论供应链上的运输战略（ＴＲＡＮＳＰＯＲＴ ＳＴＲＡＴＥＧＩＥＳ ＳＵＰＰＬＹ ＣＨＡＩＮ）

洪　菲

摘 要：Transportation is the important part of the supply chain. In order to make transportation works well in the supply chain，some strategies should be implemented to direct the operation of transportation. They are time-based strategy，security strategy，profit-driven strategy，risk-prevention strategy，IT strategy，competitive advantage strategy and customer response strategy. Each of those strategies and its purpose is explained in details. All of these strategies are working together can cannot be implemented without considering others. In one work，the successful implementation of these transport strategies can help to achieve the efficient supply chain.

关键词：Supply chain management；Strategy；Transportation；Customer response

1 INTRODUCTION

Transportation as one of the supply chain has a large impact on the performance of every supply chain. Any supply chain's success is closely linked to the appropriate use of transportation. In order to make transportation work efficiently，some strategies should be implemented. The article discusses these strategies based on strategic theory and supply chain management theoretical concepts，and associates these strategies with transportation specifically.

2 STRATEGY AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

2.1 Strategy

Strategy is the direction the organisation should follow over the long period of time rather than short term and it coordinates all processes of the organisational operation. It gives significant impact on the organisation. The implementation of appropriate strategy achieves the best utilization of organisation's operational capability and internal resources. From the view of supply chain，the strategy guides each functional area in the supply chain to do particularly well and helps all the sages in the supply chain cooperate well under the direction of common goal. A supply chain strategy determines the nature of procurement of raw materials，transportation of materials to and from the company，manufacture of the product or operation to provide the service，and distribution of the product to the customer，along with any follow-up service. From a transportation perspective，transport strategy in supply chain specifies what direction and operations transport to do well.

2.2 Supply Chain Management

“Supply chain management is concerned with managing the entire process of raw material supply，manufacture，packaging and distribution to the end customer.” (Alan Harrison and Remko Van Hoek，2002) A typical supply chain may involve a variety of stages. These stages include：customers，retailers，wholesalers/distributors，manufactures，and component/raw material suppliers. All of these stages are related closely and work cooperatively. The inefficient operation and cooperation of any stage will become the bottleneck of the whole supply chain.

In order to better implement supply chain management and evaluate operational performance of the supply chain，a supply chain can be viewed as composed of different cycles. They are listed as following：

● Customer order cycle

● Replenishment cycle

● Manufacturing cycle

● procurement cycle

3 TRANSPORTATION STRATEGIES

Transportation is the movement of goods and people between two points. From logistics perspective，transportation refers to the “movement of product from one location to another as it makes its way from the beginning of a supply chain to the customer's hands”. (Chopra，S. and Meindl，P.，2002) In the supply chain，Transport works through the whole process in the supply chain starting from acquisition of raw materials to delivery of products to end users.

Since the objective of every supply chain is to maximize the overall value generated (Chopra，S. and Meindl，P.，2002) and transportation represents a major expense item，transportation is gaining more and more concern nowadays more than ever before. Supply chain managers are trying to reduce transportation cost to the smallest extent to gain supply chain profitability and supply chain responsiveness. The qualified and fast transportation decreases the total inventory level in the supply chain which cuts significant component of cost supply chain incurs，and increases customer satisfaction which is vital to the existence of every supply chain.

In the following，several transport strategies will be described and the purpose of each strategy will be explained separately. Since the supply chain is divided into four cycles，here only the customer order cycle is focused as the area of transport strategy implementation.

3.1 Time-based Strategy

Time-based strategy of transportation is defined as activities to reduce customer order cycle time and improve final product flowing through the retailer to its end customers. Cycle time reduction is one of the principal strategic capabilities of logistics，and is a key dimension of logistics strategy (McGinnis and Kohn，1990；Morash et al.，1996). The key point of the strategy is time. The purpose is to reduce customer order cycle time，gain competitive advantage，and reduce supply chain costs.

For today′s supply chain management，time is the most important issue which is needed to be addressed. As one executive put it：“Time is the critical differentiator in the 1990s ... quality is a given，cost is a given ... now it's how fast you can respond to the market.” Under the increased competition which is resulted from five forces according to Porter theory，each part of the supply chain wants to perform well to sustain competitive advantage. While，with the quick development of technology，it is hard for customers to differentiate various products in the market. The key to gain competitive advantage today lies in the effective management of time. Time，used as the strategy，can annihilate the competition. The shorter the customer order cycle is，the higher competitive advantage and customer satisfaction can be gained. At the same time，inventory level of the supply chain and other logistics costs can be decreased accordingly.

The implementation of the strategy requires efficient transportation modes choice and well-designed transport network. The trade-off between transportation cost and customer satisfaction should be considered as well.

3.2 Customer Response Strategy

The fast-changing nature of the market dictates the importance of the need for maintaining responsive operations. (Anderson，Dave and Dhillon，Yamnini and Remnant，Julian，1998) “Supply chain responsiveness includes a supply chain's ability to do the following：respond to wide ranges of quantities demanded，meet short lead times，handle a large variety of products，build highly innovative products，meet a very high service level，and handle supply uncertainty.” (Chopra，S. and Meindl，P.，2002) As for transportation，customer response strategy is described as activities to gain customer responses and meet customer needs from retailers. The purpose of the strategy is lower the overall supply chain costs and achieve a high level of product availability. It let the transportation capable of work responsively to the changing customer needs and market. The successful implementation of the strategy requires flexible and efficient transportation to deliver the right products to the right customer at the right，in the right place. It also requires the cooperation between other stages in the supply chain like inventory management，manufacturing，distribution as well.

The customer response strategy focus on the information flow in the supply chain，that is to gain the customer response from retailers and then transform it to the whole supply chain as the indication of future direction. Transportation as the important part of the supply chain should choose appropriate transport modes and routes which suit to current and emerging customer needs. It also need transportation efficiency and load consolidation. As customer needs change，transportation operations must also change to retain customers and ensure continued customer satisfaction.

3.3 Security Strategy

Since the increased world terrorism，security issue is gaining increased concern ever than before. Security strategies are implemented through the whole supply chain from protection of sufficient supply of raw mater to transportation security. In fact，transportation system itself is always be used as a weapon of destruction. Thus，it needs more attention and protection.

According to the security definition by William G，“transport security strategy is the discipline of contingency planning for any unauthorized delay，diversion，compromise or other related incident that could create a negative disruption or cost to the final delivery to customers.” (William G “JERRY” PECK，2003) The purpose of the strategy is to provide safe transportation process to successfully fulfill customer order and final delivery to customers. The key words are contingent planning which means utilizing any useful IT tools，transportation modes and routes and transportation network to counter any negative disruption or cost during the final delivery stage. An integrated hardware/software system for tracking cargo moving by truck trailers，intermodal containers，rail cars and other transportation modes will be jointly developed.

Actually，transport security is also part and parcel of supply chain's comprehensive risk-management program. It aims to identify all plausible disruptions to the final customer delivery and develop appropriate countermeasures and contingency plans. So the combination of these two strategies is necessary. Furthermore，increased security also means increased cost. Thus，the trade-off between the transport security and cost management is also should be considered.

3.4 Risk Prevention Strategy

Recent testimony defines risk management as “a systematic and analytical process to consider the likelihood that a threat will endanger an asset，individual or function and to identify actions to reduce that risk and mitigate the consequences...” (GAO-02150T dated 12 October 2001)While，when refers to transportation risk prevention strategy in supply chain，it means the systematic process to consider and prevent the potential risk of final customer delivery. It relates closely to security strategy. The purpose of the strategy is to discover and prevent any possible risk which will endanger customer order cycle.

The definition of risk is broader than security. Apart from security risk of transportation，it includes the risk of transportation modes，routes and schedule choice，transportation rates choice risk，transportation network risk，carrier selection risk. The risk from customer side is also should be taken into account. Cost-saving strategies also can give additional risks and potential risks. All in all，with the development of extended supply chain，more risks will appear and new risks will come.

3.5 Information Technology Strategy

Technological breakthroughs in modern society have brought dramatic evolution to all areas in the world，especially to the supply chain management. The usage of information technology accelerates the speed of transportation and improves the transportation quality. The information technology strategy can be defined as utilizing advanced information technology and networking system to facilitate transportation from retailers to customers. Its purpose is to use modern technology to improve transportation performance. Customer satisfaction as the result of better forecasting the changing market environment and customer needs can also be achieved. Moreover，it aims to decrease overall supply chain costs and make transportation more responsive to customers. The security issue of transportation also need the help of information technology.

A lot of technologies can be used to in transportation. Software can be used to draw transportation planning and build delivery routes and schedule. It can use related technology to identify the location of vehicle and the shipments the vehicle carries. Satellite-based communication systems allow the communication with vehicles in their fleet.

3.6 Competitive Advantage Strategy

Transportation factor has become more and more important in the strategic decision making of today's supply chain management. The key to creating long term value is creating a sustainable competitive advantage. Consequently，the competitive advantage strategy of transportation is formed. The competitive advantage strategy is defined as seeking competitive advantage through transportation part in the supply chain that means transportation is regarded as the competitive advantage of the supply chain. It requires all the factors of the supply chain work closely and coordinately to achieve the competitive advantage as the common goal.

The purpose of the strategy is to gain competitive advantage to the supply chain. For the reason that transportation carries the goods move along the whole supply chain，its working efficiency is pivotal to the successful operation of the chain. In fact，the transportation cost usually represents the most important single elements in supply chain cost. Moreover，the performance of transportation gives important effect on the whole chain. Inefficient transportation will lead to late delivery，high logistics cost and unsatisfied customers which result in low competitive capability. In contrast，inexpensive，high-quality transportation can encourage an indirect form of competition by making goods available to a market that normally could not withstand the cost of transportation.

4 CONCLUSION

Each strategy is vital to the good performance of transportation in the supply chain and gives different values to the supply chain. Every strategy has different characteristics and focus. While，all the strategies are working closely and cannot be evaluated without consideration of others. It is impossible to use one strategy alone to achieve high performance which can only be achieved by cooperation of all strategies. All the strategies are working together to achieve competitive advantage as the common goal. Sometimes，trade-off should be taken according to different customer requirements，product characteristics and external environment.

参考文献

[1] Alan Harrison and Remko Van Hoek，2002，Logistics Management and Strategy，pp6，Prentice Hall.

[2] Anderson，Dave and Dhillon，Yamnini and Remnant，Julian，1998，“Satisfying the global customer”，Canadian Transportation Logistics，Vol.101，Iss 8，pp.26.

[3] Chopra，S. and Meindl，P.，2002，Supply Chain Management，Strategy，Planning and Operation，2nd Ed.，Prentice Hall.

[4] McGinnis，M.A. and Kohn，J.W. (1990)，“A factor analytic study of logistics strategy”，Journal of Business Logistics，Vol. 11 No. 2，pp. 41-63.

[5] Morash，E.A.，Droge，C.L.M. and Vickery，S.K. (1996)，“Strategic logistics capabilities for competitive advantage and firm success”，Journal of Business Logistics，Vol. 17 No. 1，pp. 1-22.

[6] U.S. Congress from the Defense Capability and Management director of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO-02150T dated 12 October 2001).

[7] William G “JERRY” PECK，2003，“The real definition of supply-chian security”，Journal of Commerce，Nov，pp1.