THE WORD logistics is a relatively recent entry to the freight industry's dictionary, but little has changed in the physical movement of the goods, according to Roger Shaw, managing director of Clearing Support Services (CSS).
It's essentially the same as the word distribution, he said - moving goods from the point of production to the end consumer.
But, as logistics service providers have moved more-and-more into the areas previously controlled by the shipping and distribution arms of the exporting/producing company, so control points have shifted.
Not only this, Shaw added, but the control systems have also had to change to suit the different information demands of these new players along the logistics chain.
When the freight forwarding industry began to operate these storage and distribution services, said Shaw, especially with a JIT (just in time) element, new storage control systems had to be devised.
It's much more than just stock-control - and has new demands all of its own.
One of these, Shaw added, was that the system had to be equally adept at handling both international and local movements.
The storage control system, he said, had to be able to handle both free and in-bond goods - integrating the procedures - and provide the necessary documentation for both formats.
But we designed a cost-efficient and user-friendly system - and now supply the expertise, hardware and software to control this service.
CSS also found that printed labels and clipboards were a thing of the past in marking and controlling distribution consignments - and now supplies bar code reading and labelling equipment to match in with the storage control systems.
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