MGMT 6085 Inventory & Distribution: Study Of High-Service Sponge

For this assignment, please read the Case Study – The High Service Sponge, and answer, in detail, the three questions.

Opening Story: The High-Service Sponge

September 26 Diane Clair, director of logistics at Dynamic World Corp. (DWC), a leading consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, had been running nonstop all morning. Now, as she sat down to put the finishing touches on the logistics team's five-year technology plan, she was running behind. Tomorrow morning, she would be arguing for some big-dollar investments in new demand management planning systems. No sooner had she clicked open her PowerPoint, than she heard an agitated knock at her door. Doug Hassle, DWC's North America marketing VP, stood there—and he wasn't smiling: Diane responded, "Good morning, Doug. Come in and sit down." As Doug entered, he said, "Diane, the wheels just came off.„peb Gale, GMM over at Monster, Inc., just called. She was ticked. Your team missed a delivery window at their Denver cross-dock facility. Worse, this is twice in one week we have failed to deliver as promised. Monster is our largest, most demanding customer. Deb made sure I remembered that little detail. She didn't hesitate to share her feelings about our recent fulfillment failures." "Sounds like you've had a tough morning, Doug. Sorry about that brutal call. Let's find out what happened," Diane said as she picked up her phone. She dialed David England, a senior transportation manager, to find out what happened. David responded quickly, "The shipment left our Distribution Center on time. Our tracking system says the truck should arrive in about an hour. I'll make sure it does and shoot you a text when it is docked." David hesitated, and then expressed disbelief at Deb Gale's negative percep-tions of DWC's delivery record, noting, "I can't imagine why Deb Gale is so upset.

Consider as you read:

1, Why should logistics managers worry about customer service?

2. Keeping your answer from Question 1 in mind, what is the relationship between customer expectations, a firm's service capabilities, and ultimate satisfaction?

3, What questions would you include on a customer. satisfaction checklist to make sure you had a comprehensive, well-thought-out customer fulfillment strategy in place? 

Answers:

1.

As per the given case it is important for the logistics managers to know about the information on actual customers and how well the logistics manager is able to understand their needs. The logistics managers are able to serve a wide range of channels associated to diverse range of customers. Some of the main objectives of the logistics managers are identified as per each segment of the customer channel.

It is considered as the sole obligation of the logistics managers to focus on the organisation’s merchandise exchange as per the purpose of the inceptions ranging from the point of transit to destination in a cost-effective manner. Despite of this procedure followed by the logistics managers there is few stresses on the significance and necessities for the clients. It needs to be discerned that the business development aspect needs to be based on referrals from the clients and rehash orders. However, this fulfillment is inconceivable without receiving the items on time or in immaculate condition. This is seen as the man objective in terms of the worldwide logistics administration. This process of the conveyance management needs to be supported by the developmental concepts pertaining to the distribution centre associated to the clients, logistics directors which needs to be ensured before making delivery to the clients. However, this needs to be based on consistent and dreary requirements for observing the implications of transportation process pertaining to the check in procedure (Fernie & Sparks, 2014).

2.

It needs to be seen that the customer expectations are considered as a prerequisite for delivery of superior service and perceptions of the customers with the expectations which needs to be judged from a service offered by the firm. However, it is important to know the nature of the customer service which are related to ambiguous expectations. The consideration of various aspect of secondary literature has shown the customer service expectations indicate on the influencing perceptions on the service performance. The important form of the motivations plays significant role as per the expectation in terms of the service quality assessments which are seen to be limited by knowledge and their structure (Schönsleben, 2016).

The key findings from the recent research has shown the key relationship among the customer satisfaction is determined as per the service capability is identified as per conveyance management, incorporating developmental concepts and following the consistent and important requirements for observing the implications of transportation process pertaining to the check in procedure (Brekalo & Albers, 2016). The customers expect that they receive constant updates and other factors related to the traceability of the items which is needed to be transported. This is considered as one of the best factor for determining the satisfaction of the customers. The on-time delivery aspect is also considered as an important element of the customer expectation. Lastly, it needs to be also seen that the solving of the customer queries should be regarded as important aspect among the service capabilities and motivating factor for their satisfaction (Bing et al., 2016).

3.

The customer checklist should clearly segregate the nature of the service obtained by them. This may be ranging from the options such as customs clearance, transport, sea freight, air freight, road freight, warehouse and distribution. It needs to also include the differs other parameters in the check list such as compression of the present services with the other companies offering similar nature of the services. Some of the other questions should ensure that the logistics service delivered are done in a secure, safe and timely manner. The checklist should also ensure that the questions should include there is a good working relation established with the key cony contacts (Oliveira et al., 2015). In addition to this, the various types of other factors which should be included in the questionnaire should range from ensuring that the invoices prepared on a timely manner along with the support of the relevant documents. Some of the other elements of the questionnaire needs to know about the satisfaction level of the live update of the package to be delivered. Moreover, the questionnaire needs to also ensure that the customers are satisfied with the communication facilities. The questions need to know whether the company quickly acknowledges in case of error with any order.  Lastly, the questionnaire should consider overall impression with the service and also the areas of service which needs improvement. There needs to be a feedback space provided in the comments section (Christopher, 2016).

References

Bing, X., Bloemhof, J. M., Ramos, T. R. P., Barbosa-Povoa, A. P., Wong, C. Y., & van der Vorst, J. G. (2016). Research challenges in municipal solid waste logistics management. Waste management, 48, 584-592.

Brekalo, L., & Albers, S. (2016). Effective logistics alliance design and management. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 46(2), 212-240.

Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.

Fernie, J., & Sparks, L. (2014). Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.

Oliveira, R. R., Cardoso, I. M., Barbosa, J. L., da Costa, C. A., & Prado, M. P. (2015). An intelligent model for logistics management based on geofencing algorithms and RFID technology. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(15-16), 6082-6097.

Schönsleben, P. (2016). Integral logistics management: operations and supply chain management within and across companies. CRC Press.