Comparison of Asian and European logistics systems

1、01.12.2009 article analysis and language work1. which parts does the following article consist of? does it follow the structure we discussed?comparison of asian and european logistics systems2. have a look at the title? can you predict what the text will be about? which elements of the logistics sys

2、tems might be compared?james h. bookbinder, department of management sciences, university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada chris s. tan, department of management sciences, university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada abstract 3. read the abstract and fill in the gaps using one of these su

3、ggested verb forms:is suggested, are studied, are conducted, categorises, compares, is summarized, is classified4. then, based on the information in the abstract, write down one question that you would like this text to provide and answer to. this research . the logistics systems of asia and europe

4、and . them into distinct levels of logistics excellence. first, the context in asia and in europe . then, attributes of a world-class logistics system are proposed. by applying cluster analysis to data from authoritative sources, we objectively segregate european and asian logistics systems into thr

5、ee logistics tiers. there are several surprises, the main one being that the uk . tier 2 (not as favourable as tier 1). a prioritized set of attributes that the uk could improve on to qualify for the tier 1 group . sensitivity analyses . to determine changes to the classifications. after finding tha

6、t the top-ranking logistics systems of europe and asia are from denmark and singapore, respectively, those two countries . in detail to draw logistics lessons applicable elsewhere.keyword(s): asia; europe; logistics; supply-chain management. 5. read the introduction and answer the following question

7、s:a. why was it necessary to include overviews of the political, economic aspects of asia and europe in the introduction?b. does the introduction clearly state the aims of the paper? what are they?c. does the introduction describe the structure of the paper? where?d. what is the purpose of the secti

8、on entitled “literature review”? e. in the section literature review, find one in-text citation:- at the end of a sentence/paragraph,- used in an introductory phrase,- referring to a source where the name of the author is unknown,- referring to a source written by more than two authors.introductiona

9、sia is quite diverse but can be divided along economic lines. there are first the industrialized economies of hong kong, south korea, singapore and taiwan1; five developing countries (china, indonesia, malaysia, the philippines, and thailand) as a second set; and a third division comprising about 35

10、 other nations. south korea was the industrialized economy most affected by the asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.within europe, on the other hand, the european union (eu) is a borderless, powerful economic community whose combined economies already exceed those of the countries in north amer

11、ican free trade agreement. european integration has created new opportunities and also new issues in supply chain management.in light of the above, the key aims of this research are threefold:1. (1) to compare the logistics systems of asia and europe and classify them into different logistics tiers,

12、 i.e. distinct levels of excellence.2. (2) to introduce a process that government policy makers can employ to improve their logistics systems.3. (3) to draw lessons from the top logistics systems of each region.our research will suggest some key factors that contribute to logistics excellence. we wi

13、ll also demonstrate, by sensitivity analysis, that attaining the top logistics tier is not insurmountable. but let us begin by summarizing the context in asia and in europe.social, economic and geographical overview of asia and europe the asian economic crisis, triggered when the thai currency, the

14、baht, was floated in july of 1997, produced a domino effect on the economies of south korea, indonesia, and malaysia. during the panic-pullout of funds by global investment managers, it became clear that most westerners viewed asia as a homogeneous bloc! economic fundamentals of singapore, hong kong

15、 and taiwan were basically sound, but funds were moved out of those countries2 as well.in reality, asia is a wide collection of almost 50 diverse countries; more than 25 languages and 700 dialects are spoken there. with china, india and indonesia, asia houses three of the worlds four most populous n

16、ations. asia consists of 24,000 separate land masses, spanning six time zones and occupying 45 million km2. the study of logistics, or any subject about asia, must recognize her heterogeneous nature.after the former soviet union broke up, europe became a continent of 42 nations, comprising the eu (1

17、5 countries)3, the commonwealth of independent states (the cis, 12) and eastern europe (15 countries). western europe4 is of course more affluent and economically developed than the eastern side. unlike north america, but like asia, europe is highly diverse in cultures and languages.literature revie

18、w research literature on international logistics has heavily emphasised the usa and japan (babbar and prasad, 1998). those countries were followed by the uk, australia and canada in the 141 research articles they screened. north america led in quantity, then europe, and finally the asia pacific, but

19、 logistics in the latter is usually discussed on a piecemeal basis.for example, mcmullans (1996) paper on asia pacific logistics dealt mostly with australia, while in pollitt (1998), china and japan were taken as representative of “far east” logistics. those two countries exhibit market and economic

20、 clout in asia, but one cannot ignore hong kong, taiwan, singapore and korea. hong kong and singapore intuitively possess logistics infrastructure and expertise matching north america and the advanced economies of europe. korea, despite its low ranking by the world competitiveness yearbook, is home

21、to pusan, the worlds 4th busiest port (freight & trading weekly, 1999).there is a more complete and extensive treatment of business logistics in europe as a bloc. stock and lambert (2001, ch. 14) outlined the impact of the eu and break-up of the soviet union on logistics practice across europe. a fe

22、w articles are case-studies of real companies, documenting the application of logistical techniques in europe: leeuw (1996) outlined a methodology to select control techniques in physical distribution; bagchi and virum (1998) analysed the effect of logistics alliances; and lumsden et al. (1999) exam

23、ined possible improvements to the hub-and-spoke distribution network of skf europe. laarhoven et al. (2000) conducted a survey of logistics outsourcing in sweden, the uk and elsewhere. but overall, no division of logistics into different tiers of professionalism is apparent.wright (1998) provided a

24、more rounded description of asian logistics. common misconceptions, the varying degrees of supply chain maturity, as well as logistics challenges are addressed. however, this brief article could not deal with regulatory requirements or the infrastructure for transportation, warehousing, communicatio

25、ns and information technology. chen (1999) and goh and ang (2000) filled in some details. the former paper concerns customs regulations in asean5; the latter examined logistics infrastructure in indochina.finally, almost no literature compares logistical networks and infrastructure in europe and asi

26、a. the closest, sohal et al. (1999), contrasted the adoption of quality management practices in the logistics function amongst australian, north american and european firms. further afield, ulengin et al. (2002) classified countries according to their overall macroeconomic competitiveness.organizati

27、on of this article 6. read this section and fill in the gaps using one of these suggested discourse markers:next, in the fourth section, these lead to, in the following sectionour paper attempts to fill the gaps identified in the review of existing literature. a summary of logistics in asia and euro

28、pe appears ., where we discuss the impact of economic, political and infrastructure issues on logistics. ., our third section concerns attributes of a world-class logistics system. we propose and apply a methodology (cluster analysis) to objectively classify 33 countries from asia and europe into th

29、ree logistics tiers. sensitivity analysis is employed to show how a country could improve its standing by focussing on logistical aspects in recommended order of priority. ., we compare the top logistics systems of europe and asia and attempt to draw lessons. ., our conclusions.overview of logistics

30、 in asia and europe7. which main section is the main body divided into?8. why have subsections been used?influence of economic and political issues on logistics 9. read the first section and answer the following question:a. which economical and political aspects are expected to have a positive impac

31、t on logistics systems?in january 2000, asias total gross domestic product (gdp) exceeded that of the usa by over us$900 billion. likewise, europes gdp surpassed that of the usa (by about $450 billion). european integration means that previous country-specific logistics strategies are no longer opti

32、mal, as predicted by olaughlin et al. (1993) just before the eu became a single market in january 1993. the eus implementation of a common currency (in january 2002), plus emerging markets in eastern europe and the cis, provide immense opportunities.the asian counterpart to the eu, the ten countries

33、 of asean5, together have a gdp of 20 percent more than the gdp of canada and mexico combined. attainment of free trade within the bloc will be tougher than in europe or north america. governments maintain protectionist measures because many nations in asean are still under-developed (e.g. cambodia,

34、 laos, myanmar, indonesia, vietnam).europes political climate allows standardised practices: imported goods, destined wherever in the eu, can be cleared at point of entry in any member state. however, the cis and eastern europe, from their soviet heritage, have some outdated procedures (augustyniak,

35、 1999).distribution network 10. read the second section and answer the following question:a. which improvements are necessary in transport infrastructure to enhance logistics systems efficiency?the channel tunnel (“chunnel”) opened in 1994, raising the profile of cross-channel movement of goods (bro

36、wne and allen, 1999). a plan to create a high-capacity infrastructure linking major european freight centres (economic research centre, 1996) could significantly impact the supply chain network of manufacturing firms. creation of borderless rail-freight in the eu may thus cause a modal shift from ro

37、ad transport for longer-distance distribution. however, diversion to rail will be limited by the height of european rail terminals, which do not accommodate double-stack containers. as well, technical compromises are difficult to achieve among the national rail systems of each country.there is an as

38、ean project to build an 8,000km rail line from singapore to southwestern china; malaysia and singapore have experimented with borderless entry of goods. both are precursors to a common border likened to that of the eu.an improved road network can yield service improvements. for example, compaq malay

39、sia previously relied on scheduled air-freight to send service-parts the 300km from singapore to kuala lumpur, malaysia. the new multi-lane highway enables a truck to be sent there daily from singapore. however, a poor distribution infrastructure may encourage companies to undertake logistics activi

40、ties not within their core competence. mcdonalds of china actually started its own trucking subsidiary in order to ensure reliable deliveries (gooley, 1998).logistics tiers 11. read the third section and answer the following question:a. which are the four key attributes of logistics excellence?to ma

41、ke detailed references to specific countries, we first summarize criteria important to logistics excellence.four key attributes of a “first world” logistics system are described by wood et al. (1995) (table i). their first world includes countries such as the usa, canada, japan, and the eu (12 natio

42、ns at that time). emerging nations are ones like thailand, taiwan, china, brazil and argentina, while sudan, afghanistan, haiti and others constitute the third world.table i.regional differences in logistic attributes we will see that this is similar to our tiered classification, but wood et al. are

43、 perhaps too general in their categories. ohmae (1985) discussed business linkages between a (first world) “triad of nations”: as above, major countries in north america, asia pacific, and europe. wood et al. (1995) utilised a similar economic interpretation of nations to categorise their logistics

44、systems. this is fine if strong correlation exists. the world competitiveness yearbook (garelli, 1999)6, however, shows that, along some dimensions, business leaders do not believe that spain, portugal, ireland, belgium, nor even the uk have a first world distribution system (garelli, 1999). our thi

45、rd section discusses this in detail.we also feel that “business value” should be added to each of wood et al.s (1995) attributes. infrastructure is described e.g. as including “state-of-the-art air-freight handling”, but a better measure would be material-handling throughput, since managers care mor

46、e about rapid flow of product than whether the system is state-of-the-art. we will address the preceding by objectively classifying logistics systems; expanding the attributes of a world-class system; and adding more business value to those attributes. our definitions of logistics tiers are in table

47、 ii.table ii.defining the logistics tiers impact of infrastructure issues on logistics 12. read the fourth section and answer the following question:a. what is the impact of infrastructure issues on logistics systems?let us now turn attention to the factors important in determination of logistics ti

48、ers. first, a strong relationship is expected between infrastructure maintenance/development and the ability to meet distribution requirements for goods and services: tier 1 logistics countries continually invest to stay ahead. this will impact future location decisions. for example, singapore (late

49、r shown to be tier 1) is the regional home to virtually every leading international logistics player.the second effect will be a “spillover” of logistics activities from tier 1 to tier 2 nations. this arises from two sources: 1. (1) healthy competition; and 2. (2) a constrained system. in the former

50、, neighbouring countries also seek benefits from business-friendly logistics infrastructure, so they build similar facilities. malaysia (found to be tier 2) opened its new, state-of-the-art international airport to match the cargo-handling productivity of singapores changi airport. malaysia and thai

51、land upgraded their ports in order to compete for business with the port of singapore. and concerning the effect of a constrained system, freight volume in hong kong has outstripped capacities at both its sea and airports, causing a shift of certain logistics activities to parts of south-east asia o

52、r mainland china (gooley, 1998).attributes of a world-class logistics systemwe now propose an objective method to categorise logistics systems. the four general attributes of wood et al. (1995), i.e. infrastructure, performance, information systems and human resources, have been retained, and two ot

53、hers (business and political environment) are added. specific characteristics are also redefined to make them more business-oriented and “tangible”.table v. logistics tiers and sums of standardized scores 13. in the main body tables have been used. in the text find references to tables. do they brie

54、fly describe them? how? why?14. as you can see from table 5, slovenia is ranked in tier 3. can you speculate about the reasons for this ranking (check again the criteria for logistics excellence in tables i and ii). conclusions15. read the conclusion and match each paragraph with one of the followin

55、g phrases that summarize their functions:a. limitations of the studyb. main fiundingsc. need for further researchd. open questione. summary of the articlewe have extensively examined the logistics systems of europe and asia, first by providing a social, political and geographical overview of these t

56、wo regions, then by addressing the strategic impact of various issues on each regions logistics. we proposed details new descriptions as far as we are aware of the attributes of a world-class logistics system. data were culled from independent sources (see tables iii and iv) to assign countries obje

57、ctively to logistics tiers, based on cluster analysis.our research suggested the main ingredients (“controllable” factors) in logistics excellence: deliberate investment in, and regular maintenance of, distribution infrastructure. employment of business-friendly processes. active promotion of harmonious relationships between unions and employers.we remark that the tier 1, 2, 3 designations are all relative; the very best logistics systems have stayed on top by continually improving. it remains to be seen