II. Logistics (Логистика)

1. Translate the following expressions into Russian.

Delivery, warehouses, supplies, packaging, stocking and inventory management, to encompass, handling and preparing orders, physical distribution, a major means, to reduce costs, to improve profit margins, financial, commercial and marketing operations, to entail, transportation costs, fixed price, to guarantee customer service, realm, location, factory, warehouse, to improve, needs, stock.

2. Read the passage through and find answers for the questions:

1. What is important in the first paragraph?

2. What is logistics!

3. What is the second section about?

4. What does the diagram illustrate?

TRANSPORT

I. Transport today is not just getting things from point A to point B. Today companies are becoming aware that the movement of goods from one location to another encompasses a whole realm of operations. These operations include not only transport and delivery, but the location of

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factories and warehouses, supplies, packaging, stocking and inventory management, handling and preparing orders.

Corporate strategy

The size and nature of the company

The type of goods

produced and their

destination

The structure of its clientele

2. This larger view of transport operations is often called logistics or physical distribution. Business people now realize that tighter control of logistical operations is a major means of reducing costs and improving profit margins. Transport is used to be the poor relation of group operations, the last wheel. Today companies are creating logistics departments, divisions and even fully-fledged subsidiaries to control all their logistical needs better.

3. The role of a logistics manager is to balance the cost of possession of stocks with their transportation costs. He has the advisory role of moderating the (often conflicting) demands of the company's financial, commercial and marketing operations. A company's logistical strategy should be based on four basic factors:

There is no problem in getting any product to any client at any time. The problem is how to do it at the most efficient cost to the company and the client. A logistical system can improve just-in-time delivery: delivery on a guaranteed date for a fixed price.

By Zsuzsanna Ardo, "English for Practical Management"

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3. Now read the text carefully, looking up any new items in a dictionary or reference book. Then answer the following questions:

1. What is transport today?

2. What does the term "logistics" illustrate?

3. What is the role of the logistics manager?

4. What basic factors is logistical strategy based on?

5. What does just-in-time delivery mean?

4. Read the text and write a summary in English.

Transport, energy, and the environment

This article is about transport using water-based vehicles. Ship transport is the process of moving people, goods, etc. by barge, boat, ship or sailboat over a sea, ocean, lake, canal or river. This is frequently undertaken for purposes of commerce, recreation or military objectives.

A hybrid of ship transport and road transport is the historic horse-drawn boat. Hybrids of ship transport and air transport are kite surfing and parasailing. The first craft were probably types of canoes cut out from tree trunks. The colonization of Australia by Indigenous Australians provides indirect but conclusive evidence for the latest date for the invention of ocean-going craft; land bridges linked southeast Asia through most of the Malay Archipelago but a strait had to be crossed to arrive at New Guinea, which was then linked to Australia. Ocean-going craft were required for the colonization to happen.

Early sea transport was accomplished with ships that were either rowed or used the wind for propulsion, and often, in earlier times with smaller vessels, a combination of the two. Also there have been horse-powered boats, with horses on the deck providing power. Ship transport was frequently used as a mechanism for conducting warfare. Military use of the seas and waterways is covered in greater detail under navy.

Recreational or educational craft still use wind power, while some smaller craft use internal combustion engines to drive one or more propellers, or in the case of jet boats, an inboard water jet. In shallow draft areas, such as the Everglades, some craft, such as the hovercraft, are propelled by large pusher-prop fans.

Although relatively slow, modern sea transport is a highly effective method of transporting large quantities of non-perishable goods. Transport by water is significantly less costly than transport by air for trans­continental shipping. In the context of sea transport, a road is an anchorage.

Microsoft Encarta 2006. 1993-2005