As a business owner, you depend on your products to arrive when and where they are supposed to, and you know just how important effective transportation is in making that happen. Perhaps the most important element of a supply chain is logistics because the quality of your product will never matter if your customers aren’t receiving it as they expect to. When transportation is improved, customers are happier as a result. Read on to find out how enhancing the transportation component of your supply chain can be a great benefit to your company.
What Role Does Logistics Have in the Supply Chain?
Within a supply chain, transportation logistics refers to any shipment of a product from suppliers to its final destination, which may be either a customer or a distribution center. This transportation can also take many forms. Transport by road, air, sea, rail, or pipeline are common methods used in transportation logistics. The role of logistics in a supply chain is to ensure that product reaches the hands of the customer or a distribution center in the condition that it was promised to be in. If a company’s logistical infrastructure cannot handle the strain of transporting product in this way, the company will likely not survive in the world of fast-moving, effective supply chain management.
How Can Enhancing Transport Benefit a Supply Chain?
When transportation logistics are improved, the entire supply chain benefits, along with the customer. An effective supply chain ensures that product is delivered to the correct destination, within a reasonable timeframe, and in the condition it was promised. When there are logistical setbacks within the supply chain, the resulting product may not meet these three standards. Improving your business’s transportation efforts may lead to many resulting benefits for your company and your customers.
Reduce Costs
It’s no secret that improving your company’s logistics can end up saving you money in both the short-run and the long-run. When transportation from supplier to customer is functioning at its best, it takes less time for product to move through the supply chain. This means fewer overall expenses are incurred, which frees up more funds for your company with the added bonus of higher customer satisfaction.
Increase Customer Satisfaction
When a supply chain is functioning at its highest level, customers receive products in the timeframe and condition they were promised to be in. As transportation logistics are an integral part of the supply chain, a decrease in time spent shipping product can have a domino effect on the resulting shortened lead times. When customers receive their products exactly as they were promised at the time of purchase, they are more likely to be satisfied with your entire company. However, if there are logistical troubles and a customer’s shipment is postponed or damaged, there is an even higher chance that they will be unsatisfied with your company. It’s important for your business to recognize this opportunity to cement itself as a customer favorite and to do all that it possibly can to ensure an error-free transportation process.
Offer Segmented Shipments
With the help of a supply chain that is performing at the top of its game, many more varying shipment options become available to a company. Prioritization of customer shipments is an important consideration when your business is shipping to many different businesses, and things like availability, seasonal concerns, and more can affect when and how much product will be shipped. The ability to segment these shipments is important to the well-being of a company, which can help to make a complex transportation process both simpler and more flexible.
Opportunity to Integrate Supply Chain Technology
When a company seeks to optimize their supply chain, there are often a few different things to consider, such as the use of a transportation management system (TMS). With the help of a TMS, companies can turn to one singular interface to help manage their transportation logistics while also significantly reducing their transportation costs. Services offered by a TMS may include fleet management, buyer communications management, route planning, and more. These services can help to decrease lead times, as well as ensure a successful delivery for a lower cost.
Provide More Supply Chain Options
When your supply chain is functioning at its most efficient, it opens up many new opportunities for your company to be able to provide more options to customers. You may find that you have extra resources that you can put towards expanding your business. For example, you may find that you now have the resources to ship internationally when you didn’t before.
Bypass Geographical Limitations
By enhancing your transportation logistics, you can ensure that geographical barriers do not stand in the way of customers receiving your product. If your business has several modes of transportation that are used to ship product, you can ensure that you are not limited in where you can ship. For example, planes and trains may have limitations on where they can ship to because of the geographic constraints associated with them. However, if you can use trucks to ship your product and they need to bypass a geographic barrier, you will be able to do so easily. This can contribute to an expanded customer base as well as increased customer satisfaction.
Boost the Economy
If you have an efficient transportation system, that means that your product is getting to your customers fast. This frees up your company to ship more product to more customers, allowing money to flow into the economy at a faster rate. Once this money is in the economy, it can circulate throughout and contribute to greater economic growth.
Rowe Transfer in Knoxville, TN
When it comes to the supply chain, the importance of transportation logistics cannot be overstated. As a business owner, you want to ensure that your transportation is offering the most benefit to your supply chain. Since 1883, Rowe Transfer has been a dependable provider of transportation logistics to companies both big and small. We specialize in getting loads that are too big or difficult for other companies where they needed to go. With our own fleet of trucks and trailers, we can assure that you will always have the right equipment, because we ensure it ourselves.
To learn more about how Rowe Transfer can be of service to you or to get a quote, contact us at 865-523-0421.