We live in a fast-paced, rapidly changing world, and businesses must be able to adapt and keep up. In 2017, businesses were caught off surprise when fidget spinners began flying off the shelves. Due to the overwhelming demand, more than 50 million units of the toy were sold in the first six months of that year alone. It was a textbook example of how unpredictability in demand and supply can overwhelm established business methods. However, in today’s fast-paced world, businesses must be able to quickly expand or contract their capacities to meet demand at any stage in the supply chain.
Elastic logistics is the term for this kind of adaptability. It helps aiming to achieve this kind of rapid reaction. The purpose of most lean business models is to cut costs, reduce waste, and better match inventory requirements. Elastic logistics is a type of lean business that fills in the gaps that many firms have, such as warehousing and operations in the middle and last miles. Elastic logistics refers to a company approach that is adaptable and flexible enough to scale up or down in response to market demands. This enables supply chain activities to expand or contract in practically any way.
The ability to accomplish faultless order fulfilment is arguably the most essential benefit of elastic logistics. Perfect Order Fulfilment [POF] is a crucial supply chain measure that impacts the overall efficacy of the logistical operation. This numbers are improving as technology and automation improve. As a result, a speedier and leaner supply chain with lower costs emerges, while more consumers are satisfied and retained.
Elastic logistics has just recently gained popularity due to the need for technological breakthroughs in order for this model to work. Data analytics and tracking make it easier to predict what will happen and then devise plans to respond quickly and efficiently. Transportation Management Systems (TMS), Artificial Intelligence, Warehouse Automation, Big data, Block chain, and People are some of the technologies that elastic logistics should leverage to be most successful.
The benefits of flexible logistics are as follows:
Especially for LTL shipments, maximises and fills loads/capacity.
Improves transportation efficiency by optimising routes for speedier delivery.
Reduces over-manufacturing and over-stocking Price volatility is reduced
Reduces the likelihood of disaster.
Enhances “perfect order fulfilment” by increasing efficiency at many supply chain touchpoints.Customer service can be improved.
The goal of elastic logistics is to be able to turn the entire operation, independent of market or business conditions. Whether you’ve had to cut back due to a global epidemic or sales have unexpectedly increased as a result of a fantastic marketing campaign, an elastic logistics approach allows to have the flexible infrastructure to meet demand head-on.
Dr. Karpagavalli. G
MBA-DSCE
