The essential elements of logistics

Introduction:
The industry of hospitality has become very competitive over the past years.
The current pandemic has put a temporary stop over the continues growth of
tourism however most scholars agree that eventually the industry will see
similar growth (Gursoy, Dogan & Chi, Christina G, 2020) and (Sharma, G.D.,
Thomas, A. and Paul, J., 2021). One of the ways for hospitality establishments
to gain or to maintain a competitive advantage is by establishing a solid
logistics framework. In this increasingly antagonistic environment hospitality
companies have realized that a solid logistic strategy not only gives them that
desired competitive edge but also is cost effective, time efficient and overall
advantageous (Karia, N., 2018). This paper aims to analyse the benefits of
maintaining a solid logistics and supply chain management framework, while
also expanding on the foundational areas of those concepts and what is it that
those ideas mean in the first place. To do this, three different theoretical case
studies will be conducted so that all the elements and variances of the logistic
strategy can be explained. The first will be a seasonal boutique hotel in
Santorini, the second will be a city hotel in Athens and finally an international
sports event with a three-week duration at Thessaloniki during the month of
December.
Very good points made, well-supported but need to further elaborate.

Establishing the basics:

At the core of logistics, scholars often discuss the word “flow” flow of goods,
flow of service, flow of people and so on. This is done to demonstrate a single
principle; the word “flow” very elegantly embodies the concept of logistics
without going into detail while also giving inexperienced or uninitiated readers
the idea of logistics. Most commonly the flow of goods is discussed first as it is
easier to visualise. A company need to get a product from point A to point B,
while making sure all the necessary steps are taken, point A being the time
when the company receives the product and point B where the product is being
sold or utilised in the desired way. While analysing the research done by, G.,
Laporte, G. and Musmanno, R., 2013 and Harrison, Alan, Hoek, Remko Van
and Skipworth, Heather, 2014 the conclusion can be made that logistics can be
broken down into five main key elements “warehouse”, “packaging”,
“inventory control”, “transportation” and finally “information and control”.
The first element the “warehouse” refers to storing items. Why does a company
need to store items? Especially when for example referring to something that
would be better to be served as fresh as possible for example a fruit. There is
various factors to be accounted for here, most important is most often time. It
takes time to get the product from the producer to the buyer. It also takes time to
process that product make sure it’s the appropriate quality, quantity and more
time to process it and give it to the consumer. To save on a lot of that time
companies buy in larger quantities than what they actually need and store some
of the products purchased at their facilities. Obviously, it might be time
effective but it not quality effective or cost efficient to have a very large amount
of product in order to just save time. This is where another element comes in.
“Inventory control” refers to the process of managing the product while it is
stored. Making sure that nothing has spoiled, making sure that minimal product
is wasted, making sure that product that are no longer popular or the opposite
are accounted for and the all-around process of managing inventory and stocks.
“Packaging” and “transportation” are very closely related. They refer to how a
product is going to get from one place to the next both in a micro and macro
concept. “Packaging” is the micro approach how the product wont spoil moving
it from the storage unit to the main area of production, especially if those two
are far away, for example in different buildings. “Transportation” is the macro
approach, how is the product going to move form place to place. For example,
which route is the transportation vehicle going to take, or how many vehicles
are going to be utilized, does the vehicle need to be refrigerated and how much
will it cost. These processes usually go unnoticed as in bigger companies
especially they have become very automated but there is a very complex system
that is in operation. Finally, “information” and control” is what describes the
brain if the process of logistics had a body. It is the link between the rest of the
processes, most companies today, especially bigger ones have completely
automated that system. Technology has allowed for information to be spread
much faster from one department to the next, so for example the storage
manager can inform the chef that a certain food order has arrived with the click
of a button. In smaller properties however or in properties that may not need to
automate their approach someone is employed to bridge the different
departments and pass on information.

Clear analysis and awareness of the dimension, should further support with
more sources taking multiple perspective. Further evaluate
effectiveness/applicability

The service industry:

When describing a tangible product, the elements of logistic are not difficult to
explain. That being said, service as a concept is more of an idea. That means
that high quality service can be somewhat subjective form person to person and
place to place. How does logistics play a part then in the service industry? A
service cannot be stored or “managed” at least not in the same way a piece of
furniture can. The smile of the nice receptionist that is checking in a hotel guest
cannot be stored, processed and produced. It can be trained but that is not the
process of logistics. Also due to the human interaction that tends to define the
concept of service the experience itself can be different even when the process
remains the same. The answer is not directly clear and mainly because logistics
as a concept has been originally designed to manage the flow of physical items.
However, claiming that none of the elements of service are manageable is also
flawed. It is also flawed to consider that logistics as a concept has no merit
when dealing with the service industries (Christopher, M., 2016). The same
principles can be utilised with similar effects. Instead of “storing” there is still a
need for understanding and managing demand. What type of service is desired
by the consumer? How many individuals are needed to give that service?
Instead of “packaging” there is customer relations. How do I make my service
more desired? How do I make sure the process is safe? The business still has to
deal with “suppliers” but instead of products they offer skills, experience and a
personality. In some ways the human relations department is the logistics
department for people. Which person do I hire to get the desired service, how do
I get that person form point A to point B? With point A being when they enter
the company as an intern and point B leaving the company as a front office
manager. Discussing about supply chain management in this concept is not very
appropriate considering that the comparison is between products and people,
however the principles are the same and a lot of service companies have come
to be able to manufacture and reproduce the same service with very limited
differences. One example of this is when discussing about standard operating
procedures. Rules that allow for service to be in some ways tangible or at least
understandable.

Creative thought here, quite critical, bravo! More perspective needed though.

Complexity, location and things to consider:

It is clear to understand that the more steps there are to a process the more
complex it becomes. For example, when purchasing a product if the only
intermediary is the manufactured themselves the process can be a lot smoother,
negotiations can happen much easier and the product goes through less quality
assurance checks. The more intermediaries are part of that process the more
complex it becomes. Companies like “Walmart” serve as an example of a
logistics strategy that aims to almost entirely diminish these steps and therefore
reduce cost, time spent and increase quality and customer satisfaction. The same
can be said for a very remote location. Exclusivity can be a highly marketable
attribute, that being said getting a product to such a location can be very
difficult and very costly. Sometimes it is the way a society behaves that makes a
location hard to get to. For example, one would not immediately think of a big
city as a place where goods are hard to come by. That is correct when it comes
to number of suppliers, however when talking about a very specific product or
how incredibly busy the roads of a city can become the connection becomes
much clearer. Getting from point A to point B might take two hours instead of
twenty minutes when traffic is at the highest point. Similarly, while certain easy
to find product can have a very low cost, hard to find cost might be very
expensive as there is a lot of competitors around. Another thing to consider is
that having a lot of suppliers to choose from is not all good, yes having multiple
options give a lot of flexibility, that being said it can much harder to find the
one supplier that fits all the necessary criteria and having the ability to pinpoint
that supplier requires information and good relationships. As time progresses
evidence suggests that societies also become more sensitive to concepts such as
sustainability, diversity and accessibility (Fredrik, R.N. 2019). Adding those
characteristics to logistics frameworks will become necessary for future
companies that want to maintain a good relationship with their customers.
Especially in hospitality where site like “TripAdvisor” and “Booking.com” have
become the place to go in order to check whether a place is good to visit or not.

Your points are good but need to be further supported by evidence.

Theoretical case studies:

There are two main reasons why the approach towards these “case studies” is
theoretical and not based on actual events and companies. Number one, the
covid-19 pandemic has massively shifted how companies operate. Especially in
the services industries the aftermath of the pandemic has not yet been clearly
seen. Stability has not yet been achieved; companies have taken measures in
order to be able to operate in a somewhat similar fashion but the full extend of
the effects has yet to be fully understood, especially since the pandemic is not
yet over. Number two, more general assumptions can be made without
considering the individual characteristics that may alter the logistic strategy of
certain company thus a more holistic analysis can be done.
To begin with, smaller properties in general have a less complex established
logistics framework, one with less nods or steps that is. A boutique hotel with
twenty rooms in Santorini for example, will require to purchase less products,
have less personnel and manage less inventory stock than a two hundred room
city hotel in Athens. Often a time, hotels like to sell local products as a way of
promoting the location, becoming sustainable and as a marketing technique. In
Santorini for example due to the volcanic landscape a lot of products are very
desired, lice local wine and even rocks due to their natural black colour. This
means that such a hotel will have to create a very good relationship with local
producers and suppliers. The procurement of the items might have less room for
negotiation by nature and thus good foundations need to be established from the
get go. To save on costs and time it may also be more efficient to outsource
certain services like for example the cleaning of the linen. Such a small property
has no need for a big cleaning unit nor the space to afford creating one, thus
outsourcing the linen is a very good approach to save on costs. This way they
also become more sustainable as water supplies on Cycladic islands are know to
be limited especially during the summer season. Also, it may be more efficient
to have a single person carry the orders, check the quality and manage inventory
for the hotel. A very simple excel sheet can do the trick for keeping up with the
inventory as it is very limited and in low consumption for such a small property.
Revenue in such properties tends to be mostly reliant on service quality and
uniqueness of the product (e.g.: view towards the caldera) rather than quantity
or other strategy. Having less complex logistics frameworks gives a property
like this to minimize quality flaws by a very big amount. For example, checking
whether a single barrel of beer is spoiled or not is much easier to fifty barrels of
beer. Supplier relationships also tend to be more personised as a lot of the times
the top management of the property can have an easier time linking the correct
information with the appropriate needed change. If too many products are
spoiled, the hotel owner can directly influence the negotiation process
something not easily achievable on bigger properties. Planning for how much
product is going to be purchased and how it is going to reach the property is
also easier as in Santorini there is only one road to transverse through and
inventory changes can be easily tracked. It is important to note that not all is
good for small properties. Not having an automated system means greater
percentage of human error even if there is less inventory to manage. Suppliers
can be more aggressive when it comes to negotiating terms as changing
suppliers is very hard with so little options. However, it is important to
understand that suppliers have an equal need to provide good service as not
doing might make the property completely disregard the product offered if the
disadvantages are considered less than the advantages.

Bigger properties have a lot more things to consider when making these
decisions. In Athens there is an abundance of suppliers a plethora of logistics
services providers and a lot of competition. Having two hundred rooms or more
means you need a lot of space to store your products, sometimes that means that
it may be better for space management and smoother processing to have an
entirely separate building to have the warehouse and run the logistics
department. This changes from property to property as each one has to decide
what is better. In these cases, having a logistics service provider might be a very
good idea to save time, money, training new recruits, space management,
dealing with suppliers, checking quality, managing stock, tracking orders etc.
As prior established the bigger the property the more the steps and therefore the
greater the benefit of just having somebody else deal with it. If a problem
occurs one phone call is enough.

For a big sports event in Thessaloniki, the process is equally harsh. These
events take months of planning for a reason. If the event is an annual occasion
the suppliers can change from year to year, the number of people participating
can change from year to year, the deals with the sponsors can change, the
people working on the project can change, etc. Everything is fluid. This is why
such an event takes time to plan. Inside a hotel certain procedure have become
automated by constant audits. For such an event these audits are made months
in advance with information possibly altering at the last minute. Let’s say for
example two hundred volunteers have agreed to participate in order to give the
athletes water during a marathon race. How certain is it that these two hundred
volunteers are going to show up, there is no contract, no pay and no reason to
come other than their own good will to do so. A lot more assumptions have to
be made in order for the event to actually take place. Suppliers are usually
found by some sort of sponsoring agreement rather than a payment settlement
not that this doesn’t happen, however in this case since there is a large amount
of uncertainty, establishing a solid plan is key. It is much easier to understand
how important logistics are from such an event as mistakes due to these changes
can be more easily spotted. The water stand will be at the wrong place, the
sponsor banner will be drifting in the wind and so on. These mistakes tend to go
unnoticed unlike a hotel environment because in this case quality is not
expected. The event itself is the reason tourist have gathered and service is a
way smaller part of the product.

You identify key elements but need further substantiation. Connect to theory
and research and bring more evidence.

Conclusion:
In this paper the author examined the key concepts of logistics and established
the basic elements that need to be accounted for when creating a logistics
strategy. To make sure that the level of service quality and inventory
management is always high the levels of complexity were analysed in order to
provide understanding how different layers of logistics processes can alter the
way the logistics framework behaves. Afterwards three theoretical case studies
were examined to portray how these differences in complexity can be dealt with
in various ways. Logistics and supply chain management are vital concepts for
cost efficiency, quality assurance, customer satisfaction and smooth operations.

Stronger conclusions needed

Good overall, need broader research

References:

Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management 5th ed., Harlow:
Pearson
Fredrik, R.N. 2019, "A complexity perspective on logistics management",
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Ghiani, G., Laporte, G. and Musmanno, R., 2013. Introduction to logistics
systems management 2nd ed., Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.
Grant, D.B., Trautrims, A. & Wong, C.Y., 2017. Sustainable logistics and
supply chain management: principles and practices for sustainable operations
and management 2nd ed. London : KoganPage
Gursoy, Dogan & Chi, Christina G, 2020. Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on
hospitality industry: review of the current situations and a research agenda.
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