Analysis of Hitachi's Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Hitachi's global logistics and supply chain management. It begins with an overview of the company, including its products, services, major customers, and operational details. The report then delves into transportation regulations, public policies, and Hitachi's supply chain strategies, including its approach to managing logistics operations. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to exploring various global transportation modes, such as motor carriers, railroads, airlines, and water carriers. The analysis further encompasses transportation security measures, risk management strategies, and specific technologies employed by Hitachi. Finally, the report concludes with recommendations for improving the efficiency of Hitachi's transportation system, including the implementation of AI-based engines and next-generation freight rails.

Running head: LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Analysis of Hitachi’s Logistic and Transportation Systems
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Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to develop the understanding and concepts related to global logistics
and supply chain practices. The organization chosen in this report is Hitachi. This report will
provide an extensive research and analysis on the logistics works associated with Hitachi.
Firstly, an overview is provided about the company and various information related to it like
the products and services offered, who are its major customers, the no. of employees and their
annual income, its facilities and offices, are provided. After that, the follow up section
includes transportation regulations and policy associated with railways, marines, aviation and
roads are provided along with a gist of public policy. The report also highlights the supply
chain strategies of the organisation and its numerous logistics operations. It also provides
information about the transportation system related to motor carriers, railroads, airlines and
water carriers. Various security measures undertaken whilst the transportation of goods and
services are provided for the smooth and efficient seamless flow of the operation which
includes technologies in every aspects of transportation system i.e., railways, airlines,
marines and also the safety education measures for the employees. In addition to this, Hitachi
has various risk management measures to cope with the unprecedented disasters and
challenges. And lastly, concluding remarks has been provided related to the management of
logistic services along with the recommendations that should be implemented in order to
increase the efficiency of the transportation system which includes strategies like AI based
engines, next generation freight rails etc.

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Table of Contents
Hitachi: An Overview................................................................................................................3
Products and services.............................................................................................................4
Major Customers....................................................................................................................4
Transportation Regulation and Public Policy............................................................................5
Hitachi’s Supply chain management..........................................................................................7
Global Transportation Modes – Motor Carriers & Railroads..................................................10
Global Transportation Modes – Airlines, Water Carriers and Pipelines.................................13
Transportation security.............................................................................................................15
Transportation risk management..............................................................................................17
Conclusion and recommendations...........................................................................................19
References................................................................................................................................21

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Hitachi: An Overview
Hitachi was founded in 1910. Since then it has helped in resolving various social
issues through the application of Social Innovation Business which combines operational
technologies with the IT. It has introduced technologies in healthcare, transportation,
agriculture etc. It has 3,650 employees across the Oceania region (Australia and New
Zealand)
and has a revenue of AU $2.4 billion as per 2017 statistical data survey (Hitachi.com.au,
2019). Group companies operating in this region are as follows:
Regional Headquarters
 Hitachi Australia Pty. Ltd.
Social infrastructure & Industrial systems
 Ansaldo STS Australia Pty. Ltd.
 Sullair Australia Pty. Ltd.
Automotive Systems
 Clarion Australia Pty. Ltd.
Construction Machinery
 Hitachi Construction Machinery (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
 Bradken Limited
 H-E Parts International LLC
Information and Telecommunication Systems
 Hitachi Vantara Australia Pty. Ltd.
 Hitachi Consulting Australia Pty. Ltd.

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Products and services
Hitachi groups provides a wide range of product and services which are as follows:
 Home Appliances: Televisions, Air Conditioners, Home Appliances
 Healthcare Solutions: Medical & Healthcare Solutions, Life Science & Diagnostics
 Mining Solutions: H-E-Parts, Mining & Construction, Mining Solution etc.
 Agricultural Solutions
 Digital Presentation Solutions
 Industrial Equipment
 Social Infrastructure
 Rail Projects and Hitachi Rail STS
 Smart and Safe Cities and Hitachi Consulting
Figure 1: Hitachi Distribution Software
Source: sunrise-lsa.com
Major Customers
Hitachi has a wide customer base which uses their technologies and solutions. Following are
the lists:
Clients using their Gauges and Analyzers
 Nikon

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 Panasonic
 Hyundai
 Toyota
 Casio
 Mitsumi
 Victor-JVC
 Kia Motors
 Sony
Organizations that uses Hitachi’s Detectors and Technology
 Advanced Light Source (ALS) Berkeley, CA
 Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) Ithaca, NY
 National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) Brazil
Transportation Regulation and Public Policy
Road Transport
 Heavy Vehicle Regulation: The law covers areas relating to fatigue management, on-
road enforcement, vehicle standards, the Intelligent Access Program, mass dimensions
and loadings and heavy vehicle accreditation.
 Australian Road Rules: The National Transport Commission amends rules for the
maintenance of Roads and checks that they are up to date (Stevenson et al., 2015).
 Austroads Registration and Licensing Task Force: State governments does the task of
driver licensing and vehicle registration.
Aviation Policy & Regulation

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Aviation and Airports Division manages the policy and framework related to
Australian aviation and airports industries. It looks into the relationship between the Civil
Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Australia's airlines, Airservices Australia (Airservices)
and the Government.
Following are some Legislation, Regulations and Guidelines:
 Air Navigation Regulations 2016
 Civil Aviation (Carrier's Liability) Act 1959
 Damage by Aircraft Act 1999
 Family Assistance Code
Rail Legislation and Regulation
National Rail Safety Regulatory Reform: The reform aims to provide single rail
accreditation for rail transport operators, availability of resources for decision making and
safe investigations and removing audit duplication (Merkert & Hensher, 2014).
Maritime Legislation and Regulations
The rules and policies associated with the maritime legislation is looked by Minister for
Infrastructure and Regional Development and the various information related to it can be
found in the Administrative Arrangements Order.
Public policy
Following are required lists of public policy:
 Financial Services Reform Act 2001 The Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership (PMCBP)
 Standards Australia
 Environment Australia

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 Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
Hitachi’s Supply chain management
Hitachi provides the best logistic services at lowest possible costs. It evaluates the
current logistic operations and determine the optimum solutions (Chung, Elgqvist &
Santhanagopalan, 2016). The aim of the firm is to make the supply chain more transparent,
manageable and measurable. The supply chain management service, project management
service and inventory works in full coordination for the proper functioning of the company.
Short reaction times and real-time insights are the few techniques that has helped the
operations to run smoothly (Noorani & Carpenter, 2016). It offers a safe way to deal with the
transport costs and inventory costs while keeping them in check. Hitachi performs the
following roles for the efficient management of supply chain:
 Reducing logistic costs by integrating consignments and sharing storage
 Ships smaller volumes of products with low costs and also working with JIT
deliveries and shipments
 Stock levels optimisations and insights (Fichtinger, & Yates, 2017).
 Accessing global networks and providing flexible delivery times
 Selecting the most reliable, cheapest and the quickest shipping methods

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Figure 2: Hitachi’s Supply chain
Source: hitachi.com
Hitachi also manages various logistics-related operations which includes:
 Transportation to any location
 Network studies
 Various In-house services
 Planning
 Storing goods
 Selection of distributors
 Custom clearance
 Tax activities
 Consolidating shipments
 Negotiating with suppliers

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Strategic location of warehouses
Since the efficiency of logistics largely depends on the transport linkages, the
distribution and warehousing facilities are located in very ideal locations across the globe:
proximity to airports and ports and efficient rails and roadways (Askin, Baffo & Xia, 2014).
Hitachi’s logistics and warehousing solution include:
 Reverse logistics (Govindan, Soleimani & Kannan, 2015)
 Bonded and public storage of goods
 Custom activities
 Automated management of inventory and its optimisation
 Cross-docking (Ladier & Alpan, 2016)
 Quality control
 Distribution activities
 Value added services like assembly and labelling
Global Transportation Modes – Motor Carriers & Railroads

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The railway transportation solutions of Hitachi handles carriages for monorails, bullet
trains, city trains etc. along with platform barriers, railway girders and other maintenance
parts for transportation infrastructure. The HTS (Hitachi Transportation System) group
provides facilities in domestic as well as overseas markets. The company delivers various
equipments safely across the globe by optimal combination of land, sea and air
transportation. The company provides the latest rolling stock technology along with services
and products in signalling, power distribution, on-board components, depot systems and
station equipment. Its E&M subsystems gives it a unique edge in railways integration
services.
Figure 3: Hitachi’s Transportation System
Source: hitachi-transportsystem.com
Following are the features of its Railways connections:

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Rolling Stock
 Hitachi Transportation Design
 Japanese Shinkansen Technology
 A-train Concept (Kroon, Maróti & Nielsen, 2014)
 High Speed Projects in the UK
 Linear Motor Driven System
 High Speed Lightweight Bolsterless Bogie
 Monorail Systems
 Tilting Train
 Bi-mode Solution (Yin et al., 2017)
Signalling Systems
 Digital ATP System
 Communication Based Train Control (CBTC)
 ATO (Automatic Train Operation) System
Figure 4: Hitachi Rail’s Products and Services
Source: hitachi-rail.com