THE SCOPE AND MEANING OF TRANSHIPMENT IN MODERN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Supply Chains and their Management will largely influence economies of the future. Note that the growth of Supply Chains will not be a planned one but as water rushes out of a dam in my-raid directions in a undetermined flow will result in merger and demerger in an unplanned way of operational circuits and their interconnectivities cutting across in the process geographies around the world in in unabated and unstoppable fashion only to have equilibrium for some time and to re-invent again and again in a chain reaction whose overall ramifications and influence can barely be predicted.
Do we understand Supply Chains? Well we did so in the past in a way befitting of the season but needs to be re-understood. Modern day supply chains need drastic re-understanding and its economic impulses better understood. I beleive Transhipment is where Supply Chains seem to move. Transhipment is a fundamental philosophy because it works on some fundamental principles. One; Transhipment works on "zero warehousing" which means at any point in time of a well managed system items in any warehousing must be zero and translated into reality the bare minimum. Two; Transhipment works by moving in the direction of the destination in the immediate possible ways. Three; Transhipment fundamentally may not beleive in the saving of time and costs as the fundamental premise around which it works but in the logic of minimum or zero warehousing.
Note that Supply Chains and their problems are not predominantly an Industrial problem but could be a problem across many spheres and its proper understanding both from an operational and strategic view point is paramount.
The logical directioning
There is an important concept of supply chains and transhipment that works around logical directioning. Here the concept is goods move in the direction of the destination at the earliest avaliable oppurtunity as against being ware housed and then find subscequent routes to the final destination.
Constant movement
Modern day supply chains and transhipment have constant movement of goods through all possible routes. Idling of goods must be zero.
Zero ware housing
Though warehousing exists en-route products are ware-housed for as minimum a period as possible. Modern transhipment procedures result in shorter or ideally zer ware housing. Strictly speaking ware-housing happens in the carriers of goods called dynamic ware-housing as against static ware-housing.
Time over cost
The focus of transhipment is to economise on time as against cost. Time is a more important factor than cost. Modern supply chains may not economise on these two fronts as a rule on a day to day basis but when assessed on the cumulative and running conditions they land up giving economies.
No fixed source and fixed destination
Note that modern transhipment works across a network of nodes each of which in the dynamics of the system are as important relative to each other.This means there is no fixed source or fixed destination as varying nodes take on the importance of source and destination from time to time.
Cross docking
Modern transhipment needs cross-docking which means en-route to a destination depending on the pattern of goods movement goods can be undocked from a system at a node and loaded into another contrivance without prior planning simply because an opportunity of pay-of exists.
Information system
Modern transhipment systems must have a live information system that constantly provides information with regards to the location of goods and their pattern of movement which could be called a "talking Logistic"
Supply chain eschema
Eschema refers to the overall activity of cross-docking where goods are moved from one mode of transport into another mode.
Packet transit
It is not necessary that all the goods move simultaneously over the system but could move in parts and stages.
Bi-directioning
Modern day transhipment allows and provides for the facility of bi-directioning which means products can move in either directions at the point of start and could reach the final destination though taking various routes.
Co-aptation of medium
For Supply chains to become even more effective various carriers and carriage systems could help and support each other through some process of multiplexing.
Product management
For supply chains to be more effective products around the chain must be managed. Various product attributes are size of product; the criticality of its need at a particular destination as also the kind of product. The kind of combination of products transferred across the chain is product management.