What are the logistics services?

Definition and characteristics of logistics service items

The author thinks that the definition of logistics service project can draw lessons from the research results of modern project management. According to the definition of "a project is a unique and one-off work that an organization carries out under the constraints of certain resources such as time and personnel" (Qi Anbang, 200 1), a logistics service project is defined as a one-off and unique work that is carried out to create and provide specific logistics service operations under the constraints of established resources. Therefore, all logistics service activities carried out by people in order to achieve a specific purpose should belong to the category of logistics service projects. No matter who they serve, no matter how many people's efforts are involved and the length of time involved, as long as they are unique and one-off, they should belong to the category of logistics service projects.

Through the research, the author found that although the contents, scope and practices of various logistics service projects are very different, there are many similarities in essence, and their main characteristics are: purposefulness (it serves to achieve specific organizational goals), uniqueness (its output and activities are unique), one-off (such projects have only one beginning and one end), and restriction (it will be limited by various resources and activities). ) and other characteristics (such as the process of logistics service project, the temporality of logistics service project organization and the uncertainty or risk of logistics service, etc. ) is the most important feature of logistics service projects.

3 the difference between logistics service projects and logistics service operations

Because the logistics service project has these characteristics, it is completely different from the logistics service operation in many aspects. The main differences between these two logistics service operations include the following aspects.

(1) Different activities have different contents. In the operation of logistics service, there are a large number of repeated routine logistics service operations, and most of them are logistics service operations provided for the production or sales of stereotyped products of enterprises; Logistics service projects are mainly unique and non-repetitive specialized logistics service operations, which are mainly provided for various one-off projects of enterprises.

(2) The working environment and methods are different. The operating environment of logistics service operation is relatively closed and certain (mostly in the enterprise or in the established environment), while the operating environment of logistics service projects is relatively open and uncertain (mostly outside the enterprise or in the uncertain environment). At the same time, logistics service operations are generally carried out in accordance with the division of functions (which can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of repetitive logistics operations), while logistics service projects are generally carried out in the form of teamwork (which can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of one-time logistics operations).

(3) Different organizational management methods. Logistics service operations are generally organized into functional departments according to service content, which are responsible for logistics service operations such as transportation, warehousing and packaging. Logistics service projects are generally organized and implemented by a project team composed of professionals such as transportation, warehousing and packaging according to the principle of * * *. They also adopt different management methods. The former relies on the management mode of functional departments, emphasizing functional management and command. The latter relies on activity-based and process-based management methods, emphasizing integrated management and equal cooperation.

Please refer to the following table 1 for the difference and comparison of the above two different logistics service operation modes.

4 logistics service project uncertainty and multi-factor integrated management

One of the most important characteristics of logistics service projects is its uncertainty or risk, which is also one of the main signs that logistics service projects are different from logistics service operations, so one of the most important classification methods of logistics service projects is to classify them according to their uncertainty or risk. With the help of modern management principles, the author divides them into four categories. This classification can make people know more about logistics service projects, and at the same time enable people to carry out multi-factor integrated management of different types of logistics service projects. These four logistics services are described as follows.

(1) Open logistics service project. This refers to the logistics service project with highly uncertain project environment, conditions or activities. For example, new product development and logistics service in the process of entering the market belong to this kind of open logistics service project. The information gap (uncertainty) of the starting point of this kind of logistics service project is generally higher than 50%, and this kind of logistics service project requires high multi-factor integrated management.

(2) Semi-open logistics service projects. This refers to a logistics service project with relatively high uncertainty of project environment, conditions and activities, but lower uncertainty than open logistics service projects. For example, logistics services provided for enterprise technological transformation projects belong to this category. The information gap at the starting point of such projects is about 30%-50%, and the requirements for multi-factor comprehensive management of projects are also very high.

(3) Semi-closed logistics service project. This refers to a logistics service project whose environment, conditions and activities are less uncertain than semi-open logistics service projects. For example, logistics services for large-scale sports competitions or cultural performances fall into this category. The information gap at the starting point of such projects is about 10%-30%, and the requirements for multi-factor integrated management of projects are relatively low.

(4) Closed logistics service projects. This refers to the logistics service project with low uncertainty of project environment, conditions and activities, and the risk of this logistics service project is very small. For example, logistics services provided for most engineering construction projects fall into this category. The information gap at the starting point of such projects is generally less than 10%, and the requirements for multi-factor integrated management of projects are very low.

The fundamental reason why the above four types of logistics service projects have different requirements for multi-factor integrated management is that when the uncertainty or degree of change of logistics service projects is low, the changes of the factors themselves are very small, and the related influence of the changes of small project factors is very small. Without the correlation between elements, it is extremely unnecessary to carry out multi-element integrated management of the project, otherwise, it is necessary to carry out multi-element integrated management of the project.

The comparison results of these four logistics services are shown in Table 2 below.

5 objectives and characteristics of multi-factor management of logistics service projects

Through research, the author found that the fundamental goal of multi-factor management of logistics service projects should be to use all kinds of integrated management knowledge, skills and methods to meet or exceed the requirements and expectations of all stakeholders in logistics service projects, thus increasing corporate profits and social wealth. To achieve this goal, we must first carry out multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects, because the success or failure of a logistics service project is affected by various factors of the project, and only by integrating and managing the changes of various factors of a logistics service project and their related influences can we ensure the success of the project. On the other hand, if people only manage a single element of logistics service projects, it will be difficult to achieve the above objectives. Although the logistics service project can not be separated from the special management of the project duration, cost, quality, scope and other elements, it is also necessary to comprehensively manage the overall changes of various elements of the logistics service project and the related effects brought by the changes of various elements, so as to meet the requirements and expectations of all relevant stakeholders of the logistics service project to the greatest extent and increase wealth for enterprises and society.

The above-mentioned objectives of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects determine its own characteristics, among which the most important features include universality (general logistics service projects will have certain uncertainties, so multi-factor integrated management of projects is needed), purposefulness (its fundamental purpose is to integrate management of projects to meet or exceed the requirements and expectations of relevant stakeholders), uniqueness (it has its own unique objects, contents, principles and methods) and innovation (different logistics service projects must Any logistics service project needs to establish an integrated management mode and method suitable for project scope, time limit, cost and quality according to the specific conditions and requirements of the project, and carry out multi-factor integrated management for specific logistics service projects.

6 Problems in Multi-factor Integrated Management of Logistics Service Projects

In the research, the author found that the main reason for the failure of most logistics service projects is that people ignore the interrelated changes of project elements and the interrelated influence of each element change during the project process, making the multi-integrated management of logistics service projects the key to the success or failure of logistics service projects. However, although modern project management theory and knowledge system (PMI, 2000) have made some research achievements on project integrated management, there are few research achievements on project "multi-"factor integrated management (Qi Anbang, 2002), and so far only the principles and methods of project cost and duration integrated management put forward by the US Department of Defense and other institutions (Fleming, 1993). However, with the progress and development of modern logistics services, the correlation between the elements of logistics service projects is getting stronger and stronger, and the demand for multi-integrated management of logistics service projects is getting higher and higher, which makes the lack of principles and methods of multi-integrated management of logistics service projects an urgent problem, and the research on the principles, methods and technologies of multi-integrated management of logistics service projects has become a very important topic in the field of logistics service management today.

A logistics service project will have many influencing factors. At present, people can't integrate all the factors of a logistics service project in advance, so they can only choose its main influencing factors to carry out the research on multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects. Through research, the author found that project scope, time, cost and quality are the four most important factors in a logistics service project, and people must try to study the principles and methods of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects according to the unique correlation and mutual influence between these four main factors. In particular, it should be pointed out that the importance of each element of different logistics service projects is different, so their management and control priorities are also different, so the methods of multi-element integrated management of logistics service projects will be different. The main problem of multi-factor integrated management of existing logistics service projects is to understand the differences and objective laws of different logistics service projects, find out and establish a set of principles and methods of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects.

7 The basic content of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects

Logistics service project management includes special management and comprehensive management. Among them, the special management of logistics service project is the special management of the scope, cost, construction period, quality and resources of logistics service project, and the comprehensive management of logistics service project is the comprehensive management of logistics service project. In the integrated management of logistics service projects, the most basic content is the integrated management of multi-factors, that is, the integrated management of the scope, duration, cost and quality of logistics service projects defined in this paper. Because the author found in the research that the correlation between these four elements is the most serious in the actual logistics service project implementation process, they are the main factors that determine the success or failure of a logistics service project, so the integrated management of these four elements has become the basic content of multi-element integrated management of logistics service projects.

At the same time, the basic contents of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects mainly involve three aspects, among which the basic contents are as follows:

(1) Preparation of multi-factor integration plan for logistics service projects. This is a special plan that comprehensively considers the scope, time limit, quality and cost of logistics service projects. Through comprehensive balance, the comprehensive management of multi-factor comprehensive plan of logistics service projects is worked out.

(2) Implementation control of multi-factor integration plan of logistics service projects. This is an integrated management work to measure the performance, find and correct the project deviation in the whole process of implementing logistics service projects according to the above multi-factor integration scheme.

(3) Change management of multi-factor integration plan and objectives of logistics service projects. This is the integrated management of project change scheme design and change approval when the multi-factor integration plan of logistics service project deviates greatly from the target and must be changed.

Among the basic contents of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects in the above three aspects, the most fundamental content is to make a good plan for the four elements of logistics service projects in accordance with the comprehensive coordination and comprehensive balance method in the planning and change scheme design of logistics service projects.

8 Basic principles of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects

According to the above discussion, it can be seen that in the multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects, the most important thing is to comprehensively consider and balance the relationship between the scope, duration, cost and quality of a logistics service project according to the specific conditions of the logistics service projects. According to the research results, the author puts forward the relationship and integration model of the four elements of logistics service projects, as shown in the following figure 1.

As can be seen from the above figure, in the multi-factor integration model of logistics service projects, the three factors of project quality, construction period and cost can be taken as three sides to form a triangle, and the scope of logistics service projects can be taken as the inscribed circle of this triangle, thus forming a four-factor integration model. Further, as can be seen from Figure 1a, when the inscribed circle representing the scope of logistics service projects changes from a solid line to a dashed line, the three sides representing the project cost, construction period and quality will also change accordingly, forming a triangle of dashed lines. It can be seen from figure 1b that when one element represented by one side of the triangle changes (as shown in the figure, the quality requirements of the project are improved), the other three elements will also be affected and changed. Practice has proved that the model well reflects the relationship between the four elements of logistics service projects and the corresponding principles of multi-element integrated management of projects.

In the actual multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects, people must also adopt different deformation models according to the different importance of the four factors of specific logistics service projects. Because in fact, the primary objectives of different logistics service projects are different, some require to ensure the project duration, and some require to ensure the project quality or not exceed the project budget. Through the research, it is found that the main guarantee project element of logistics service project must be regarded as the inscribed circle in the above model, in order to reflect the direct influence of the change of this element on the other three elements. As a result, there are three different deformation models in the multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects, and the detailed descriptions of these deformation models are shown in Table 3.

9 Basic methods of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects

The basic method of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects put forward by the author through research is step-by-step integration method. According to the multi-factor integration relationship of the basic model in the above figure 1, this method realizes the multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects by integrating two project elements at each step. Practice has proved that this method is feasible, and the flow chart of this method is shown in Figure 2 below.

As can be seen from the above figure, the basic method of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects is a basic method of one-time two-factor three-step circular integration. The core of this method is that all elements of the project scope are involved in the three-step integration, but it needs special attention that the first step must be to decompose the project scope according to the provisions of project quality, and then in the second and third steps, the construction period and cost of logistics service projects should be further integrated according to the established project scope. Even in the case of special emphasis on the duration or cost elements of logistics service projects, people can only determine the project quality requirements according to the project cost or duration, and then follow the steps of the basic method of multi-element integration in Figure 2 to further complete the multi-element integration arrangement of the project.

10 conclusion

According to the above research results of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects, we can draw the following main conclusions: logistics service projects are different from logistics service operations, and logistics service projects have their own unique management contents, principles and methods; The success or failure of a logistics service project mainly depends not on the quality of special project management, but on the quality of multi-factor comprehensive management; The requirement of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects is caused by the uncertainty of logistics service projects and the correlation between various factors, so people must do a good job in integrated management of logistics service projects from three aspects: integrated planning, implementation control and change management. The basic principle of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects conforms to the law revealed by the project triangle plus inscribed circle model, and different logistics service projects need to choose corresponding deformation models; The basic method of multi-factor integrated management of logistics service projects is the step-by-step integration of two factors, which should generally be arranged and managed around the scope of logistics service projects.