store department. The department stores parcel and
documents that are failed to deliver. The Warehouse Management System is used to record
actions and events in the receipt, handle and store products as well as orders in a warehouse
environment.
To boost its supply chain efficiency, DHL adopts innovative solution such as pooling of
reusable containers thus helping cut on costs and improves performance. To achieve this, DHL
enhances collaboration between the supply chain and the packaging experts to come up with
optimal packaging formats for specific products.
Sourcing Materials and Services
A supply chain that is effective usually comprises of an efficient sourcing and
procurement process. The sourcing and procurement process serially entails collaborating and
integrating with all type of users along with partners to the company’s supply chain. Making use
of an analogy of DHL Group, the leading company in the logistics industry, it is essential to
make sure that there exists a stable relationship between the distributors and the suppliers (Cai, et
al., 2013). The need for this is to ensure quick customer satisfaction. DHL has established a
management service center with its collaborators. The goal of this management service center is
to assist in tracking the flow of the client’s products. In supply chain management, the most
essential part is ensuring there exists a good relationship between an organization and the
distributors. To make sure that it is effective in obtaining goods and services, DHL Group makes
sure that the suppliers are treated as business partners and considering their capacity, the