System

“Wealth does not exist, only money management”

“Freedom does not exist, only time management”

In our current economy, an efficient method of distribution is required to stay afloat. Gas and oil prices are increasing. Maximizing efficiency, not profit, should be pursued as the highest priority. Long-term profitability will come as a result.

All corporations should compile a list of shipping locations, supplier locations, retail stores, warehouses, and office spaces. Integration should be done horizontally (owning a larger market share of retail stores, for example) and vertically (managing the flow of products from factory down to retail store).

Once a list has been completed, route planning or mapping should be done through GPS units, Google Maps, or other enterprise software. The shortest route distance between A to B should be mapped out. Alternate routes must be considered. Factors such as traffic, the weather, and shipment weight must be calculated. Since the weather is becoming increasingly erratic, hot weather or unusually rainy weather can be extremely harmful to business. Executives must now plan new hours of operation as well as other times for delivery, such as during the night, in order to balance work load.

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and cell phones will be the medium of communication used to update other members of the team one’s physical location as well as update route information. If there are any business calls during the day, a new route can be calculated in order to maximize convenience. UPS and FedEx already have an efficient method of route planning; businessmen need to do something like that as well.

The efficient use of transportation, not necessarily efficient transportation, is also crucial towards success. Hybrid vehicles should be used for the mainstream means of transportation of the company. Chief executives should drive luxury sedans instead of sport utility vehicles. Delivery will still be done by large trucks, but whenever possible, small loads can be done on compact sport wagons such as the Toyota Matrix, or sport utility vehicles.

The same applies for corporate technology. Companies should opt for energy efficient computers as well as smart, user-independent technology. Currently, the collaboration between Intel and Windows Vista has produced computers that can sense how much power is needed, and automatically reduces energy consumption when performing basic tasks, or shuts off when the user is not present.

The combination of all these techniques will lead to long term profitability as well as longer equipment lifespan, shorter hours of work, and better adaptability towards market conditions.

This entry was posted on 27. April 2008 at 13:56 and is filed under Exchange. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.