Professional Documents
Culture Documents
a) Strategic decisions: This are the decisions that are concerned with whole
environment in which the firm operates, Strategic decisions are decisions about
an organization’s strategy. The objective of any strategy decision is to bring about
beneficial conditions within which action will occur. This are strategic decisions
that are set for the entire organization. They have long lasting effect throughout
the organization and involve many resources and is usually carried out by the
owner or board of directors. They can be risky in nature. E.g. Amazon making a
strategic decision to focus on electronic delivery of books through the Kindle
Reader and the Kindle Read App, which made them gained an unstoppable
competitive edge over Borders that was forced to close stores due to declining
traffic.
b) Tactical decisions: This are medium term decisions, Tactics decisions are
usually changeable. Tactical decisions relate to the implementation of strategic
decisions. These decisions are directed towards developing divisional plans,
structuring workflows, establishing distribution channels, acquisition of resources
such as men, materials and money. They are taken at the middle level of
management. Tactical decisions are used to implement the strategies within an
organization over medium term. They are risky but less then strategic goals.
Tactical decisions: This are medium-term decisions usually spanning between six
months and one year. Managers use tactical decisions to outline what the
various parts of the organization must do for the organization to be successful at
various time of the one year. They are aimed at creating medium-term
schedules, and plans which is aimed at better utilizing the conformation
established in the strategic level decision-making, which also identifies medium-
term policies linked to production, material planning, distribution and storage.
Tactical decisions help in ensuring efficiency in production, distribution, and other
operations that add value to the product and to maintain a specified level of
service and product quality in a cost-effective way. It is usually used in the areas
of production, marketing, personnel, finance and plant facilities.
b). The business environment: This involves all those factors that affect logistics,
and they usually non controllable.
These include:
This unique competence arises from the assets of organizations, which include:
In a nutshell, the unique competence of any business, shows a vivid picture of where
the business is now, the higher strategies show its aims for future while logistics
policy shows how to move from one place to the other.
vi) How do logistics play a strategic role in organizations?
The main of logistics audit is like that of a SWOT analysis, which identifies an
organization’s, performance both internally and externally.
The strengths and weaknesses actually identify the internal functions of the
organization, this show its competence and weakness of the organization, while the
opportunities and threats show the external features, faced by the business
environment.
2)
How does Charlotte currently organize her logistics? What do you think are her
aims and priorities? Charlotte logistics is currently organized by the use of a
website, where orders are collected and delivery is done through the use of a
postal services. Her aims and priorities is to increase sales times more than the
current one by introduce a mail order catalogue and increasing use of the
website.
What would be the effect of the expansion on logistics? What problems would
Charlotte face and what options does she have to overcome them?
The effect of the expansion is that her sales would increase sales times more
than the current sales, the problems she would face might be that the new
expansion might not increase sales around ten times the current postal sales,
moving all the processing to an industrial estate 15 km away might come at a
higher cost, which can eat into the profit. To overcome this, a logistics audit
needs to be carried out on the company, a SWOT analysis of her business which
will give a detailed information of the company’s strength, weakness,
opportunities and threat. These will enable her to know if the expansion is a
viable one or not.
REFERENCE
C. Donald J. Waters, (2003), Global Logistics and Distribution Planning: Strategies for
Management.
Reza Zanjirani Farahani, Shabnam Rezapour, LalehKardar, (2011), Logistics Operations and
Management: Concepts and Models
Yuen Ha (Venus) Lun, Kee Hung Lai, Tai Chiu Edwin Cheng, (2010), Shipping and Logistics
Management
https://www.eddielogic.com/2015/03/28/nature-and-characteristics-of-strategic-decisions/
(Accessed: 3 July 2018)
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-examples-of-strategic-decision-making (Accessed: 3
July 2018)
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/information-technology/decisions-making-strategic-tactical-
and-operational-decisions-business-management/10271 (Accessed: 3 July 2018)
https://www.apsfulfillment.com/logistics-management/10-quick-tips-on-logistics-strategies/
(Accessed: 3 July 2018)
https://www.velaction.com/velaction-continuous-improvement/lean-solutions/lean-strategy/
(Accessed: 3 July 2018)