My Speciality

I’m a second year student of Moscow state university of railway engineering. My speciality is logistics and supply chain management. After graduation from the university I’m going to work as a logistics manager. I’d like to highlight some points about my speciality.

First of all, I would like to say that the collection of materials and distribution of goods is now a global industry. Thus, delivering products to the right place at the right time with minimal waste is critical for business. That’s why logistics management is needed in all companies nowadays.

Main components of logistics are purchasing, inventory control, warehousing, transportation, packaging, material handling, loading, and shipment. Currently, there are various types of logistics, I’ll name only some of them. Let’s take, for example, bulk logistics. It concerns the handling of large quantities of raw materials. Project logistics deals with the design of complex systems such as major public works and infrastructures. There is also Ram logistics, which is essential for the management of high technology products. Reverse logistics includes all operations needed to restore value to those products that have completed their life cycle.

Then, I’d like to speak about the actual job of a logistics manager, that is his or her responsibilities and role in the organization. Logistics managers handle processes of a supply chain. They liaise with parties like suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. Logistics managers must coordinate processes to ensure customer satisfaction.

Speaking about typical work activities of a logistics manager, they usually include monitoring the quality, cost, movement and storage of goods as well as coordinating the order cycle and solving logistical problems.

As for the skills needed in this sphere of work, I believe skills of communicating and negotiating are highly important as well as the ability to work under stress. You also must be aware of many business and law points about transport legislation, fuel costs, environmental pressures and many others. Thus, to be a good logistics manager means to follow recent trends in IT-technologies concerning logistics and to act efficiently in a rapidly changing world of global commerce, trade and transportation.

Currently, the logistics service market in Russia is expanding fast. So I believe that career development opportunities are excellent in this innovative industry.

Logistics is a good option if you are interested in a challenging and well-paid job. I’m sure to get it if I have a degree in logistics and supply management and some professional experience.

Logistics Centers in Transport Chains

A logistic centre is an essential part of transportation infrastructure. It is a centre in a defined area within which all logistics activities are carried out by various operators on a commercial basis. Actually, logistics is related to the transportation and the distribution of goods both for national and international transit. The operators can either be owners or tenants of buildings and facilities. Logistics centers are generally located close to airports, major highway intersections and railway hubs or ports.

Any logistics centre must render the full range of logistics services. It provides access to different shipment modes, performs broad logistic functions and serves a wide range of users. Also, a logistics center presents information technology solutions and offers value added services. That’s why a logistics center usually includes a storage area, intermodal terminals, an administration area, a service area, an exhibition and sale area, etc. They are necessary to organize the full complex of transport services. Besides, logistics centres automate the process of cargo flow control. Centres encourage economic development as well as increase traffic. They coordinate work of different transport modes and focus international flows through a country. To sum up, logistics centres provide storage, transport, distribution, assembly, direct shipment, cargo consolidation, sorting, break-bulk, delivery, package tracking, and e-commerce services.

The main task of a logistics center is to coordinate storage and transport services. One of the primary goals of any logistics centers is to encourage intermodal transport for the handling of goods. Therefore, a logistics centre should preferably be served by a multiplicity of transport modes (road, rail, deep sea, inland waterway, air). Finally, a logistics centre must comply with European standards to provide the framework for commercial and sustainable transport solutions.

Logistics centres promise benefits to a logistics network in terms of economies of scale, advanced technological systems, and merits of pooling tactics. As companies are looking for ways to reduce lead time, delivery uncertainty and logistics costs, the need for logistics centres is increasing.

Creation of logistics centers helps in economic development of cities and regions. These business units guarantee synchronized flow of products and efficiency of roads usage. Wrong localization of logistics centers causes opposite results such as difficulties in city traffic flow and quick destroy of roads because of heavy transport.