Logistics innovation is the trend of steel companies

With the rapid development of economy, logistics costs account for a larger proportion of a country's GDP and the total sales of enterprises. This has led more and more companies to focus their competition on compressing logistics costs and excavating profits. In the post-International Financial Crisis era, traditional high-input, high-consumption, high-pollution, and low-efficiency economic growth models have been difficult to sustain, and regional competition has become fiercer. When the cost of production factors such as land and labor gradually converge, whether it can achieve intensive production, reduce the cost of other production processes, and increase the supply efficiency of the supply chain are crucial. The famous American supply chain management expert Christopher thinks that the competition in the 21st century is not the competition between the enterprise and the enterprise, but the competition between the supply chain and the supply chain.

It is based on this understanding that the state's "Eleventh Five-Year Plan on National Economic and Social Development" proposes to "strengthen the development of a modern logistics industry" in a national will. The National Steel "12th Five-Year Plan" promulgated in November 2011 pointed out that in recent years, with the continuous expansion of China's steel production capacity, the contradiction between oversupply in the steel market has become increasingly prominent, the price of raw materials continues to rise, and the cost of logistics has increased. The cost of steel mills and steel traders continues to rise, and the profitability space is getting smaller and smaller. How to reduce costs and increase efficiency, especially to reduce logistics costs, has become a major issue for current manufacturers.

The development of logistics is strong, but it also exposed some obvious problems.

(a) Ideas and concepts. The concept of heavy steel production, heavy market, and light logistics in China's steel industry is still relatively common, and the logistics model is at the primary level. Within the company, each department emphasizes the interests of the department and does not have an overall concept. At the level of the logistics industry, it is impregnable, but only sticks to its own territory. According to statistics, the liquidity of the nation's steel companies can only be turned around 2.28 times a year. The liquidity of metal products and metal ore wholesale companies can only be turned 2.59 times a year. From this point, China's steel logistics and developed countries still have A big gap.

(b) Logistics infrastructure and technical equipment. The infrastructure is backward and it is not complete. The technical equipment is backward and the investment is low. The original layout of the company does not plan and design the logistics. The existing overall logistics structure of the company is not clear and the material flow is confusing. It is often stagnant, crossover, circuitous, backward, skipping and congested; the production process is irrational and the material flow path is long. Repeatedly transport more.

(c) Logistics organization structure. Institutional mechanisms are not adapted to the needs of production or market changes, internal coordination is weak, decision-making, management, and operations are disconnected vertically; external response capacity is not strong; and there is no effective horizontal and vertical supervision mechanism.

(D) logistics costs. The logistics system generally does not adopt the total cost control, the logistics cost is ambiguous, and the total cost is not clear when the sub-sector accounts. Prof. Zeizawa, Waseda University, Japan, believes: “Because logistics costs are mostly mixed into other costs, the amount of freight and storage fees paid during the logistics process, it is difficult to see the full picture of the cost level, just like the tip of the iceberg.” The world’s current financial accounting system and accounting system cannot master the actual cost of logistics. Therefore, people’s understanding of logistics costs is like seeing only “the tip of the iceberg”, which is a certain degree of falsity. This is "Logistic Iceberg".

Since Laiwu Steel's logistics management has been adjusted and put into operation, it has achieved remarkable results. In 2008, Laiwu Steel, which was incorporated into Shansteel Group, was once one of the top ten steel companies in the country. Now, the main steel industry has already had a capacity of 12 million tons of steel. According to the preliminary statistics for the whole year of 2011, the import and export volume of various raw materials such as fuel, auxiliary materials, finished steel products and solid waste amounted to 53.88 million tons, and the logistics cost was 3.99 billion yuan. The managers of Laiwu Steel are aware of the importance of logistics, and will strengthen supply chain management as an important strategic measure for cost improvement. In terms of logistics, they have defined “concentrated functions, strengthened unified management, and reduced overall quality in more refined management and control. The concept of logistics costs. At the end of 2011, the logistics system was integrated and a logistics center was established to centralize and control some of the logistics resources. In the past year, remarkable results have been achieved.

It mainly establishes the principle of “all-round logistics, whole process management and control, and cost reduction in the entire process” and the “four guarantees concept” of “preserving production along lines, ensuring smooth sales, ensuring customer satisfaction, and reducing costs and increasing efficiency”. Balanced, logistics costs are greatly saved, and service quality is significantly improved. To implement full-process system control over imported mines, and to strengthen the comparison, analysis, and correction of data on the loading of pounds and pounds in the imported mine ports. The comprehensive loss dropped to 0.74%, which was significantly lower than the planned loss of 1%. Two-way loading mode was adopted in the export of steel export and export cargo, and the price of automobile transportation was reduced by an average of 5 to 6 yuan per ton; the allocation of ports and transportation resources was optimized, and the arrangements for the vessel’s port dependability, demurrage fees, and ports were properly arranged. Management fees are effectively reduced. Establish a coordination mechanism for billing and vehicle stowage, actively study the steel loading and reinforcement scheme, and establish a market-based autokinetic pricing mechanism. The average freight rate has fluctuate by more than 15%, reducing customer transportation costs and promoting steel sales.

However, because of the short time, Laiwu Steel's logistics also has a financial accounting system and evaluation and evaluation system lags behind, the awareness of logistics services is not enough, the concept of changing from manufacturers to service providers has not yet been established, the level of logistics information is low, the pattern of large logistics Has not yet formed a number of issues.

Several important issues that need to be resolved to further promote the logistics reform of steel enterprises should be a consensus, but all future development paths are still being explored. Some theoretical issues that restrict logistics development need to be clarified. (a) Direction and positioning issues. Now everyone's thinking is focused on whether the iron and steel companies want to carry out logistics that is controlled or operational, whether it is corporate logistics or logistics, integrated logistics, or small logistics where some functions are simply integrated, and whether it is independent logistics or development. Tripartite logistics is also a combination of the above.

The integrated management of logistics is a modern logistics management model that reduces the total cost of production, increases the added value of products, strengthens the company's core capabilities and market competitiveness, and obtains new sources of profits. The “12th Five-Year Plan” of modern logistics industry in Shandong Province put forward the idea of ​​promoting the development of manufacturing logistics, and proposed that manufacturing enterprises should make full use of existing logistics resources, and carry out effective integration and optimization of logistics systems according to modern logistics management methods. , to achieve the internal logistics integration. Under the guidance of the idea of ​​"integration," the logistics of iron and steel enterprises should be based on better improvement of production and marketing assurance capabilities and service levels, in order to reduce logistics costs, improve overall efficiency as the end result, and all internal logistics resources. Intensive integration, implementation of integrated and professional management, and at the same time actively develop and use third-party logistics, and steadily promote logistics to achieve rationalization and effectiveness. In other words, the logistics that we are going to build cannot exceed the stage of economic development and the actual situation of the enterprise itself. We should rely on existing resources and actively develop and use third-party logistics, and proceed step by step. (b) The important principles that need to be grasped. The general principle of logistics management is logistics rationalization. Some experts said that there is no fixed model for the logistics of production enterprises. There is only a trend, which is the rationalization and effectiveness of logistics. The rationalization of logistics refers to the process of adjusting and improving the equipment configuration and activity organization of logistics and achieving the overall optimization of the logistics system. Through logistics rationalization, the decentralized physical links and resources are integrated, and a dedicated logistics management department stands at the height of the company's overall business objectives. It plans, implements, and monitors corporate logistics in a unified manner, effectively reducing logistics costs and improving the competitiveness of enterprises.

The most important sign of logistics rationalization is to take into account the cost and service balance, and the overall system cost is optimal. First, logistics costs should be reduced. Second, logistics service levels should be improved. This is also the goal of logistics management. The fundamental purpose of developing modern logistics lies in reducing and optimizing the total cost of the system.

Logistics is positioned as an ability within the company. Its contribution is to create user or service value. To measure whether the enterprise logistics can produce benefits and how much benefit, we must focus on the total cost of the system. Therefore, in the process of enterprise supply chain logistics planning, we should pursue the optimization of the total system cost, not just the single cost optimization; can not only consider the benefits of a certain department, a certain logistics activity, but should pursue the total supply chain system as a whole benefit. (3) Information construction and investment issues. The investment in the development of logistics construction is mainly in the aspects of logistics informatization, construction of logistics equipment facilities, and personnel training.

Logistics informatization is an important support for the modern logistics industry, and large investments should be made. Some experts pointed out that informationization is the soul of logistics. Without the informationization of logistics, there can be no modernization of logistics. Logistics informatization is not a purely technical issue, but also a problem of management concepts and management methods.

In addition, transportation equipment, storage facilities and processing and distribution equipment need to be fundamentally invested and continuously upgraded. The education of talent needs continuous investment. The senior management personnel in modern manufacturing industry must not only be familiar with the production process, but also have the knowledge and information of production process equipment and demand, and must be proficient in logistics management techniques to master the supply chain processes within the company. Logistics managers of modern enterprises are not only transport and warehousing experts, but also must be familiar with software programs and information technology systems, especially when implementing online transactions, they should also master e-commerce technologies. Therefore, while absorbing the imported talents, the company must adopt various methods to provide various levels of training for the logistics personnel within the company to meet the needs of modern logistics. (d) institutional models and institutional mechanisms. The establishment of a logistics model is a process of reengineering and reconstructing an enterprise logistics management organization system. The reconstruction of the enterprise logistics management system (BR) includes conceptual reconstruction (BIR), organizational reconstruction (BOR), and process reconstruction (BPR). The premise is reconstruction of ideas, and the core is organization reconstruction. The key is process reconstruction. According to the company's specific situation, through the use of MRP, MRPII or ERP and other advanced management models to enhance the company's logistics capabilities and improve the company's management level, so that the internal logistics and production process chain closely integrated, and then form a complete supply chain within the enterprise, And has a good interface with the company's outward supply chain.

The iron and steel companies such as Handan Iron and Steel, Tangshan Iron and Steel, Taigang, Baosteel, Kunming Iron and Steel and Wuhan Iron & Steel have taken the lead in logistics reform. According to the inspection of these companies, the models are not the same, and some are “rail transport + raw fuel storage + finished products. Warehousing type, some are "original fuel storage + finished product warehousing" type, and others are "rail transport + automobile transportation + original fuel storage + finished product warehousing" type, each has its own characteristics, but the common point is that it has implemented centralized logistics resources. Integrated control.

Modern logistics believes that logistics activities are not a matter of individual production and sales departments or companies. The management of logistics activities should go beyond departmental and local levels and achieve a high degree of unified management. With the development of market economy, professional division of labor is becoming more and more detailed, and traditional logistics is gradually changing to modern logistics. However, it is not a unified model. Different logistics must be adopted for different production modes or business goals according to specific enterprises and industry characteristics. Strategy, come up with tailored logistics solutions.