STUDENTS' CORNER - 173
Tailoring transportation allows a supply chain to
achieve appropriate responsiveness and cost. Customer density, distance and
product size decide the mode of tailored transportation
 Depending on the product you have to transport and on the customer to whom you transport, you choose a transportation mode economically. Transport involves, you know, basically two very important facts: Distance of travel and the quantity of products transported. For a short local distance and a small number of quantity of products for a local customer, it is enough you choose transport by road, and you do not require any transport by water and by air. This is the process of tailored transport.
A tailor cuts the cloth to sew a shirt or any garment according to the
measures specific. Need-based cutting
the cloth to make a dress is actually tailoring. Cutting the cloth less than
required makes the dress unsuitable and therefore waste of time, energy and
material, all involving expenditure. Or cutting the cloth more than the
specific measurements is also equally wasteful work since the dress will not be
right size for the order and therefore the customer will not want it and much
more important thing is the customer will be tempted to choose some another
tailor. The tailor loses the customer. Same thing applies to transport.
Tailored transport refers to meeting the customer needs with a minimum
cost. For a local customer who has ordered a small quantity, you need not go in
for a big transport vehicle; the quantity of the products to be transported
requires a small vehicle means going for a bigger vehicle is actually loss to
the company because the customer won’t be willing to pay extra for your
uneconomical mode of transport. In the same way, the route taken for transport
must be the shortest so that the fuel cost and additional costs to meet the
driver’s salary can be minimal. Suppose you engage two drivers to transport the
product where one driver is enough, you are spending in excess to the need and
the customer is not responsible.
Experts talk about low density, medium density, and high density for a
distance which may be short, medium and long. They give you guidance for
tailored transportation. The basic fact
is simple. Where two rupees are
sufficient to transport a product, spending three rupees is uneconomical leading
to loss to the company. And reducing it to one rupee is creating chances of
damage to the product which also ends in loss to the company. In short, tailored transportation is a
business strategy to achieve  a cost
effective transport.
In our next session, we shall see about routing and scheduling in
transportation.
