Lighting X is a Spanish company dedicated to the sales of decorative lamps, especially for use in hotels, restaurants, bars and other kinds of collectivities. The company sells mainly directly to distributors (who resell to the hotel or restaurant), but also sell over some marketplaces, in this case more for the retail market.Following the recent expansion of the company, the company started exporting to France, Portugal, Italy and Germany, Norway and Israel.The company has various problems, which were already present in its local market (Spain), but which become now more important, as transport prices for export are of course higher than for the domestic market, and customers are not keen on paying a lot of transport.
The problems are:
– There are a lot of different sizes of the boxes, which is due to the different sizes of the lamps and the type of lamps (a floor lamp takes up more volume than a wall lamp, f.i.), the smallest boxes can be 20x20x20cms, the largest box can be a full Europallet size box with a height of 1,2 meters
– The lamps do not weigh a lot, but they do take up considerable volume
– The sales quantity per order is still relatively small, obliging the company to work with Groupage/Less than a truckload (typical order can be 5 lamps).
– The marketplaces in Germany and Norway require delivery in 48 hours
– Norway and Israel are not a part of the European Union, for which you have to take into consideration customs administration, which increases the lead time.
Task:
- Look up some products from decorative lamp manufacturers on the Internet to get acquainted with the products
- Then, imagine you are the logistics manager of the company, and the CEO has ordered you to work out a kind of logistical plan for the actual business, including:
o which transport mode will you use for each country and type of business (collectivities versus retail)?
o How could you solve the issue of the different sizes of the boxes, or at least improve the situation for export markets?
o How will you serve the Marketplaces in 48hours, taking into consideration customs administration in various markets?
o Which recommendations would you give the CEO in order to make your transports more fluent and cost-efficient?
N.B :
- Comply with the word count800 words maximum.
- Comply with APA styling
- Don’t forget to Cite references
- Don’t forget to reformulate your answers to avoid Plagiarism.
