Services and Facilities Offered by Third Party Logistic Provider - RGF Logistics Limited - Research Paper Example

Company Analysis 8TH MAY Services and Facilities Offered by Third Party Logistic Provider. In the service industry, customer satisfaction and service is vital so as to acquire and retain customers. Third party logistics provides need to pay interest on both technical and operational excellence, in order to ensure a high standard of satisfaction and service. The technical solutions also need to fulfill same standards. Customers expect premier system answers to come together and measure the logistics service provider’s success. The service providers need system solutions, which can provide, reusability, flexibility, and one that is multi-customer based. In order to provide a complete supply chain, answers have to be able to take care of the length and breadth of data from outbound, inbound and reverse the processes (Changsen, Z., 2005). Comparison of different services offered by different logistics providing companies RCS Logistics is one of the providers of transport logistics. It has vehicles that range from articulated Lorries to small vehicles. Each is well maintained. The company has fully trained drivers who operate to the highest standard and ensure that customers get the best possible service. RCS Logistics transport services are: contract distribution, reverse logistics, double deck trailers, tail lifts, on line order entry and POD retrieval, Ad- hoc transport. RGF Logistics Limited has a reputation on giving high quality transport service to companies in the United Kingdom. They can provide modern vehicles, fully trained and informed driver. This is the same case as RCS Company. Unlike RCS, RGF Logistics has additional advantages. It delivers the goods within the same day or next day or within 72 hours depending on the customers need. It also distributes throughout UK and Europe. Comparing RGF and RCS companies’ services, RCS Company has more transport services than its competitor. In the provision of warehousing services, all the four companies provide this service. Amethyst group is recognized as a leading company in offering warehousing and distribution services. It offers a specialist service to automotives and machinery, consumer durables and also in clothing fashion sectors. Store it all is another company that offers warehousing services. It offers a complete storage solution as it deals with storage of food stuffs, archiving and palletized storage. It can also receive orders as data downloads, through website integration, telephone, Email, PDF, excel, and other plat forms, data feed formats and layouts. Other services are: pick and pack, dispatch, returns handling, reporting, laser printed paperwork, packaging and print procurement. RGF Logistics have warehoused distribution services, which can cater for the needs of the customer. It has, designed warehouse facilities or dedicated facilities. The services offered by RGF Logistics are: container receiving, stock reworking, picking and parking FIFO Management, ranked or bulk stack storage, labeling and repacking, same day dispatch, cross docking operations, client stock visibility and returns management. RGF Logistics can also offer long or short term leases for offices, an open yard space and warehousing for its customers who would want a personal access. RCS Logistics operates a large area of state of storage facilities, and is located in the middle of UK’s logistics network. The stocks at RCS Logistics are monitored by use of electronic bar coding system. This provides stock status instantly, which helps in the maintenance and control of goods. Stock records work on stock databases giving real time information on goods that are in the warehousing facilities. Warehousing facilities in RCS Logistics are: container handling, returns management, real time warehouse management system, re-parking and re-palletizing, E-commerce order fulfillment, cross docking, shared user solutions and selective order picking. The systems are flexible ensuring, long term, medium, and short term storage solutions are safe and that selective order picking is precise, straightforward, and fast. Amethyst offers only specific goods. This is a disadvantage as it will limit its customers, and will make it less competitive as compared to other companies. All the other companies store all kinds of goods. Looking at the diversity of services that are offered by the companies, RCS and RGF have quite a variety of services. This gives them advantage over the others as the customers will have more satisfaction, than in the other companies. RCS Logistics and Store it all companies, uses advanced technology in monitoring stock records. This increases their efficiency and makes them have an advantage over the others. Customers would prefer a place where they assured of the safety of their goods, and they are served without delay. It gives Store it all an advantage over the other companies since customers can send their orders using electronics. It saves them time, cost and energy to use the services of Store It All. RGF Logistics is the only company that offers long and short term leases for offices, open yard space, and warehousing for customers to have personal access. This increases it services and puts in a better competing ground than the other companies (Changsen, Z., 2005). Store it all has a competitive advantage over the other companies since it provides reports to its customers. The customers are able to know the real time stock levels, day by day, every month, every year sales reports, and order and dispatch reports. In considering the markets, Store It All specializes in handling these major product groups: Ambient temperature storage of food stuffs, finished goods for consumer product companies, packaging of all types, engineering and electronic components, mechanical and machinery components. Products are held for as long as it is required. RGF’s market includes Automotives, retails, rolling stock, airfreight, packaging, white goods, fast moving consumer goods, building products and manufacturing and engineering goods. Amethyst deals with automotive and machinery, consumer durables, clothing and fashion sectors. It meets the needs of manufactures, retailers, wholesalers, and e-traders. In the market analysis, it shows that RGF Logistics has a variety of goods that it deals with. This is a competitive advantage over the others. By dealing with a wide variety of goods, the company is able to have many customers. Amethyst has the least number of goods this limits it to the range of customers that it can deal with and, therefore, reducing its market. This could be an advantage to it, as dealing with few goods will enable it to perfect its services in those goods, and, therefore, attract more customers. The customers get the best quality services. Investigating the pick and pack services offered by these companies, RGF Logistics is one of the providers of this service. It does break down and repackaging, case picking individual items for reshipment, stock and inventory management, building new palletized cartons for customer order satisfaction, redistribution throughout Europe and in UK, liveried vehicles for distribution. RCS Logistics also provides client specific, cost effective pick and pack services. The company uses technology and expertise to deliver services that allow customers to look on their core business. It provides pick and park services that include: retail, home delivery service, e-commerce and B2B and B2C. Store It All runs a pick and pack services. The stocks are rearranged for: small consignments, single orders, bulk shipment. The companies pick and pack processes are run by the quality control system ‘Delta WMS’. These control system is for ensuring precise picking and packing and audit trails that are full. Amethyst does not have such a service. This is a disadvantage as it may inconvenience the customer. Incase the customer would like to break the consignment into a small one or to ship it in bulk, he has to incur other expenses to have it be done by somebody else. The customer would prefer a company that will do the picking and packing for him. A client company may need his goods in the warehouse to be taken picked and parked as orders and re- packaged and distributed to the customers (Gwynne, 2011). The three companies, therefore, have a competitive advantage over the Amethyst. RCS in its pick and pack services offers the home delivery serves. This serves the customer better as it saves him time for making a trip to the company to collect a consignment. It, therefore, gives the RCS Logistics a competitive advantage over the other four companies. Pick and pack processes of Store It All and RCS are run by a control system to ensure that they are precise and that the audit trails are full. This has an advantage as the customers will be provided with quality services and the company will reduce its losses that are incurred due to errors that occur in the process of pick and pack. RCS Logistics provides reworking services when consignments suffer a difficult journey or are incorrectly loaded. These reworking services are clearing broken glass, clearing up spoilt goods, labeling, relabeling, realigning pallets for automated systems, removing contamination from the goods, and reworking pallets. This is a service that is not offered by the other three companies. It has a competitive advantage to the company since it can attract more clients when they are assured that the goods will get to their destination in the right state irrespective of what will happen on the way. This service relieves the clients stress and saves them time. RCS also provides another service not offered by the other three companies. Customs bonded warehousing service is where goods are stored in a warehouse and payment of import duty, and VAT is deferred until the goods are issued from the stock. When the customer informs the company that there imports on the way to the UK, RCS then takes care of all related paper work and customs procedures. This procedure includes, liaising with the shipping agent, planning the entry from the port direct to the company’s ware house. When a client wishes to export goods from bond, the company makes arrangements with HMRC on behalf of the client, including planning onward delivery to a specific destination and payment of VAT and duty. Customs bonded warehousing is vital in helping importers increase their cash flow position notably. This is authorized and fully accepted by the HM Revenue and Customs. For importers to increase their cash flow, they can take all their dry bonded goods to RCS Logistics Company. They may also consider this as all their stocks will be consolidated in one provider, this will save them cuts costs, time, and will simplify procedures and systems. Customers having this advantage will make them choose RCS as the company where they can obtain warehouse services. RCS, therefore, has a competitive advantage over the other firms. Amethyst offers a service called logistic outsourcing out sourcing. This is more than signing a contract and shifting the management of a company’s operations. It is about familiarizing with the business’s strengths and weaknesses. It is also about the experiences and the expectations that one has. Amethyst achieves this by working close with its clients to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the client company’s logistics operation, and noticing where improvement is needed and delivering the solution. This helps customers especially the new companies that have no experience. Comparing the prices, Store It All has no hidden charges. Its contracts are priced individually and normally the store charges are based on the number of pallets, and handling charges on the movement required and the other services that will be provided. This is an advantage to the client as he or she can calculate and plan in advance what they need pay. Clients like to go such companies. This gives the company a competitive advantage. Some companies have hidden charges that customers realize of later. In the case of study provided, there three companies that provide the public with what has been happening in the company. In some companies, it is called blog, or media, and others press. These are RGF Logistics, RCS Logistics, and Store It All Logistics companies. This helps customers to be updated on the current affairs of the company, the services that are coming up, and it also helps to fore tell the future of the company. This could also help the investors to know what to expect of the companies. The company has an advantage since the customers will be attracted to its activities and performers. REFERENCES Changsen, Z. 2005, Third Party Logistics Management. Berlin: Logos Verlag. Gwynne, R. 2011, Warehouse Management: A complete Guide to Improving Efficiency and Minimizing Costs in the Modern Warehouse.London: Kogan page. Hugos, M. 2011, Essentials of Supply Management. NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Napalitano. M. 2003, The Time Space & Cost Guide to Better Warehouse Design. NY: Distribution group. Rushton. A. Croucher. P and Baker P. 2010, The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management. London: Kogan Page. Read More