Melbourne Polytechnic: Logistics Strategies and Supply Chain Report

This report critically analyzes the supply chain management and logistics strategies of Toll Group and Aurizon, two Australian companies. The report begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction to the industry and the companies, highlighting the significance of the study. A literature review explores the supply chain management and logistics strategies of both companies, including their use of e-business. The research methodology is based on secondary data sources, with data analysis presented using charts and graphs. The discussion and conclusions provide recommendations for both companies, such as adopting demand-driven plans and aligning supply chains with business goals. The report concludes with references and appendices, offering a comprehensive overview of the logistics and supply chain strategies employed by the selected organizations. The report is a response to an assignment brief for a course on E-business and Supply Chain Management at Melbourne Polytechnic.

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Title: Business and Supply Chain Management
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LOGISTICS STRATEGIES
Executive summary
The report generally revolves around the logistic services and the supply chain management
strategies that are used by the organization in order to progress their business process. The
strategies are compared in order to understand the possible outcomes. The data collection is
being done by the researcher through secondary sources in order to have a proper data analysis.
There are discussions and recommendation provided based on the data analysis that is done.
There is data analysis done based on collecting secondary sources form books and journals.
These data are analyzed with charts so that there is a proper graphical presentation done.

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Table of Contents
1.Executive summary......................................................................................................................2
2. Introduction / Background...........................................................................................................4
2.1 Industry..................................................................................................................................4
2.2 Companies..............................................................................................................................4
2.3 Significance of study..............................................................................................................5
3. Literature review..........................................................................................................................5
Supply chain management and Logistic strategies of Toll Group...............................................5
Benefits, challenges, and use of e-business in Toll Group..........................................................6
Supply chain management and Logistic strategies of Aurizon....................................................6
Benefits challenges and use of e-business in Aurizon.................................................................7
4. Research methodology.................................................................................................................7
4.1 Data collection.......................................................................................................................7
4.2 Data analysis..........................................................................................................................7
5. Discussion and conclusions / recommendations..........................................................................9
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................10
6. References..................................................................................................................................11
7. Appendices................................................................................................................................13

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2. Introduction / Background
The report is generally based on the supply chain management and logistic strategies that are
applied in the two organizations that have been taken here into consideration. The term logistics
is generally applied to a company which makes activity within the organization in the
involvement of product distribution. On the other hand, the supply chain is linked with the
procurement and the manufacturing of the process in a separate way. There are different
strategies which are opted by different organization in its logistics and supply chain management
process in order to enhance the situation. The two organizations that have been taken into
consideration for the comparison purposes are Toll Group Company and Aurizon of Australia.
2.1 Industry
Toll Group is a business which provides a discrete in the business support and services that have
been evolved with the varied logistics and capability. It starts its function from recruitment, and
relocation of the staffs to the managing of data and logistics safely are being supported by the
organization. Toll Group is generally associated with Freight, Logistic, and Express services as
well.
Aurizon is considered as Australia’s largest rail freight which is owned privately. They generally
operate in four divisions that are network, coal, iron ore, and freight. There has been an extension
of the areas in business which went to Asia, China, and India as well. There is about 500,000
tones movement of freight per day.
2.2 Companies
The Toll Group Company has generally created a suite of Business Service developed through
different kinds of collaboration with the customers in a varied way. This starts with Data
Encryption Service and Information Logistics through the recruitment and transferring staffs
according to the needs (tollgroup.com, 2019).
Aurizon also operates in the most abundant coal rail systems, which are connected with three
ports in major. There are about 15,000 wagons which are kept and transacted under one

LOGISTICS STRATEGIES
umbrella. There is an array of the road of vehicles that are kept in additional means in the
management of services (aurizon.com.au, 2019).
2.3 Significance of the study
The study generally signifies the supply chain management and the logistics strategies that are
involved within the two organizations, namely Toll Group Company and Aurizon of Australia.
Different strategies are engulfed within the organization to manage the services smoothly. There
will be a comparison done based on the strategies used.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Supply chain management and Logistic strategies of Toll Group
Toll Group Forwarding generally manages supply chains in complex areas which refer to most of
the demanding customers in a broad range of industries. The main focus of the organization is
based on the improvement of efficiency, speed and its acceleration in the market, reducing the
overall inventory and the carrying cost, operation costs and its controlling and lastly with the
bringing of values to the customers daily (Stevens and Johnson, 2016). The business is
simplifying the overall number of needs concerning the operational division. These have ranged
from five to three aligning of core segments in respect of the Global Express, Contract Logistics
and the Global Forwarding which sums up to the executive body of the Toll Group (Wieland et
al. 2016).
Toll Group generally consists of a division in the different kinds of Logistic services with which
it is associated. They are Toll Offshore Petroleum Services, Toll Marine Logistics, Toll Energy,
Toll Mining Services, Toll Remote Logistics, Toll Liquids, and Toll Transitions. The
organization offers predominantly logistic solutions to the oil and gas, chemicals, mining, coal
industries, in more than 10 countries. There are different Supply chain consultancy services that
are related to review and audit, strategy, and definite distribution of network design, inventory
management, and supply chain in remote and complex areas. They are associated with newer
technology development, which enables them to have transport optimization, layout

LOGISTICS STRATEGIES
optimization, implementation and improvements, sourcing of strategies, and redesigning supply
chain process (Stadtler, 2015). [Referred to Appendix 1]
Benefits, challenges, and use of e-business in Toll Group
There are benefits as well as challenges with the advent of e-business. The experiences of the
consumer, as well as the convenience of easy home delivery option, are easiest in the case of the
consumers. On the other hand, logistics that are involved with the delivery of an individual item
faces a lot of problems and strains. This provides huge problems to the logistics operator with the
advent of the e-commerce business operation (Wang et al. 2016). These are making a great
profit, but the condition of the logistic services and management are becoming worse. The Toll
Group maintains a traditional model with the movement of consumer goods, mostly by air and
road. These were maintained between the warehouse and stores, but there is a recent emergence
of online shopping on a worldwide basis. This has forced the Toll Group to come into the online
delivery market, which is an unchartered area for the organization. The competition that is
generally unforeseen from E-commerce model of the logistics is generally a challenge for the
organization. There are different competitions like Australia post, but there is an attempt done to
challenge the system with the online logistic wing service (Prajogo et al. 2016). [Referred to
Appendix 3]
Supply chain management and Logistic strategies of Aurizon
Aurizon supply chain management is generally considered as the combination of global
capability and with local awareness. There is audit sourcing done, with the import, exporting,
inspecting, warehouse, shipping, and consolidation, logistic. There is an unparallel level of
service provided by the organization with specific supports to the clients that are associated with
it. There are no strains the organization faces even if there is a demand for one container or a
single good to be delivered. There has been an establishment in the supplier network and
inspection team in Asia, North America, Eastern Europe, and South America. There are
researches done of the market, products and services, suppliers in vets, goods inspection, and the
overall management of logistics. There are navigations of customer done within one single roof.
This makes the contact of the oversee factories, brokers of customs, forwarders freight,

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warehouse, and freight, which are important for the organization (Chin et al. 2015). [Referred to
Appendix 2]
Benefits challenges and use of e-business in Aurizon
Different challenges are being faced by Aurizon as well. They are like with the advent of e-
business the organization needs to be specific about finding right products and selling, attracting
customers, capturing the lead and quality, in the nurture of the ideal prospects, in the
convergence of shoppers into paying prospects. The benefits are like centralization of data,
effective process of sales, automation and inventory control, advertising, and advertising in a
different way (Bichou, 2015).
4. Research methodology
The researcher has gathered information from journals, books, and articles with the help of
available secondary resources. The research philosophy here applied realism. The research has
applied the Inductive research approach as it goes with the secondary data collection method.
The researcher has researched a lot about the best approaches of secondary resources and found
out that Realism and Inductive approach will best suit the research periphery (Christopher,
2016).
4.1 Data collection
The data are generally collected from the secondary sources which are effective to get details of
company information about the supply chain management and Logistic services. The journals
that are used are peer reviewed so that the information that is gathered by the researcher is
authentic. There are different books and online articles used in order to determine other resources
that are necessary to compare the strategies in logistic services and the supply chain management
process that is undertaken by the Toll Group Company and Aurizon of Australia (Fahimnia et al.
2015).

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4.2 Data analysis
Toll group logistic and supply chain market
Year Growth
2012 215
2013 221
2014 228
2015 230
2016 235
2017 240
2018 245
215
221
228
230
235
240
245
Growth
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Fig: Growth of Freight and Logistics market
(Source: Created by author)
Aurizon growth rate comparison

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Growth (Earnings Growth) Percentage
Aurizon Holdings 7.2
Transportation 7.1
Market 6.9
7.2
7.1
6.9
Earning Growth
Fig: Earnings Growth of Aurizon in the supply chain and Logistic services
(Source: Created by author)
5. Discussion and conclusions / recommendations
It can be said that there is a specific trend of growth in Toll Group, which is increasing with the
growing years. This growth is consisting, but there are few problems with the logistics services
that are being faced by the organization itself are making barriers in the growth. These kinds of
challenges include the increase of the fuel cost, not installing newer technology, no improvement
on the customer services, the crisis in the economy, different regulations imposed by the
government, malfunctioning of technology strategy and implementation are some of the barriers.
This barrier needs to be removed with effective plans in order to substantiate the growth of the
supply chain as well as the logistic services in a varied way (Touboulic and Walker, 2015).

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Whereas in the case of Aurizon, it is found that they are steadily strengthening their position and
are approaching towards proper earning and growth. There are certain barriers that are also being
faced by Aurizon, but they are effectively handling the problems so that there are fewer issues
with the supply chain process and management.
Recommendation
 Toll Group should adopt a demand-driven plan and specific business operating model so
that there is real-time demand from the insights and shaping of the demand shaping.
 There should be a building of an adaptive process which is related to the supply chain and
logistics services. This will be done in order to have rapid planning and execution to be
integrated.
 Toll Group should focus on the optimization of the product design and the product
management process, which includes sustainability in acceleration and different kinds of
successful innovation.
 There should be a proper aligning of the supply chain with the business goals so that
there are integrating sales and operational processes.
 There should be embedded sustainability in the operations of supply chain management
of Toll Group.
 The Toll should think of a liable and predictable supply system so that an issue does not
arise in the management process.

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6. References
Books
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Journals
Bichou, K., 2015. The ISPS code and the cost of port compliance: an initial logistics and supply
chain framework for port security assessment and management. In Port Management (pp. 109-
137). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Chin, T.A., Tat, H.H. and Sulaiman, Z., 2015. Green supply chain management, environmental
collaboration, and sustainability performance. Procedia Cirp, 26, pp.695-699.
Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J. and Davarzani, H., 2015. Green supply chain management: A review and
bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 162, pp.101-114.
Prajogo, D., Oke, A. and Olhager, J., 2016. Supply chain processes: Linking supply logistics
integration, supply performance, lean processes, and competitive performance. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36(2), pp.220-238.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and
advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Stevens, G.C. and Johnson, M., 2016. Integrating the supply chain… 25 years on. International
Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 46(1), pp.19-42.
Touboulic, A. and Walker, H., 2015. Theories in sustainable supply chain management: a
structured literature review. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics
Management, 45(1/2), pp.16-42.
Wang, G., Gunasekaran, A., Ngai, E.W. and Papadopoulos, T., 2016. Big data analytics in
logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and
applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 176, pp.98-110.

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Wieland, A., Handfield, R.B. and Durach, C.F., 2016. Mapping the landscape of future research
themes in supply chain management. Journal of Business Logistics, 37(3), pp.205-212.
Website
aurizon.com.au, 2019, About us, Available at: https://www.aurizon.com.au/ [Available at:
20.05.2019]
tollgroup.com, 2019, About us, Available at: https://www.tollgroup.com/network/australia
[Available at: 20.05.2019]

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7. Appendices
Appendix 1: Disruption in the Supply Chain
(Source: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/blogs-tushar-narsana-supply-chain-disruption)

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Appendix 2: Aurizon Share
(Source: https://simplywall.st/stocks/au/transportation/asx-azj/aurizon-holdings-shares)

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Appendix 3: Challenges in Electronic Commerce
(Source: https://tech-talk.org/2014/10/17/e-commerce-frameworks-challenges-and-solutions/)