Analyzing Intermodal Logistics: NSW Network Problems and Solutions

This report examines the challenges facing the current logistics network in New South Wales (NSW), focusing on issues such as handling large data volumes, coping with environmental changes, managing manpower, ensuring effective customer service, navigating governmental regulations, dealing with rising fuel expenses, adhering to international rules, improving delivery standards, and coordinating customer-supplier relationships. It discusses resolutions implemented by companies like ACFS Port Logistics, including acquisitions and strategic relocations, and explores logistics management strategies like leveraging predicted volumes, demand-driven logistics, and sales and operations planning. The report also considers the NSW government's role in addressing these problems, highlighting the need for sustainable practices and adherence to transport policies. The analysis is supported by academic journal articles and relevant texts, providing a comprehensive overview of the issues and potential solutions within the NSW logistics network. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to aid students in understanding complex topics such as logistics and supply chain management.

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Logistics and Supply Chain Management
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Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Contents
.....................................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Main problems with the current logistics network in NSW.........................................................................3
Resolutions to the problems........................................................................................................................3
NSW government........................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Introduction
A mechanism through which the management of the flow of goods and services, movement and
storage of raw materials of working process in inventory and also the finished goods are
transferred from the place of production to the point of consumption and this process is known
as supply chain management ( Anvari, Ismail and Hojjati, 2011). The below-executed report is
focused on the risks and issues related to the mentioned concept.
Main problems with the current logistics network in NSW
Logistics refers to moving or transporting resources from its origin point to the target place
according to the requirements of customer or consumer. The resources that are being transferred
can be anything like food items and liquid items, animals, groceries, equipment’s, accessories
etcetera (Aziz and Hafez, 2013). Managing logistics includes planning, executing the plan and
controlling the supply of goods from one place to another and also tracking everything and
providing the related information throughout the transfer and of course keeping all the items
safe. Being a complex operation logistic management is a very tough task and faces a lot of
problems. In one way it’s the best way that aids to the growing economy yet coping with
complex mechanism it faces greater issues, likewise in North-South Wale’ current logistics are
also getting so much hard to manage to be a huge state with growing population. so there are so
many issues that the logistic networks are facing, for example, hiring a large number of labor,
managing all the data, increasing energy cost, improving the transport methods, coping with
environmental changes, handling a large number of customers at the same time and many more.
Some of the many issues that are being faced by NSW are as follow:
Handling and processing a large amount of data-transferring the resources includes heavy
amount of work to be done starting from its original place where one picks up the item to be
delivered, involving a lot of changes during the journey until the product is delivered to the
destination site and to prevent any kind of misunderstanding, it is necessary to manage all the
logistic data from origin point to target point. Since it’s a complicated work and one has to be too
precautious during the whole transfer (Bicheno and Holweg, 2016). It requires special strategies
to manage this huge amount of figures and data, ensuring the safety of the particular product,

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
planning the route and crosschecking the planned route, loading and unloading the goods and last
but not the least sanctioning all the bills. Hence it's a time-consuming process and deviates one's
attention from the all other basic and important nuances of the whole process.
Coping with the environmental change-climate change has a direct impact on the transportation
services. In North South Wales during winter, occurs snowfall which leads to the road jams and
it becomes too dangerous to travel on those roads with lots of snow on them and it is too difficult
to solve this problem with any other alternatives (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). This condition aids
to the transport delays and it becomes hard to travel on the roads as well as trains as the rail
tracks get stuck due to heavy snowfall. During the summers also adverse climatic conditions
persist. The weather is too hot in summers and due to extremely hot climate logistics get
affected, for example, food items that require low temperature for their storage and liquid items
or beverages etcetera.
Managing manpower-logistic management is a huge and complicated tasks and it's not a one-
man job it requires a large no. of workers, assigned to a particular job and since it requires so
many persons and hiring such a large amount of workers is a great deal but the more important
and complex task than that is finding someone who is totally qualified for the job, hence hiring a
person is one of the main issues faced by the logistics in NSW (Junior and Mendes, 2017). Once
hiring is done then comes managing the manpower and keeping everyone on the same page is
important that is why it is the trickiest responsibility.one has maintained a proper behavior with
the labor in order to achieve the required goal of the company so handling such a huge amount of
labor becomes the bigger task. To make the transport easy the logistic managers place the
workers at different locations geographically to maintain the swift flow of goods but it is not as
easy as it sounds it's a complex mechanism including lots of plans and strategies
implementations.
Customer service-customers wants the whole detail about where their product is, when is it
coming and how is it being handled and to meet up with all these requirements customer service
is must but handling all these problems like inadequate packaging, taking longer than expected to
solve a problem, not able to communicate with the customers etcetera, is the bigger issue here
(Bak and Ozlem, 2018). Sometimes in order to deliver the items free, the transport company has
to put as many items in a single box as they can which may lead to a destruction of some items

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
while transiting but to save the cost and shipping charges this step is the must. Most of the times
due to poor network coverage it becomes hard to communicate with the customers, creating
difficult situations both for the receivers as well as the logistic companies. It requires a large no.
of labor to handle all the situations hence it is very expensive making it other problems for the
logistics network in North South Wales.
Government’s role-Government has a little but powerful role on logistic networks. Transporting
industry has to go through several norms and regulations provided by the government.so the
logistic network has to face several compliance rules imposed by lawful authorities on all three
levels that are national, state and local (Christopher, 2016). The government has launched several
policies for the national and state transport:
NSW Freight and Ports Strategy- Transport for NSW-November 2013
Strategic Plan- Northern Territory Department of Transport-2013-2014-2018
Fuel expenses- Due to the increase in fuel prices it is very hard to maintain all the expenses
which are fuel related to transport business requires a lot of fuel expenditure. Escalating fuel
charges aids to an increased cost of transportation making it difficult to handle such high
expenses (Fredendall and Hill, 2016). High energy cost has put a lot of transporting companies
under mounting pressure.
Following all rules and regulations- Some of the logistic networks also transport the required
resource internationally and while doing so they have to go through different sets of rules and
regulations of that particular country and it is mandatory to follow all these rules and if they fail
to do so they might have to go through several charges and jurisdiction and procedures (Mangan
and Lalwani, 2016).
Improving delivery standards-customers put a lot of pressure on the logistic industry in order to
get the product delivered on the time but sometimes it is not possible due to several reasons like
sudden weather change in NSW, their winters are cold and dry including heavy snowfall and
summers are too hot, traffic problems, not able to contact with the customers, transportation
issues due to snowfall or railway tracks getting stuck with the snow etcetera which they have no
control over, yes it can be managed but it takes longer than expected so to overcome all these

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
issues logistic networks have to work on different methods and strategies to improve the
standards of the delivery (Monczka, Handfield, Giunipero and Patterson, 2015).
Customer-supplier coordination-suppliers ensures full transparency to the customer during the
whole transit and providing all the little details to a customer but sometimes it becomes harder
than expected due to poor network conditions or inability to contact the customer and in order to
solve the customer issues logistic organizations has to maintain a rhythmic connection with the
customers. Suppliers have to notice every little detail of the transit to make sure the whole
process is going smoothly without any interruptions. It’s the crucial part of the whole operation if
the timing is not co-ordinated it might create a difficult situation both for the customer as well as
the transport company.
Resolutions to the problems
ACFS Port Logistics had confirmed that it had acquired the empty container depot operations for
Kerry logistics subsided in Adelaide. And in addition, ACFS had an agreement with them with
respect to managing a fair amount of property lease interests and leasing which will allow the
company to move its warehousing and transport facility to Gillman.
The acquirement was effective from June 1st, 2017 and the empty container operations were
rebranded from this date only.
When this facility was taken over it was a full bitumen facility which was sealed and was approx.
27000sqm in size which included 4500sqm of the warehousing and 40 points reefer for the
managing and storage of those reefers.
Their latest acquisition was complementing the $10 million+ investment which ACFS and their
related companies were undertaking the port of Fremantle which was expected to complete in
2017.
Arthur Tzaneros (CEO) stated that it completed the national footprint in all the important Ports in
Australia of the empty container depots, but majorly allows ACFS to incorporate the service
which offers connecting the customers for the alignment shipping lines at the best cost outcomes
solution (Ross, 2013).

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
The relocation of the warehousing and the transport departments for a new site also allowed the
ACFS business models which were offered to national customers for replicating and expanding it
in the Adelaide market.
Terry Tzaneros (chairman) said that while the Adelaide deal was important for completing the
domestic strategy, the business was looking for the channel of strategic opportunities and
acquisitions in the country as well as internationally for the ACFS Port Logistics Landside
business.
ACFS was looking for a driving change and to implement the efficiency in Adelaide market for
transporting carriers and shipping lines with the increased operating hours implemented and the
Containterchain E-Gate implementation with the investment of a brand new twin container
forklifts.
Logistics management strategies
If any company is in the industry for providing a variety of services and products it is very
important for the business to keep the service levels at the top no matter if there are changes and
could be happening all the time in all areas of the business organization (Schönsleben, 2016). It
is imperative for companies which are complex in structure or which have a very fluctuating
supply chain, specific customers in specific countries to serve for.
Top strategies for logistics are:
 Leveraging the predicted volumes to decrease price. Getting providers who can offer
service levels needed at a challenging price when you don't have the historical detail to
rely on. This happens when the volume which is predicted become important. And to
position this properly with significant discounts the outcome will help improve the cash
advantage. In logistics strategy, the partners are all about real, leverage or predicted.
 Demand-driven logistics (scm.ncsu 2017). The matching of the demand for the products
supply goes beyond the reduction in the transport cost. When the company starts
practicing demand-driven logistics the cost of transportation costs are lessened but the
saving for changing information and inventory for a better customer service is more

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
important. Aligning the business to practice these logistics provides for the strategic
benefits for the complete enterprise.
 Sales and operations planning. S&OP is a strategy where the primary functions of the
business like sales, marketing, warehousing finance and transportation become a team.
To discuss and review the business activities. It not only includes sales and operations but
also the parties who affect or are impacted by the regular activities. This should be called
team effort which means a common set of goals and the togetherness for achieving these
goals. The meeting is supposed to be held frequently and should also have the definite set
of tools and reports to help in regular notifications and check-ups. Meetings should short
and focused and should avoid any kind of confrontation. They should be about addressing
the long term and short goals (Waters and Rinsler, 2014). A commitment by all the
parties to think beyond the functional silos which haunt the companies. It should become
an important component of the culture of the company. If properly executed a solid
S&OP can do more than single strategy logistics and can better the chances of success. If
the team is in sync, the individual areas will turn into towards focusing on how
effectively address the parts of the process and understanding the goals. If the S&OP is
not there, there will be goals but will not be aligned with other business functions.
 To get an experienced logistician who has good interpersonal skills and very well
connected to the supply chain world and has a great financial acumen.
 Understanding business mission and reflecting on the corporate strategy and accordingly
plan for it. The supply chain process infrastructure involves the facilities where the
equipment is used for the information systems and that is how you organize people
(Rushton, Croucher and Baker, 2014)).
 The corporate strategy is how you will identify the various markets and the competitive
strategy and to develop a supply chain strategy for the markets which tailor the supply
chain processes.
 Defining the goals that you seek to achieve. The supply chain strategy helps the goals of
the business so that the strategy aligns with it and helps achieve organization goals. The
second goal is how the strategy works for the higher level goals (Brown, Blackmon,
Cousins and Maylor, 2013).

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
 Gain end to end visibility of the network and analyses the cost performance. It begins
with building a strong transaction foundation. Often it means joining hands with a third-
party logistics provider who has processes, people, and technology to implement and gain
clarity and service performance and track and report cost (Weele, 2009)). The companies
made sure that they will have the right people for executing and optimizing the network
and for this the entity will have a team of transport professionals with a real-world
experience and a strong academic skill. Once the company has there is a strong base for
information there is no need for analyzing the data and then optimizing the rate. It is in
two levels strategic and tactical. The shippers' analyses the cost daily of service to look
how they have a carrier performance and service issues.
NSW government
The business relationships can often lead to disputes. There might be a disagreement for a
business might not have lived up to the expectations or a retail lease. If anyone has a dispute in
the business it is time-consuming and frustrating. The stress is expensive. The commercial
disputes and negotiations may have broken down NSW government will help in resolution
services. Mediation is one method of resolving the issues at business. The staff manages the
process of mediation (Myerson, 2012). The expertise is given for the strategic advice and also
helps parties find a resolution. Often there is a session every time where both the parties have
listened. The staff formally solves the disputes and gives a commercial experience. Most parties
work out problems for tribunal decisions. This is the informal mediation service. Where they
help to identify the areas of focus and importantly let choose one side. When they too complex
they are dealt on a phone where everyone sits down and work out the issues.
.

Logistics and Supply Chain Management
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Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Ross, D. F. (2013). Competing through supply chain management: creating market-winning
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