• Title/Summary/Keyword: After sales service

Search Result 147, Processing Time 0.032 seconds

Reforming Business Classification Systems of Merchants: A Case of S-Card's Customer Segmentation Strategy (S카드사의 가맹점 분류체계 정비를 통한 고객세분화 전략)

  • Park, Jin-Soo;Chang, Nam-Sik;Hwang, You-Sub
    • Information Systems Review
    • /
    • v.10 no.3
    • /
    • pp.89-109
    • /
    • 2008
  • Korean card firms suffered harsh setbacks due to high credit defaults in 2002 and 2003, after issuing cards recklessly. Their key principle is changed to grow without damaging profitability and financial soundness. However, competition in the credit card market is heating up rapidly. Bank-affiliated card firms, having stronger sales networks and more capital than independent issuers, have increased their investments in card affiliates in a bid to develop new cash cows. Moreover, newly emerging independent card firms have waged fiercer campaigns to raise their credit card market share. In order to overcome these business conditions, S-card has settled on a strategy that focuses on stepping up marketing aimed at increasing charge card spending rather than credit card loans or cash lending services. Accordingly, S-card reformed the current business classification system of merchants, which was out-of-dated and originally built for the purpose of deciding merchant service fees only. They also drove customer segmentation planning to deliver the right customers to the right merchants. In this paper, we emphasize the problems of business classification systems of merchants with which most credit card firms have faced, and the need for reforming them not only to provide customer-tailored services but also to raise their business promotion excellence by reviewing S-card's process of customer segmentation.

Inconsistency between Information Search and Purchase Channels: Focusing on the "Showrooming Phenomenon" (멀티채널 환경에서 정보탐색채널과 구매채널의 불일치 현상에 관한 연구: 쇼루밍 현상을 중심으로)

  • Yeom, Min-Sun
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.13 no.9
    • /
    • pp.81-93
    • /
    • 2015
  • Purpose - "Showrooming" refers to the phenomenon where a shopper visits a store to see and compare products but makes the purchase online at a lower price. Surveys on showrooming activities at home and abroad indicate that a significant number of consumers pursue showrooming activities. The advent of "showroomers," who engage in buying activities, hovering both on and offline, while selectively choosing sales channels to suit their needs, is powerful enough to erode the borders between channels and bring about seismic changes in the distribution industry. However, surprisingly, there has been no in-depth discussion on showrooming. This study seeks to theoretically investigate what impact personal characteristics have on showrooming preferences and attitudes in a multi-channel environment. Specifically, assumptions have been made that price perception, perceived performance risk, and trust in online shopping not only have a direct impact on showrooming attitudes but also indirectly affect it through the means of contact motivation. Research design, data, and methodology - To test the hypotheses, this study conducted a survey of male and female shoppers, ages 20 through 40s, who live in metropolitan areas, and have actively showroomed fashion items in the last six months. A clothing item usually purchased after a careful decision-making process was chosen as the target product of the study. The survey was conducted between October and November 2014, using a professional survey service provider. A total of 200 surveys were collected, of which 198 were used for analysis. Conceptual model Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Amos 18.0 were employed for data analysis and model verification. In addition, following the confirmatory factor analysis and measurement model analysis, the theoretical model that corresponds to the research model was analyzed. Results - Analysis results show that price perception, perceived performance risk, and trust in online shopping have a statistically significant and positive (+) impact on showrooming attitudes. In addition, in terms of the indirect influence of price perception and perceived performance risk on showrooming attitudes through means of contact motivation, price perception had a statistically significant and positive impact on means of contact motivation, whereas perceived performance risk did not have a statistically significant impact on it, with the relevant hypothesis rejected. Conclusions - These analysis results imply that the ultimate goal of consumers is to maximize their shopping benefits by selectively and strategically taking advantage of different channels in a complementary manner. This study presents many implications for distributors to encourage a deep understanding of showrooming consumers who have complicated consumption behaviors and to build channel integration strategies. This study has limitations in theoretical and practical implications. Therefore, subsequent studies need to focus on verifying that showrooming activities are based on reasonable and planned decisions by applying the theory of reasoned or planned behavior. In addition, the scope of the study should expand to include web showrooming, where consumers conduct product research online and purchase offline.

Development of Video Work Manual for Rock-Drill Data In Fire Service (소방에서의 도상훈련 기초자료 영상화작업 매뉴얼 개발)

  • Cho, Jae-Kwan;Park, Hee-Jin;Hwang, Inn;Kwon, Hayrran
    • The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
    • /
    • v.6 no.1
    • /
    • pp.103-128
    • /
    • 2002
  • As a result of trying the various manufacturing methods considering the reality of manpower and equipments with this manual, the following standardized procedures and contents can be suggested. (1) Since tools presenting Rock-Drill data must formalize the order of explanation although explainers are different, it will be valid that it is configured by existing power point method rather than by web document type. Composition of contents are selected on the basis of defence card and survey and then 8 items including initial screen, peripheral conditions, mobilization route, general conditions, use and structure by floor, department of vehicle consideration in activities and end screen are included. (2) Making methods and cautions of data included and used in power point are as follows ; - It was most effective that objects of fire fighting and location of neighboring fire fighting water were expressed by electronic map and drawing of inner building was made by scanning it after paining general architecture drawing(plan by each floor) rather than using drawing tools of EXCEL program or CAD drawing. And it was helpful to simplify contents of architecture drawing to wall, stairs and gate in understanding them. - Photographing of video data should be taken to show available fire fighting facilities in fire, use of planned space and the whole inner structure of each floor from the inside of fire fighting buildings and to display play time between 10 sec. and 1 min, for obstacles to distance from adjacent buildings or passage of special vehicles and fire fighting water from the outside of the building. - File format of video data taken in this way is most suitable to use wmv(window media video) or asf(advanced streaming format) type in consideration of time required for export, screen quality, file capacity and play type in Rock-Drill through network. - Still screen(photo) is more effective to express the department of fire fighting vehicles or other equipments than using video. (3) In configuration work of power point, hyper link was used most and configured to see any part at any situation like web document and then uniformity of presentation order of power point was complemented. (4) In case of sales facilities with the area of $35.557m^2$, the time of 22 hours and 30 minutes for five days was taken with five persons. Therefore, when eight-hour works a day were calculated, the whole process of video work for Rock-Drill can be finished with three day works.

  • PDF

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Performance of Korean Franchise Business by Stages (국내 프랜차이즈 성과에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Sang-Ik
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
    • /
    • v.4 no.1
    • /
    • pp.89-111
    • /
    • 2009
  • Since the financial crisis in 1997, the Korean economy has a steady increase of people who tend to establish their own business by 2008. Business foundations can be divided into independent businesses and franchise businesses. This study focuses on what type of business owners among franchise enterprisers can achieve success. This is intended to reduce trial and error by drawing upon success factors in the stages of establishment, operation, and achievement based on a total sample of 350 individual business sites. The result shows that the success factors in the stage of establishment include (1) Preparation such as foundation education (2) Marketing capability (3) Appropriateness of Business Item (4) Other founder's entry barrier, conglomerate's entry regulation and (5) Head Office Support including service education, market survey education, marketing support. On the other hand, the success factors in the stage of operation include the supervisor capability, Marketing capability, Head Office Support, Customer Management Capability and Employee Satisfaction. Additionally after choosing the major factors according to each stage, multiple regression analysis was processed and interpreted. Finally, we believe that the franchise or independent business foundations can make a profit as well as increase continuous sales and customer satisfaction only with thorough and careful preparation in all stages of foundation and operation. This study is expected to contribute to those who prepare new business in franchise domain to minimize failures with deep consideration of the success factors in the franchise.

  • PDF

Optimal Strategy of Hybrid Marketing Channel in Electronic Commerce (전자상거래하에서의 하이브리드 마케팅 채널의 믹스 전략에 관한 연구)

  • Chun, Se-Hak;Kim, Jae-Cheol
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
    • /
    • v.17 no.2
    • /
    • pp.83-95
    • /
    • 2007
  • We are motivated by how offline and online firms compete. The Internet made many conventional offline firms build a dynamic online business as another sales channel using their advantages such as brand equity, an existing customer base with comprehensive purchasing data, integrated marketing, economies of scale, and longtime experience with the logistics of order fulfillment and customer service. Even though the hybrid selling using both offline and online channel seems to have advantages over a pure online retailer, all the conventional offline firms are not seen to create an online business. Many conventional offline firms began to launch online business since the Internet era, however, just being online business is not likely to guarantee success. According to Bizate.com's report whether the hybrid channel strategy is successful is still under investigation. For example, consider the classic case of Barnes and Noble versus Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble was already the largest chain of bookstores in the U,S., when Amazon.com was established in 1995, BarnesandNoble.com followed suit in 1997, After suffering losses in its initial years, Amazon finally turned profitable in 2003. In 2004, Amazon's net income was $588 million on revenues of $6.92 billion, while Barnes and Noble earned $143 million on revenues of $4.87 billion, which included BarnesandNoble.com's loss of $21 million on revenues of $420 million. While these examples serve to motivate our thinking, it does not explain when offline firms should venture online. It also does not provide an analytical framework that can generalized to other competitive online-offline situations. We attempt to do this in this paper and analyze a hybrid channel model where a conventional offline firm competes against online firms using its own direct online channels. We are particularly interested in an optimal channel strategy when a conventional offline firm sells its products through its own direct online channel to compete with other rival online firms. We consider two situations where its direct online channel and other online firms are symmetric and asymmetric in the brand effect. The analysis of this paper presents several findings. In the symmetric model where a hybrid firm's online channel is not differentiated from a pure online firm, (i) a conventional offline firm will not launch its online business. In the asymmetric model where a hybrid firm's online channel is differentiated from a pure online firm, (ii) a conventional offline firm can launch its online business if its brand effect is greater than a certain threshold. (iii) there is a positive relationship between its brand effect and online customer costs showing that a conventional offline firm needs more brand effect in order to launch online business as online customer costs decrease. (iv) there is a negative relationship between its brand effect and the number of customers with access to the Internet showing that a conventional offline firm tends to launch its online business when customers with access to the Internet increases.

A Study on the Effects of Franchise's Factors and Performance : Analysis Disclosure Agreement (프랜차이즈 가맹본부의 특성과 가맹점 사업 성과간의 영향에 관한 연구 : 정보공개서를 중심으로)

  • Lee, Eun-Ji;Cho, Chul-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
    • /
    • v.3 no.2
    • /
    • pp.20-38
    • /
    • 2012
  • After being introduced into franchises industry, franchise has made a phenomenal growth in a short time and a substantial contribution to job creation and economic revitalization. Nevertheless, franchise business operators failed a business or low profit because of a lack of information and indiscriminate foundation. Therefore the first object of this study is characteristics of franchise's factors on disclosure agreement in franchise associate website. second is examinations about casual relationship between factor and franchise performance with using Excel and SPSS 18.0 versions. The findings of present study were as follows. First, franchises manage small business mostly(financial data, scale so on) and franchise's type focused the food service industry. Specially, a business district select unprotected contract. Second, in franchise's factors, we could find statistically significant effect on annual average sales and annual average net profit. However growth rate of franchise don't have statistically significant effect. Third, we could find statistically significant difference on analysis both franchises' factors and financial data. In conclusion, we must consider of franchise industry environment and success effect on performance in starting one's business. Furthermore franchises plan ways for their sustained growth and protection of rights and interests. Finally business operator draw up their information and upgrade continuously for franchises industry growth. Discussion and theoretical and managerial implications of the results were described along with future franchise research suggestions.

The Impact of Price Discount on Perceived Value, Willingness to Buy, and Search Intentions according to the Level of Consumers' Involvement (구매자의 관여도 수준에 따라 가격할인이 지각가치, 구매의향, 탐색의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Yoon, Nam-Soo;Kim, Jae-Yeong;Park, Young-Kyun
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.9 no.1
    • /
    • pp.39-48
    • /
    • 2011
  • One of the major reasons for fierce competition among firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Due to such changes in the marketing environment, differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important in the race to gain a competitive advantage. Price discount is one of the popular promotion strategies that most retailers use, especially to increase sales, but offering a price discount does not always lead to the expected result. If marketers apply an identical price-promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in products and consumer preferences, the discounted price itself may make people skeptical about the quality of the product. Moreover, the changes in perceived value may appear differently depending on factors such as consumer involvement. This implies that variables such as the level of consumer involvement, brand loyalty, and external reference prices, in reality, would have different effects on how consumers perceive the value of price discounts. The variables that affect consumers' perceived values and buying decisions are diverse and complicated. Several studies have examined the effects of such variables as external reference price, selling price, and brand on consumers' perceived value of products. Results have not shown consistent patterns. Therefore, we must note that the factors affecting consumers' value perceptions and buying behaviors are diverse and that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what that variable is. This study focused on the level of consumer involvement as a salient variable that supposedly affects the perceived value of a product, willingness to buy, and search intentions. We tried to examine whether a price discount affects the perceived value-such as perceived acquisition value and perceived transaction value-in different ways depending on the level of consumer involvement. In addition, we proposed managerial implications that marketers need to consider as a whole, for instance, product attributes, brand loyalty, and involvement and then established a differentiated pricing strategy, case by case, in order to effectively enhance consumers' perceived values. As a result, we found that perceived transaction value positively affects perceived acquisition value and when discounting the price of a high-involvement product enhances the consumer's willingness to buy, but perceived acquisition value does not affect the search intentions significantly. In the case of discounting prices of low-involvement products, on the other hand, the perceived transaction value has a positive effect on the willingness to buy, but the negative effect of perceived acquisition value on the search intentions was not significant. We suppose that people doubt a product's quality because of a declined perceived quality derived from a price discount. Even though the price discount enhanced the transaction value, people eventually increased their level of searching for additional product information. From the results of this study, we suggest that marketers ought to establish an appropriate value-enhancing strategy based on the understanding of which perceived value consumers rely on more when they conduct purchasing behavior because consumers perceive the degree of importance of acquisition value or transaction value differently, depending on their level of involvement.

  • PDF

An Exploratory Study on Channel Equity of Electronic Goods (가전제품 소비자의 Channel Equity에 관한 탐색적 연구)

  • Suh, Yong-Gu;Lee, Eun-Kyung
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.18 no.3
    • /
    • pp.1-25
    • /
    • 2008
  • Ⅰ. Introduction Retailers in the 21st century are being told that future retailers are those who can execute seamless multi-channel access. The reason is that retailers should be where shoppers want them, when they want them anytime, anywhere and in multiple formats. Multi-channel access is considered one of the top 10 trends of all business in the next decade (Patricia T. Warrington, et al., 2007) And most firms use both direct and indirect channels in their markets. Given this trend, we need to evaluate a channel equity more systematically than before as this issue is expected to get more attention to consumers as well as to brand managers. Consumers are becoming very much confused concerning the choice of place where they shop for durable goods as there are at least 6-7 retail options. On the other hand, manufacturers have to deal with category killers, their dealers network, Internet shopping malls, and other avenue of distribution channels and they hope their retail channel behave like extensions of their own companies. They would like their products to be foremost in the retailer's mind-the first to be proposed and effectively communicated to potential customers. To enable this hope to come reality, they should know each channel's advantages and disadvantages from consumer perspectives. In addition, customer satisfaction is the key determinant of retail customer loyalty. However, there are only a few researches regarding the effects of shopping satisfaction and perceptions on consumers' channel choices and channels. The purpose of this study was to assess Korean consumers' channel choice and satisfaction towards channels they prefer to use in the case of electronic goods shopping. Korean electronic goods retail market is one of good example of multi-channel shopping environments. As the Korea retail market has been undergoing significant structural changes since it had opened to global retailers in 1996, new formats such as hypermarkets, Internet shopping malls and category killers have arrived for the last decade. Korean electronic goods shoppers have seven major channels : (1)category killers (2) hypermarket (3) manufacturer dealer shop (4) Internet shopping malls (5) department store (6) TV home-shopping (7) speciality shopping arcade. Korean retail sector has been modernized with amazing speed for the last decade. Overall summary of major retail channels is as follows: Hypermarket has been number 1 retailer type in sales volume from 2003 ; non-store retailing has been number 2 from 2007 ; department store is now number 3 ; small scale category killers are growing rapidly in the area of electronics and office products in particular. We try to evaluate each channel's equity using a consumer survey. The survey was done by telephone interview with 1000 housewife who lives nationwide. Sampling was done according to 2005 national census and average interview time was 10 to 15 minutes. Ⅱ. Research Summary We have found that seven major retail channels compete with each other within Korean consumers' minds in terms of price and service. Each channel seem to have its unique selling points. Department stores were perceived as the best electronic goods shopping destinations due to after service. Internet shopping malls were perceived as the convenient channel owing to price checking. Category killers and hypermarkets were more attractive in both price merits and location conveniences. On the other hand, manufacturers dealer networks were pulling customers mainly by location and after service. Category killers and hypermarkets were most beloved retail channel for Korean consumers. However category killers compete mainly with department stores and shopping arcades while hypermarkets tend to compete with Internet and TV home shopping channels. Regarding channel satisfaction, the top 3 channels were service-driven retailers: department stores (4.27); dealer shop (4.21); and Internet shopping malls (4.21). Speciality shopping arcade(3.98) were the least satisfied channels among Korean consumers. Ⅲ. Implications We try to identify the whole picture of multi-channel retail shopping environments and its implications in the context of Korean electronic goods. From manufacturers' perspectives, multi-channel may cause channel conflicts. Furthermore, inter-channel competition draws much more attention as hypermarkets and category killers have grown rapidly in recent years. At the same time, from consumers' perspectives, 'buy where' is becoming an important buying decision as it would decide the level of shopping satisfaction. We need to develop the concept of 'channel equity' to manage multi-channel distribution effectively. Firms should measure and monitor their prime channel equity in regular basis to maximize their channel potentials. Prototype channel equity positioning map has been developed as follows. We expect more studies to develop the concept of 'channel equity' in the future.

  • PDF

Research Framework for International Franchising (국제프랜차이징 연구요소 및 연구방향)

  • Kim, Ju-Young;Lim, Young-Kyun;Shim, Jae-Duck
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.18 no.4
    • /
    • pp.61-118
    • /
    • 2008
  • The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.

  • PDF

A Contemplation on Measures to Advance Logistics Centers (물류센터 선진화를 위한 발전 방안에 대한 소고)

  • Sun, Il-Suck;Lee, Won-Dong
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.9 no.1
    • /
    • pp.17-27
    • /
    • 2011
  • As the world becomes more globalized, business competition becomes fiercer, while consumers' needs for less expensive quality products are on the increase. Business operations make an effort to secure a competitive edge in costs and services, and the logistics industry, that is, the industry operating the storing and transporting of goods, once thought to be an expense, begins to be considered as the third cash cow, a source of new income. Logistics centers are central to storage, loading and unloading of deliveries, packaging operations, and dispensing goods' information. As hubs for various deliveries, they also serve as a core infrastructure to smoothly coordinate manufacturing and selling, using varied information and operation systems. Logistics centers are increasingly on the rise as centers of business supply activities, growing beyond their previous role of primarily storing goods. They are no longer just facilities; they have become logistics strongholds that encompass various features from demand forecast to the regulation of supply, manufacturing, and sales by realizing SCM, taking into account marketability and the operation of service and products. However, despite these changes in logistics operations, some centers have been unable to shed their past roles as warehouses. For the continuous development of logistics centers, various measures would be needed, including a revision of current supporting policies, formulating effective management plans, and establishing systematic standards for founding, managing, and controlling logistics centers. To this end, the research explored previous studies on the use and effectiveness of logistics centers. From a theoretical perspective, an evaluation of the overall introduction, purposes, and transitions in the use of logistics centers found issues to ponder and suggested measures to promote and further advance logistics centers. First, a fact-finding survey to establish demand forecast and standardization is needed. As logistics newspapers predicted that after 2012 supply would exceed demand, causing rents to fall, the business environment for logistics centers has faltered. However, since there is a shortage of fact-finding surveys regarding actual demand for domestic logistic centers, it is hard to predict what the future holds for this industry. Accordingly, the first priority should be to get to the essence of the current market situation by conducting accurate domestic and international fact-finding surveys. Based on those, management and evaluation indicators should be developed to build the foundation for the consistent advancement of logistics centers. Second, many policies for logistics centers should be revised or developed. Above all, a guideline for fair trade between a shipper and a commercial logistics center should be enacted. Since there are no standards for fair trade between them, rampant unfair trades according to market practices have brought chaos to market orders, and now the logistics industry is confronting its own difficulties. Therefore, unfair trade cases that currently plague logistics centers should be gathered by the industry and fair trade guidelines should be established and implemented. In addition, restrictive employment regulations for foreign workers should be eased, and logistics centers should be charged industry rates for the use of electricity. Third, various measures should be taken to improve the management environment. First, we need to find out how to activate value-added logistics. Because the traditional purpose of logistics centers was storage and loading/unloading of goods, their profitability had a limit, and the need arose to find a new angle to create a value added service. Logistic centers have been perceived as support for a company's storage, manufacturing, and sales needs, not as creators of profits. The center's role in the company's economics has been lowering costs. However, as the logistics' management environment spiraled, along with its storage purpose, developing a new feature of profit creation should be a desirable goal, and to achieve that, value added logistics should be promoted. Logistics centers can also be improved through cost estimation. In the meantime, they have achieved some strides in facility development but have still fallen behind in others, particularly in management functioning. Lax management has been rampant because the industry has not developed a concept of cost estimation. The centers have since made an effort toward unification, standardization, and informatization while realizing cost reductions by establishing systems for effective management, but it has been hard to produce profits. Thus, there is an urgent need to estimate costs by determining a basic cost range for each division of work at logistics centers. This undertaking can be the first step to improving the ineffective aspects of how they operate. Ongoing research and constant efforts have been made to improve the level of effectiveness in the manufacturing industry, but studies on resource management in logistics centers are hardly enough. Thus, a plan to calculate the optimal level of resources necessary to operate a logistics center should be developed and implemented in management behavior, for example, by standardizing the hours of operation. If logistics centers, shippers, related trade groups, academic figures, and other experts could launch a committee to work with the government and maintain an ongoing relationship, the constraint and cooperation among members would help lead to coherent development plans for logistics centers. If the government continues its efforts to provide financial support, nurture professional workers, and maintain safety management, we can anticipate the continuous advancement of logistics centers.

  • PDF