Resource integration theory

Resource integration is a means of enterprise strategic adjustment and also the daily work of enterprise management. Integration is to optimize the allocation of resources, that is, to advance and retreat, to take and give up, and to obtain overall optimization. Under the situation that the logistics service market in China is still in a state of scattered, fragmented, closed and disorderly competition, what is more important than resource integration for traditional warehousing and transportation enterprises that have positioned their future development strategy as logistics solution providers?

First, what is resource integration

1. At the level of strategic thinking, resource integration is the thinking mode of system theory. Through organization and coordination, related but separated functions within the enterprise are integrated into a customer service system, and the effect of 1+ 1 is greater than 2.

2. In the aspect of tactical choice, resource integration is the optimal allocation decision. It is to reconfigure related resources according to the development strategy and market demand of enterprises, so as to highlight the core competitiveness of enterprises and seek the best combination of resource allocation and customer demand. The purpose is to enhance the competitive advantage of enterprises and improve the level of customer service through organizational system arrangement and management operation coordination.

UPS's recent integration of supply chain management service resources is a good illustration. June 2002 5438+ 10 UPS integrated logistics group, freight service company (including Feichi freight forwarder), finance company, consulting company, mail management company, etc. provided supply chain management services to customers, which was a newly established UPS supply chain solution. The purpose is to integrate all UPS service resources related to supply chain management, so that customers can easily get professional knowledge support, that is, to provide customers with "one-stop" supply chain management services. The department has a team of engineers, logistics management experts, technology integration experts, multimodal transport experts and investment analysts to design solutions for customers' global supply chain management and then submit them to various professional companies for implementation. The market positioning of this department is a large company operating globally. Mainly for high-tech, communications, health products, automobiles, retail and consumer goods. In 200 1 year, the total business income of logistics group companies, freight service companies, investment companies and mail management companies participating in the integration reached 2.4 billion US dollars.

The reason why UPS re-integrated supply chain management service resources is because UPS decided to turn to "a complete supply chain management service company" in early 2002.

It can be seen that the so-called "one-stop" business model, which is widely respected in the logistics service market at present, is actually not only the goal pursued by logistics enterprises, but also the process of optimizing resource allocation. From 1995 to the establishment of supply chain management solutions division, it took UPS seven years. Enterprise's resource integration is an evolutionary process guided by customer demand.

Second, the key to logistics is resource integration.

(A) Management is the eternal theme of logistics.

Although the definition of logistics is constantly enriched and expanded with the changes of enterprise production management and marketing organization, management, as the operation process and final output of logistics system, has never changed. Logistics is always a "process of planning, execution and control". This is determined by the characteristics of logistics management operation.

1. Logistics management is a transnational activity. Within the enterprise, the departmental objectives of the sales department and the financial department in inventory level control are in conflict, and the requirements of the marketing department in warehouse location and inventory distribution are also in conflict with the management objectives of the enterprise storage and transportation department; Intermediate process. If we can't coordinate and adjust by the arrangement of enterprise organization system, it is likely that all departments will pursue their own departmental goals and harm the interests of the whole enterprise. This is the main reason why enterprises in developed countries have set up integrated logistics management departments since 1980s.

Outside the enterprise, the supplier's supply mode or the service of the logistics enterprise must be tangent and coordinated with the manufacturer's production organization mode. Such as just-in-time mode, supplier managed inventory mode, supply chain management mode and lean production mode. If the marketing mode of customers' products changes from distribution to direct sales, the functions of logistics enterprises may include providing faster multi-batch and small-batch delivery organizations, more pre-sales assembly (or distribution and packaging) and after-sales installation (or maintenance and technical consultation) support, more logistics document management, and reverse logistics management and other value-added services. If the customer enterprises use the services of multiple third-party logistics enterprises (3PL) at the same time, the cooperative operation between 3PL is particularly important. When the market boundary of customers has expanded to the global scope, the management services of logistics enterprises must be internationalized.

2. Logistics management is to reduce the total logistics cost. For example, the balance between transportation cost and inventory cost; Trade-off between purchasing batch and inventory cost; Trade-off between reducing the number of carriers and dispersing freight risks; Implement centralized inventory management to balance freight and out-of-stock costs; Balance between value-added service cost and customer service level; Trade-off between logistics self-operation and logistics outsourcing, and maintaining the control right of enterprises in logistics operation; The balance between information enjoyment and maintaining the core competitiveness of enterprises. After the customer service level is determined, the management operation of logistics enterprises will focus on how to reduce the total logistics cost of customers.

Logistics enterprises that often operate in a logistics service link, such as simple transportation, warehousing, freight forwarding, etc., complain that the operating profit rate is too low. Apart from fierce market competition, have you considered your role in reducing the total cost of customer logistics? Logistics management is overall planning and coordination, not local operation.

(B) Logistics management is the process of optimizing resource allocation.

Run through the operation process of logistics management, from product packaging to pallet stacking to packing skills; From the location of single point warehouse and the distribution of space in warehouse to the design of warehouse network and the distribution of inventory; From the stowage of means of transport, to the management of carriers, to the organization of multimodal transport, to the arrangement of freight routes; From the application of logistics technology and equipment to the introduction of logistics IT system; From the arrangement of specific logistics operation links to the design of overall logistics management scheme, it includes technical and economic analysis centered on cost-effectiveness.

In fact, it has become an important content of daily management activities of logistics enterprises-service quotation to make a technical and economic analysis of a series of different logistics operation costs and seek the logistics scheme with the lowest total cost. The quotation comes from the logistics management solution. In the eyes of customers, whether the quotation can be made as soon as possible is the most direct indicator to reflect the resource integration ability of logistics enterprises.

In order to seek the lowest total cost of customer logistics, it is necessary to make overall arrangements for cross-border logistics operations. Different customer service needs will put forward different requirements for resource integration. For example, the emergency shipment of goods may require the selection of air transport service resources. Customers' global marketing may need to choose to integrate warehouse network resources in other countries. The transformation of customer logistics system may need to choose consulting service resources. Customer's demand for visibility of logistics process inevitably requires the selection of IT system resources, and so on. Therefore, the process of logistics management is actually the process of optimizing resource allocation.

Obviously, the wider the scope of logistics management and the more links it covers, the greater the possibility of unified management and overall planning, and the greater the operating space for reducing the total logistics cost. But at the same time, it also puts forward higher requirements for the knowledge and skills possessed by logistics enterprises. Therefore, a whole logistics management department should be set up inside the enterprise, 3PL with logistics management consulting ability should be used outside the enterprise, and even professional logistics management consulting companies and IT system developers should be involved.

(C) the future development direction of logistics enterprises-supply chain management services.

It can be predicted that with the economic globalization, the extension of industrial chain and the maturity of information technology, especially the popularization of the concepts of strategic alliance and supply chain management competition, more and more logistics enterprises will position their future development strategic objectives as supply chain management services. Because even the operation of supply chain management system, which is larger than logistics management system, is only collaborative management and resource integration at a higher level and in a larger scope.

The recommended definition of supply chain management put forward by the American Logistics Management Association (CLM) on June 5438+ 10, 2002 is: "Supply chain management is a process that aims at improving the long-term performance of a single enterprise and the whole supply chain, carries out overall strategic coordination of traditional business activities, and tactically controls the cross-functional boundary operation within a specific company and the cross-company boundary operation among supply chain members". Obviously, the processes of "strategic coordination" and "tactical control" are both processes of optimizing resource allocation.

(4) Transportation enterprises and warehousing enterprises are not logistics enterprises.

For a long time, there have been different views on whether a simple transportation and warehousing enterprise is a logistics enterprise.

It must be pointed out that we say that simple transportation enterprises and warehousing enterprises are not logistics enterprises, but just "cross-border business activities" and "reducing the total logistics cost" in a strict sense. Because they lack the overall vision of the whole process of customer logistics operation, they can't design and manage the logistics operation of customer enterprises with the goal of reducing the total cost. In other words, they do not have the two basic characteristics of logistics management and operation.

In fact, simple transportation or storage is only a specific functional activity in the process of logistics management, which is only a part of the total logistics cost and the object of logistics management. Therefore, transportation enterprises and warehousing enterprises are resources that logistics enterprises should integrate. This is why 3PL often does not directly engage in transportation and warehousing business, but integrates social resources in the form of contract outsourcing. It is also the reason why many foreign manufacturing enterprises have logistics management and transportation departments at the same time, and it is also the reason why many transportation enterprises or express delivery enterprises have to transform into logistics service providers.

However, as China's logistics service market has just sprouted, transportation and warehousing are the most basic functions and activities of logistics management. Treating transportation and warehousing enterprises as logistics enterprises for the time being will help these enterprises to expand their service scope and upgrade to real logistics service enterprises on the original basis, and also help to form China's logistics service market at an early date.

(V) Key points of resource integration of logistics enterprises.

Although merger and reorganization, joint venture cooperation, agreement alliance, lease custody and establishment of information sharing or trading platform are all means of resource integration of logistics enterprises, the purpose of resource integration is nothing more than enhancing customer service ability, improving customer service level and obtaining better return on investment. Therefore, although different logistics enterprises adopt different ways and means of resource integration in actual operation, there are still some fields that need to be brought into the vision of logistics enterprises. They are customer resource integration, capability resource integration and information resource integration.

Third, customer resource integration.

Service-products of logistics enterprises.

There is no doubt that the products of logistics enterprises are services. Specifically, it is to manage services. Including such as carrier management, freight organization and scheduling, distribution center management, material return management; Distribution center design, information flow management and logistics system planning and design. In popular terms, logistics enterprises provide logistics management solutions.

As we all know, the production and consumption of service products are completed in the process of interaction between the supply and demand sides. Therefore, the resource integration of logistics enterprises can not be separated from the direct participation of customers. In fact, on the one hand, 3PL should work with customers to formulate logistics management solutions and determine the corresponding performance evaluation indicators; On the other hand, customers often keep the original logistics management team after outsourcing logistics management, and establish an interactive coordination mechanism with 3PL during the implementation of the scheme.

(B) customers-an important asset of logistics enterprises.

Generally speaking, customer resource integration mainly refers to providing differentiated products and services according to customer value and striving to establish a long-term cooperative strategic partnership with customers. Therefore, the first is the identification and judgment of customer value.

So, what is customer value? There is a question of evaluation criteria. If the evaluation standard of customer value is positioned on the profits that can be brought to logistics enterprises, and then customers are divided into so-called "high-end customers" and "low-end customers", this concept is too "utilitarian". This is also inconsistent with the concept of customer relationship management-seeking to establish a long-term strategic alliance with customers, cultivating customer loyalty and achieving a win-win situation.

In fact, what standards logistics enterprises use to evaluate customer value depends on their basic views on customers. Generally speaking, enterprises have two basic views on customers: one is to regard customers as competitors; Second, it is regarded as an important asset of the enterprise.

1. As competitors, the relationship between logistics enterprises and their customers is pure. For example, in reality, in addition to the environmental reasons of road transport charges, transport enterprises generally adopt a seriously overloaded mode of operation, which has a lot to do with the blind reduction of freight rates by cargo owners in order to reduce their own operating costs. This will inevitably lead to the reduction of service level and the destruction of environmental safety.

In the case that "price game" is the only interactive interface between customers and logistics enterprises, logistics enterprises do not need and cannot consider planning and designing overall or extended logistics management solutions for customers, let alone establishing strategic partnership with peers. Because customers only regard logistics outsourcing as a measure to reduce transportation or storage costs, rather than as a strategic means to enhance their competitive advantage, logistics enterprises cannot participate in the whole process of customer logistics cost saving. This restricts the transformation of traditional storage and transportation enterprises to modern logistics enterprises to a great extent, and also restricts the development of China's logistics service market. Of course, for those logistics enterprises that have a certain monopoly "advantage" in logistics service resources due to the current system, it is unrealistic to ask them to actively design and provide logistics solutions for customers.

2. As an important asset, logistics enterprises must be kind to customers, create and maintain good customer relationships, extend their "service life", enhance market competitiveness and improve business performance through their own logistics services. Therefore, the customer value of logistics enterprises refers to the value of logistics services required by customers to themselves. This value can often be measured by the importance of logistics services to customers' market competition strategy.

In the long run, the mission of logistics enterprises is not only to maximize the current value of customers, but also to maximize the life cycle value of customers. Therefore, it is a long-term investment behavior for logistics enterprises to implement customer relationship management and cultivate customer loyalty, which must be guided by the long-term development strategy of enterprises.

Of course, there must be a return on investment (R0I). But this return is based on the expectation of long-term cooperation performance between the two parties. Just as logistics enterprises get their own profit share in the process of helping customers reduce the total logistics cost, logistics enterprises also realize their own value and collect returns in the process of maximizing customer value. Therefore, as far as the service contract duration of 3PL in developed countries is concerned, it is generally 5-7 years. Japanese logistics enterprises are taking customers to the world. The so-called strategic alliance is essentially long-term cooperation. The basic orientation of logistics enterprises to customer relationship will determine the basic ideas and methods of customer resource integration.

(C) Old customers-the focus of customer resource integration of logistics enterprises.

Customer resource integration, in the final analysis, is to win customers and expand market share. However, the "customer investment" of logistics enterprises is different from what we usually know as fixed assets investment and R&D investment. Customer assets are non-cumulative or non-storable. Once the services of logistics enterprises no longer meet the needs of customers, customers will "vote with their feet" and the previous "customer investment" is likely to disappear. To get the lost customers back, "investment" must start again.

Therefore, the integration of customer resources in logistics enterprises is two things at the operational level: one is to retain old customers; The second is to develop new customers. Because the cost of developing new customers is often five times that of retaining old customers, the focus of customer resource integration should be on old customers. And the demonstration effect of old customers can promote the development of new customers. Some experts believe that if an enterprise's annual customer churn rate reaches 20%, it is necessary to find out its own reasons.

So, how to retain old customers? The most fundamental thing is to master the concept of customer service. Logistics enterprises should always ask themselves such questions:

-Are customers dissatisfied with the existing logistics services?

-Are there any logistics service requirements put forward by customers that enterprises can't meet now?

-What is the gap between the existing service capacity and customer requirements, and why?

-Has the customer adjusted its development strategy?

-Do customers want to adjust the structure of marketing channels?

Has the customer's product range increased or decreased?

-Has the customer explored new markets?

Do you know the customer's production organization and marketing management methods?

Do you have a thorough understanding of the customer's logistics service needs?

-Do you fully understand the logistics operation characteristics of customers' products?

-Do you fully understand the competition in the customer's industry?

Do you know your customers and their suppliers?

-Do you fully understand the legal environment of logistics services?

-What's the gap between yourself and your competitors?

-How many customers from last year are still registered this year?

-Does the enterprise have a logistics service innovation plan? Wait a minute.

Of course, such questions and answers should be institutionalized (so-called internal management audit) and personalized, that is, keep track of the development of major customers and specific markets at any time.

It must be pointed out that although the Pareto 20/80 rule is also applicable to logistics enterprises, it does not mean that paying attention to high-value customers means that all superior resources should be concentrated on those customers who can generate 80% of the profits of enterprises, or only serve those 20% customers. In fact, whether it is "high-end customers" or "low-end customers", in the case of market segmentation, logistics enterprises will still face the Pareto law of their customer structure. Because 20/80 is the result of logistics enterprises' operation, it is an "interesting phenomenon", not the basis of operating principles and market positioning. Otherwise, put the cart before the horse.

Therefore, the correct approach should be to subdivide the logistics service market according to the technical and economic characteristics of logistics management and operation, combined with the service capacity of logistics enterprises, and then subdivide the market into high-value product logistics and low-value product logistics in specific service areas, or determine the classification of ordinary logistics services and special logistics services. We should provide different logistics service solutions for different customers on the basis of unified allocation of resources according to customer needs. Of course, the professional management of logistics enterprises is self-evident.

(D) All-round service-the best way to integrate customer resources.

Although establishing customer data, analyzing customers' purchasing behavior, frequently visiting customers, implementing classified management for customers, implementing expert marketing and helping customers reorganize logistics business processes are all effective ways to integrate customer resources, all-round service will be the best way to retain old customers and develop new customers, and it is also a service innovation concept with great room for expansion.

For example, FedEx recently launched a real-time online tariff and tax assessment system to provide consulting services for businesses engaged in international trade and related logistics enterprises on whether to adopt air transportation. Customers can query not only the freight, but also the tariffs, value-added tax, goods tax, MFN terms and related government charges of 42 countries to calculate the "landing price" of the goods. So that the merchant can know whether the transaction is profitable before handing over the goods to the carrier. It is not only convenient for merchants, but also convenient for transportation agents.

Emery forwarding, a world-renowned air cargo logistics service provider, launched an online "Continuing Education Solution" in August 2002 to provide international trade training courses for employees of foreign trade enterprises. Courses currently offered include NAFTA rules and import and export procedures. This is actually a long-term investment in customers.

UPS even set up a special investment company (UPS Capital Corp) in 1998 to provide customers with distribution financial services. Including accounts receivable and inventory financing, insurance agents, etc. For those customers who outsource their logistics business to UPS Logistics Group, UPS Investment Company can even buy their 100% inventory. It not only accelerates the liquidity turnover of customers, helps to improve their financial situation, but also saves the cost of inventory holding and the cost of owning and operating the logistics service network for customers. It can be said that UPS's all-round service to customers is very typical.

Frankly speaking, logistics enterprises in China still have a long way to go in customer resource integration at this stage. Obviously, this is not something that logistics enterprises can decide unilaterally.

Fourth, the integration of capabilities and resources.

1. There is deviation in the integration of capacity resources. The integration of logistics service capabilities and resources can be said to be the most familiar, but it may also be the place where we are most prone to make mistakes. The so-called logistics service capacity resources include both tangible physical resources needed for logistics services, such as necessary storage facilities and transportation equipment; It also includes intangible skill resources needed for logistics services, such as freight organization and inventory control ability; It also includes the knowledge resources of logistics services, such as having rich knowledge of logistics management and a thorough understanding of the logistics operation of specific products, as well as an effective logistics management team.

However, at present, the deviation in the integration of logistics enterprise's ability resources lies in that it pays too much attention to the construction (rather than reconstruction) of tangible entity's ability resources, while ignoring the integration of intangible organization's management ability resources. The most typical thing is to build a so-called "logistics park" or "logistics base" or "logistics hub" without sufficient economic and technological environment foundation or even understanding the scientific significance of logistics management. According to the analysis report of the National Bureau of Statistics in the first half of 2002, the vacancy rate of the so-called logistics center in China was as high as 60% in 20001year, which will inevitably lead to a new round of redundant construction and waste of resources. It will cost money until it is corrected.

Because our enterprise can't make great efforts in logistics service concept, customer demand analysis, organization and management mode, horizontal cooperation alliance and so on. It is very likely that the opportunity to develop the logistics service market will be missed in the protracted conceptual debate and blind logistics infrastructure construction.

2. Service innovation is an effective way to integrate ability resources. At present, according to the actual situation of the development of the logistics market, the way of integrating the capabilities and resources of logistics enterprises in developed countries is mainly to establish and improve the logistics service network by launching new service products and establishing extensive strategic alliances.

For example, FedEx cooperated with Kodak to launch "self-service counters" in nine fast-growing stores in Beijing in March 2002. There are FedEx air waybills, commercial invoices and packaging in the counter, and customers can mail express documents by themselves. FedEx cooperates with Kodak mainly to integrate Kodak's service network resources. By the end of 200 1, Kodak had 7,000 care shops in China. In fact, Kodak has been studying how to better optimize the resource allocation of these 7,000 outlets in the past 18 months, so that consumers can enjoy other services-value-added services in Kodak care shops.

200 1 Roadway, a famous American LTL freight company, together with United Airlines, American Airlines, Uti Global Freight Forwarding Company, Unisys Company and G-Log Company, forms logistics alliance service system company Integres. RoadN8y Air Transport Company is a newly established "virtual integrator" of freight service. Road air transport companies are mainly responsible for the collection and distribution of goods, and use their national freight service network to provide ground transport services for airlines. The system will establish an Internet portal to provide customers with real-time information and provide customers with contact with transportation service providers and contract executors. The system software will also provide shippers with "all the details of the air transport process" and online services. This is actually the service network integration of road transport companies with airlines and freight forwarding companies. For each partner, they have expanded their logistics service capabilities and extended their respective service networks.

In August 2002, UPS launched an integrated logistics solution named "UPS Direct Trade" in China and Brazil, including transportation services. This new type of logistics service is the largest comprehensive service project among the transportation and logistics services launched by UPS, aiming at further promoting the development of global trade and simplifying international trade procedures. The new logistics service project will be implemented by UPS Freight Service Company, which will speed up the shipping process by reducing the land stay and shipping time. This kind of contract service is more suitable for large manufacturers of clothing, sporting goods and electronic products, as well as other manufacturers who use sea transportation as an economic mode of transportation and want to send their products directly to customers. The customer value of using this service is reflected in two aspects: first, the direct customer value can save a number of distribution or distribution centers, and the consignor basically does not need a warehouse, because the number of times of moving down in the logistics process is reduced to a minimum, which reduces the cargo damage and speeds up the delivery. At present, customers who use this service generally report that the delivery time has been saved by 2-20 days. The second is indirect customer value, including speeding up inventory turnover, speeding up enterprise cash flow and accounts receivable turnover, and reducing inventory maintenance costs. Unified documents also help to reduce the administrative costs of logistics operation and management. The operation process of this service is as follows: the customer sends the goods to the freight service center of UPS, and the small packages sent to American customers are labeled and boxed; Then, these containers are sent to the port for loading, and the shipping space has been booked in advance by UPS shipping service company with NVOCC qualification; Before the goods arrive at the destination port, UPS has completed the customs clearance procedures; After the goods arrive in Hong Kong, they will be quickly delivered to the consignee through UPS's ground and air transportation network. At this point, both the owner and the customer can check the status of the goods online; UPS tracks and monitors the whole freight process. The launch of this new service is actually the integration of UPS's maritime service resources, which makes UPS enter the maritime service field.

Integrating capability resources with logistics service innovation will effectively avoid integration simply for "making it bigger" and obvious separation after integration. The part where 1+2 is greater than 2 comes from logistics service innovation.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) information resource integration

The importance of information resource integration to logistics enterprise resource integration cannot be overemphasized. In fact, IT system itself is an effective technical means to integrate customer resources and capability resources. Specifically, information resource integration includes the following main contents:

1. Establish an information sharing mechanism. As we all know, the visualization of the whole logistics operation is realized through information sharing, the controllability of the whole logistics service is realized through visualization, the flexibility of the logistics system is realized through controllability, and the consistency of the output of the logistics system is realized through adaptability, so as to achieve the usability of products and satisfy customers. This is the basic logic of information resource integration.

IT can be said that with the development of information technology and its wide application in the field of logistics services, many traditional logistics enterprises have a high understanding of configuring IT systems, but they often ignore another important content of information resource integration, that is, the establishment of information sharing mechanism.

If the strategic alliance partnership of mutual trust, interdependence, long-term cooperation and common development cannot be established between logistics enterprises and customers, or between supply chain member enterprises, then any advanced IT system can not guarantee seamless cross-border logistics management. Therefore, the key to the integration of information resources is to establish an information sharing mechanism across enterprise boundaries. In the final analysis, the integration of information resources of logistics enterprises is not a technical problem, but a management problem.

2. Changes in decision-making mechanism. The enjoyment of information means the decentralization of management decision-making power. This is just the opposite of the path of IT system integrating logistics management information. From the perspective of logistics operation as a whole, logistics management decisions must be made by all relevant parties; From the individual point of view of logistics enterprises and customers, the decision of logistics management must be authorized at different levels. This is determined by the diversified and personalized characteristics of customer logistics service demand. Therefore, the value-oriented logistics management based on meeting customers' needs requires the decentralization and upgrading of decision-making authority and the flattening of the organizational structure of logistics enterprises. The so-called flat organizational structure of enterprise management is not simply to cancel middle management, but to make the decision-making level of the enterprise closer to the market and customers, so that the marketing personnel at the front line of the market have full decision-making authorization.

It is the dialectics of effective management to require decentralization of decision-making authority while integrating information. IT system provides technical means for overall coordination.

3. Logistics service knowledge management. Knowledge is power. Logistics operation can't meet the needs of customer service without the support of corresponding management knowledge. Logistics business owners in developed countries can copy their basic logistics management model in the world because they have strong logistics management knowledge. Without knowledge management, the valuable information and experience obtained by enterprises in the process of logistics service cannot be transformed into resources that can support the sustainable development of enterprises.