INTRODUCTION

Logistics management is a part of supply chain management that deals with planning, execution
and control of efficiency of the flow of stocks, products, services and other related information
from the point of origin to the point of consumption in accordance with the requirements of
consumers. Logistics can be defined as “ensuring the right product in the right place, at the right
time, in the right quantity, at the right price and in the right condition, for the right customer”.
Logistics activities serve as the link between production and consumption and essentially provide
a bridge between production and market locations or suppliers separated by distance and time.
Work in logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing,
material handling, packaging, human resources and also security. The goal is to manage the life
cycle of a project from birth to its completion. Logistics adds value to the supply chain process
when inventory is strategically positioned to achieve sales. Logistics has always been a central
and essential feature of all economic activity. There are few aspects of human activity that do not
ultimately depend on the flow of goods from point of origin to point of consumption. Without
logistics, no materials move, no operations can be done, no products are delivered, and no
customers are served. Logistics continually meets new challenges, and is changing faster now
than at any time in the past. Perhaps the most obvious change is the increasing use of technology.
Some of this appears directly in the movement of goods such as electronic identification of
packages, satellite tracking of lorries, containers and automatic guidance systems, but the
greatest impact has come with communications. The overall logistics chain may be divided into
three segments. They are inbound logistics, outbound logistics and reverse logistics.
Procurement is the major element in inbound logistics as it deals with sourcing and transporting
raw materials from the supplier to buyer’s factory. Outbound logistics refers to activities in
delivering the right product at the right time to customers at a minimum cost. Customer
satisfaction is the primary objective of outbound logistics and so companies bring out their value
proposition to their customers and back it up with their outbound logistics capability. Reverse
logistics is the process of moving products from end-user back to the origin to recover value or
for proper disposal. The value is recaptured from products recovered from customers through
rework, refurbishment, reuse, scrap recycling, or government incentives for recyclable products.
With the ever-growing competition in today’s market place, it becomes necessary for a company
to utilise its resources to focus on strategic opportunities, to retain in the market.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The generation today is completely depending on internet, preferring everything to be delivered

at the doorstep with minimum time, that is now possible because of logistics operations today.
Efficient logistics management is increasingly becoming a survival factor for the automobile
sector. In conditions of post-crisis impacts to automobile industry and very strong competitive
pressure of automakers in global market, the flexibility in management of materials and
information flow in automobile assembly plants is declared as the key specification to future
growth. Automobile logistics includes managing business activities to relationships between the
sales channel, distribution, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation and suppliers, and other
related functions and facilities in the flow to transformation of goods and services from the raw
material stage to sub-assembly module, to the finished products and deliver them to the
customer. Today automobile industry stands at forefront because of their effective and efficient
logistics network. Automobile industry has several integrated processes like material handling,
warehousing, packaging, transportation, shipping security, inventory management, supply chain
management, procurement, and customs service. Automobile logistics is an important composing
part of automobile enterprises, and also is a logistic activity with highly complex degree in
logistics industry. Comparing to other logistic activities, automobile logistics devour
characteristics of capital-intensive, technology intensive and knowledge intensive. With rapid
development of automobile industry and fierceness of competition of automobile market after
entering WTO, automobile logistics plays an important role in automobile industry, and
reduction of automobile cost. For the products such as automobiles, which feature multiple
merchandises, technologies, and process the supply chain and logistics process becomes more
complicated. The automobile company’s supplier network includes the thousands of firms that
provide items ranging from raw materials, such as steel and plastics, to complex assemblies, such
as transmissions, brakes, and engines. In essence, logistics primarily enables a company to
satisfy its customers’ needs. The most important trends are increasing customer expectations and
meeting customer requirements, the number-one logistics objective. But, as customers are
becoming more demanding and critical, traditional measures often fail when pursuing strategies
to satisfy customers. Therefore, it becomes essential for an automobile company to device its
logistics process in a very effective and efficient manner to satisfy the needs of their customers.
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