logistics: the third profit source

driven by economic globalization and informatization, modern logistics has expanded from providing traditional transportation services for the society to an integrated logistics system with modern science and technology, management and information technology as its pillars. Logistics is a comprehensive interdisciplinary subject with strong practicality, which is one of the most influential new sciences in the contemporary era. It comprehensively integrates economic science, technical science and management science, and reveals the internal relations of logistics elements such as transportation, storage, loading and unloading, packaging, distribution processing and logistics information. Logistics is regarded as the "third profit source" after raw materials and labor in economically developed countries, and it is the last virgin to reduce costs.

in the 21st century, China will strengthen the development of modern logistics, so as to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises, optimize the allocation of resources, improve the quality of economic operation, realize two fundamental changes in China's economic system and economic growth mode, and thus promote the sustained and healthy development of China's economy.

in the intensive and integrated development of modern logistics, distribution is an important link directly connected with consumers, and its core part is the intensive distribution vehicles, cargo loading and delivery process, and the optimal scheduling of distribution vehicles is the key link of logistics system optimization and scientific logistics. A few days ago, the book "Theory and Method of Optimal Vehicle Scheduling for Logistics Distribution" co-authored by professors Li Jun and Guo Yaohuang of Southwest Jiaotong University was officially published. This book defines the theory and method of vehicle optimal scheduling by expounding the heuristic algorithm of goods collection or delivery and its integration with non-full vehicle scheduling, genetic algorithm of non-full vehicle scheduling, heuristic algorithm of single vehicle and multi-vehicle full vehicle optimal scheduling, computer realization of vehicle optimal scheduling algorithm and visual vehicle optimal scheduling system of logistics distribution based on GIS. This book is the latest research achievement in China at present, which fills the gap in the theory and method of optimal dispatching of distribution vehicles, and is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation. It has high academic value and practical value, and is a rare reference book for logistics business and researchers. The book was published by China Materials Publishing House.

are you aware of the widespread saying that "logistics is the third profit source?"

the fundamental purpose of an enterprise is to obtain higher profits. There are various ways to improve the profits of enterprises. There are three traditional ways to increase profits: < P > First, increase sales, but it will be constrained by market capacity and competition;

second, raise the product price, but it will be resisted or abandoned by customers;

thirdly, reduce the product cost;

Among them, there are three ways to reduce the product cost, namely

First, reduce the cost of raw materials, but it will be limited by the product performance;

second, reduce labor costs;

Third, reduce the cost of auxiliary activities. Actually, the so-called "logistics is the third profit source" refers to one of the expenses in this part.

Practice has proved that the logistics cost, especially the products exported to the world, is still relatively large in circulation and transportation, and it is necessary to tap it.

first, the origin of modern logistics

In the field of enterprise management, Archie Shaw, an American scholar, was the first to raise the issue of logistics alone. In his book Some Problems in Market Circulation in 1915, he clearly divided the circulation activities of enterprises into "demand-creating activities" and "logistics activities", and pointed out that the balance and coordination between them played a very important role in economic development. The "logistics" proposed by Archie Shaw refers to Physical Distribution.

As early as 195, American Major Johnsy Baker pointed out in his book "Transportation of Army and Munitions" that "a branch of the art of combat-the work of dispatching and ensuring the supply of troops becomes logistics". Logistics here refers to logistics. During World War II, the U.S. military adopted a series of technologies and methods in military logistics activities, such as personnel transfer, equipment manufacturing, transportation, supply, pre-war configuration and transportation, and wartime replenishment and maintenance, which enabled these logistics activities not only to ensure timely supply and meet the needs of war, but also to save money, time and cost, and to avoid enemy attacks safely and skillfully. All this played a decisive role in the victory of the war. After the war, these security theories were applied to all activities related to the acquisition, transportation, storage and distribution of goods in the circulation field and in the whole process of production and operation, and achieved good results. In 1962, Drucker, a famous American economist, published the article "The Dark Continent of Economy", calling the logistics field "The Dark Continent of Economy" for the first time, which provided theoretical preparation for the rapid development of logistics in the United States. The worldwide oil crisis in the early 197s made enterprises more interested in developing logistics. By the 198s, people had a comprehensive and profound understanding of the concept of "Logistics". They thought that the original concept of "Physical Distribution" was not exact and that "logistics" was more accurate. At this point, the concept of logistics has been established and matured.

second, the third profit source

Professor Nishizawa Hideyoshi of Waseda University in Japan said in his book "Logistics-the key to reducing costs" that the profit source of enterprises changes with the development of the times and the shift of business priorities. In 195, Japan received economic aid and technical support from the United States because of the Korean War, and soon realized the mechanization and automatic production of enterprises. At that time, Japan was in the period of industrial mass production, and the focus of enterprise management was on reducing manufacturing costs, which was the first profit source of enterprise management in Japan after World War II. However, a large number of products manufactured by means of automated production have caused a flood of markets and created a demand for mass sales. Thus, in 1955, marketing technology was introduced from the United States, and Japan ushered in the era of marketing. During this period, enterprises complied with the Japanese government's high-speed economic growth policy and took increasing sales as their business focus. This is the second profit source of Japanese enterprises after World War II. Since 1965, the Japanese government began to attach importance to logistics, and since 197, the industry has made a large-scale March into logistics, and Japan has entered the era of logistics development. During this period, the reduction of manufacturing costs has been limited, and the increase of sales has come to an end, eager to seek new profit sources. The reduction of logistics costs made the formulation of "the third profit source" exactly meet the needs of enterprise operation at that time, so the formulation of "the third profit source" attracted much attention and was widely circulated.

these three profit sources focus on different factors of productivity: the first profit source is the labor object in productivity, the second profit source is the labor object in productivity, and the third profit source mainly taps the potential of labor tools in productivity factors, and at the same time taps the potential of labor objects and workers, so it is more comprehensive.

iii. Composition of logistics activities

Logistics activities are the whole process of facts and management of logistics functions. Mainly includes:

1. Packaging: This is the starting point of logistics, which has the functions of protecting commodities, facilitating transportation and promoting commodity sales. It is one of the links to realize value-added.

2. transportation: this is the main link to realize the spatial movement of the place where the goods occur. It is one of the two core functions of logistics. It is also one of the links to reduce logistics costs.

3. warehousing and storage: it has the functions of time adjustment and price adjustment. By adjusting the time interval between supply and demand, we can ensure the smooth progress of economic activities. This is also one of the two core functions of logistics.

4. loading and unloading: this link is carried out across transportation institutions and facilities, and it occurs in logistics activities that mainly move articles in the vertical direction before and after transportation, storage and packaging, including goods loading, unloading, division, assembly and other operations.

5. Distribution: the logistics activities of selecting, processing, packaging, dividing, assembling and distributing goods according to customers' requirements within an economical and reasonable area, and delivering them to designated places on time.

6. distribution processing: The general term for simple operations such as packaging, dividing, measuring, sorting, assembling, price posting, label posting and commodity inspection, etc., during the process from the place of production to the place of use. It is one of the links to realize value-added.

7. Information processing: This part of activities is one of the important activities of modern logistics. It mainly collects, sorts out and transmits logistics information related to the management of commodity quantity, quality and function, as well as business flow and capital information related to ordering, delivery and payment for goods, so that logistics activities can be carried out effectively.

fourth, the development trend of modern logistics

1, the rise of electronic logistics. E-commerce, online shopping, online tracking of delivered goods, online planning of delivery routes, online logistics scheduling, online freight inspection, etc. will all become the trend of logistics development in the 21st century.

2. The scale of logistics and the scope of logistics activities will be further expanded, and logistics enterprises will develop intensively and collaboratively. The 21st century is the century of economic globalization. As a service industry, logistics enterprises should also meet the requirements of globalization and regionalization, which are mainly manifested in the construction of logistics parks and the merger and cooperation of logistics enterprises. Establishing strategic alliances is the development trend of logistics industry.

3. the quality of logistics services and the rapid development of third-party logistics. With the development of diversification of consumption, flexibility of production and high efficiency of circulation, the requirements of society and customers for logistics services are getting higher and higher, and the quality of logistics activities is one of the trends of logistics development. Third-party logistics has developed rapidly. According to the data, at present, the proportion of using third-party logistics in Europe is 76%, and that in the United States is 58%, and the demand is still growing.

4. Green logistics is developing continuously. Green logistics includes two aspects: one is to control the pollution of logistics system; The second is to establish a logistics system for industrial and domestic waste treatment.

5, constantly adopt new science and technology, new logistics equipment, and constantly improve the management level. At present, a modern logistics equipment technology pattern has been formed with system technology as the core, supported by information technology, transportation technology, distribution technology, loading and unloading technology, automatic warehousing technology, inventory control technology, packaging technology and other professional technologies, with informationization, automation, intelligence and integration, and the logistics management level has been continuously improved.