Module 2 Product Distribution

Trident University International

LOG302

Module 2: Product Distribution

Case Assignment

Assignment Instructions:

Topic I: Delivering Groceries

Please refer to the hypothetical grocery delivery business described in Case 1. You are now confronted with a decision concerning transportation modes.

Obviously, neither trains, ships, pipelines, large trucks nor airplanes are options for deliveries in residential neighborhoods (although drones may be an option in the near future). The options for your business are cars, motorcycles or bicycles.

Cars can either be owned by the business, leased by the business, provided by employees (e.g. the usual pizza delivery scheme), or rented on a per-trip basis from a taxi company or private owners (à la Uber). A mixture of these options is also a possibility.

Motorcycles can be owned by either the riders or by the business. Ditto bicycles. Although the weather in Silicon Valley is generally temperate, a delivery system that relied exclusively upon wind-in-the-face vehicles would have to have some sort of foul weather backup.

In addition to flexibility and cost-effectiveness, whatever system you devise will have to consider the availability of operators and insurance costs, both for your employees and for the people they may run over.

The readings in this Module are mostly concerned with “heavy” systems, up to and including multimodal (ships to trains to trucks), but the basic considerations involved in choosing a system – speed, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, safety, etc. – are applicable to any type of technology.

So what sort of transportation mix would you choose for your business? We’re looking for close, logical argumentation, backed up by citations and references.

Module 2: PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION

Case Assignment

Introduction

As we have seen from the last module, there are many different processes that must come into action for a business to have successful operations. First and foremost, the business must create and manufacture the products. Once they are created, they are then packaged and sent to the respective warehouse for sorting, storing, and further distribution. This concept is what was extensively covered in module one. This module picks up where the last module left off. Specifically, this module covers the processes that are implemented to take the products and goods from the warehouse and then distribute them across the city, state, country, and even the world (Pearson, 2015). This process is known as product distribution. Product distribution has come a long way in our nation and the world and it also has a significant impact on the current posture of our economy and our civilization. Choosing the best venue of product distribution is critical for business success. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the basic considerations in choosing a product distribution system for the MyShoppingCart.com grocery business from module one. First, this paper will discuss my personal opinion on the type of transportation needed for the grocery business. Second, this paper will cover the speed considerations that support my transportation decision. Third, this paper will explain the efficiency considerations for my choice of transportation. Fourth, this paper will define the cost-effectiveness decisions that I took into consideration when choosing the transportation. Fifth, this paper will also consider common safety practices for my transportation decision. Now that this paper has been clearly defined, let’s get started with the type of transportation that I chose for the grocery business.

Transportation for Grocery Delivery Business

For the MyShoppingCart.com business described in the module one, it is important to evaluate each mode of transportation in order to best serve the business and the customers. Considering that this business is relatively small and new with only one to two employees working in the warehousing area, it would not be wise or beneficial to use transportation modes such as airplane, train, or boat (Comtois, 2017). This is especially true because the employees would only be delivering these groceries to the local area. With these two main factors in mind, I personally believe that the most beneficial and efficient means of transporting the goods to the customers is by a vehicle. I specifically think that a van would be best for many reasons, but for the purpose of this paper, I will focus on motor vehicles to include car, truck, sport utility vehicle, and vans only. In making this decision, aside from the two previously mentioned, there were four specific reasons that I took into consideration. The remainder of this paper will provide more details on these four specific considerations. Now this paper will cover the speed considerations that support my transportation decision.

Speed Considerations

Speed, when distributing products to a customer, is a major consideration that must be evaluated by the business at hand. For MyShoppingCart.com, speed is of the essence when dealing with their products and their customers. The core motive behind the business is to deliver groceries to their customers. The key detail to this concept is that these groceries are not limited to perishable items. The groceries that are being delivered are also frozen goods as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. Even if these fresh fruits, vegetables, and frozen goods are kept in coolers during delivery to maximize temperature and freshness, it will not guarantee that they will stay cold and fresh for extended periods of time. Therefore, speed is a major consideration when choosing transportation for the business’ delivery system (Smarta, 2013). As I mentioned before, I personally believe that a car, truck, sport utility vehicle, or a van would be the best option to accommodate the requirement of speed during deliveries. Being that the deliveries are in the local area and need to be properly stored for temperature and freshness considerations, I believe that using other modes of transportation such as motorcycle, moped, bicycle, and even walking would not be nearly as quick. Now this paper will explain the efficiency considerations for my choice of transportation.

Efficiency Considerations

Efficiency is another major factor that must be taken into consideration for the grocery delivery business. Any business that is successful has considered and implemented many efficiency practices, and MyShoppingCart.com should do the same especially in the area of transportation. There are many reasons why choosing a standard motor vehicle such as a car, truck, sport utility vehicle, or a van would prove to be efficient for this business. First is because of the frequency that it would be used (Vaddadi, 2017). It is important to consider that this business would be operating year-round which means that it may need to make deliveries in cold, windy, rainy, snowy, or icy weather. This would be difficult to do on a motorcycle or bicycle but could be easily done in a motor vehicle. Another efficiency consideration would be the capacity that the vehicle can hold. Using a vehicle like a truck, van, or sport utility vehicle, you could store a large amount of groceries at one time. It would also be possible to do several deliveries at one time which would add to the efficiency. Lastly, reliability would also need to be taken into consideration for efficiency planning. For MyShoppingCart.com, it would be a wise investment to use a vehicle that is reliable (Vaddadi, 2017). This business is built around the idea of driving the products to the customer, therefore it is crucial that the vehicles that are being used are reliable. Now this paper will define the cost-effectiveness decisions that I took into consideration when choosing the transportation.

Cost-effectiveness Considerations

A business is usually only considered successful if it consistently gains a profit from its business. With this concept in mind, it is important for the business to consider the most cost-effective means of transportation for their deliveries. I personally believe that using a car, truck, sport utility vehicle, or van would be the most cost-effective means of transportation for delivering the groceries to the customers. One reason is because of the amount of fuel that will be used. Using large sized moving trucks, diesel trucks, and any other big vehicles would cost a significant amount of money to support the fuel consumption (Vaddadi, 2017). Especially when driving in a city, the fuel efficiency for these large vehicles would be extremely low. Instead, using a normal sized motor vehicle would increase fuel efficiency and therefore would save the business money. Another reason that using a car, truck, sport utility vehicle, or van would be the most cost-effective means of transportation for the business is because it would cost more money to repair the larger vehicles than it would for the normal sized vehicles. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, it is important to use a reliable vehicle, however, accidents and malfunctions can happen at any time. Therefore, using a normal sized vehicle would cost less to repair mainly due to the cost difference of the parts. Now this paper will consider common safety practices for my transportation decision.

Safety Considerations

Whether the business is successful or not, safety should always be the main priority for its equipment and employees. This is especially true when dealing with transportation. Due to MyShoppingCart.com being a delivery business, this priority is no exception. One of the main safety considerations for the employees would be proper insurance. Whether the employee is using their own vehicle or the business is supplying the vehicle, it is paramount that the vehicle and employees are enrolled with some insurance policy (U.S. Department of Transportation). This will prevent the employees from not having any type of medical coverage after an accident as well as the employee or company for being liable for the accident. Another safety consideration for the transportation of the business is training. Especially when driving in busy areas of the city during deliveries, it is very important that the employees are trained on how to stay safe. This training should include things such as vehicle operations, driving in high traffic areas, parallel parking, and safety tips during the delivery process. Now this paper will recap the main points of this paper with a conclusion.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there many main considerations to evaluate to determine the best means of transportation of the business. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the basic considerations in choosing a product distribution system for the MyShoppingCart.com grocery business from module one. First, this paper discussed my personal opinion on the type of transportation needed for the grocery business. Second, this paper covered the speed considerations that support my transportation decision. Third, this paper explained the efficiency considerations for my choice of transportation. Fourth, this paper defined the cost-effectiveness decisions that I took into consideration when choosing the transportation. Fifth, this paper considered common safety practices for my transportation decision.

References

Comtois, C. (2017). Transportation Modes, Modal Competition and Modal Shift. Retrieved November 14, 2017, from https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/ch3c1en.html

Pearson (2015). Product Distribution (PPT deck). Retrieved on 13 Nov 2017 from http://www.pearsoncustom.com/mct-comprehensive/asset.php?isbn=1269879944&id=12248

Smarta (2013). Choosing a transportation mode. Retrieved on 13 Nov 2017 http://www.smarta.com/advice/suppliers-and-trade/logistics-management/product-distribution-the-basics/

U.S. Department of Transportation. (2017, February 1). Transportation Safety Planning (TSP). Retrieved November 14, 2017, from https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/tsp/fhwasa15089/chap4.cfm

Vaddadi, B. (2017, September 2). Factors to consider when choosing mode of transport. Retrieved November 14, 2017, from https://planningtank.com/transportation/factors-to-consider-when-choosing-mode-of-transport

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