Logistics Consulting

The significance of logistics consulting usage is connected with the insufficient implementation of modern tools, product differentiation growth, cost increases, and technologies. The introduction of logistic principles in the management of material flows can reduce inventory levels by 35-40% and reduce the time of movement of goods by 25-30%.

Consulting in the field of logistics can be defined as the provision of intellectual services to company employees in developing effective solutions to logistics issues in order to optimize logistics functions: procurement, storage, manufacturing, transport, sales, and inventory management. Firms are increasingly outsourcing these functions. Logistic consulting is one of the most popular types of outsourcing after accounting, IT, and legal services.

In practice, the tasks in logistics consulting are divided into two groups: global and local. The first group includes the following: creation of integrated logistics systems, business process modeling, risk reduction, and reliability of supply plans. The second group consists of the following: effectiveness assessment of supply chains, business process automation, reduction in inventory storage time, optimum use of vehicles, reduction of transaction and overhead costs, and so on.

The main methods for solving the tasks are:

1. Description of business processes using graphical process modeling (IDEF) and providing a generic well-documented methodological framework.
2. Expert methods.
3. Modeling using probabilistic-statistical simulation.
4. Methods of heuristic analysis and synthesis.
5. Programming methods.
6. Methods of structural analysis and structural optimization.

Almost all consumers of logistics consulting services are large brands and industrial enterprises with a long history and established traditions. They are afraid of company reforms but understand that it is needed. Often, this type of consultation is ordered by business executives during the transition of the company to a higher level of development.

The growth in demand for logistics consulting services is increasing due to:

1. Capturing new markets as businesses become larger.
2. Opportunity to use the knowledge and ideas of consultants as a new competitive advantage.
3. The necessity to introduce information technologies that allow productivity to increase to a great extent.

During recent years, consulting companies have started using statistical and modeling methods based on big data and neural networks to find the optimum solutions. Also, they have begun to develop and supply professional adaptable warehouse management systems.