Transportation

Modern public transportation systems in large cities are rather sophisticated and not easy to manage. However they possess some intangible qualities that contribute to their development. The paper examines some of them and the effect of Supply Chain Management on public transportation systems’ operation as well as Leagile Supply Chain and its advantages.

Public transport is the main means of transportation for many city residents from their homes to workplace or institutions and vice versa. The services of most public transport in the cities are provided using buses and trains. They can accommodate a great number of commuters at a time compared to other means of transportation. Public transport in large cities is far superior to their counterparts in small cities because of some qualities (Redman, Friman, Garling, & Hartig, 2013). The qualities of the transportation systems are categorized into two groups, namely tangible and intangible qualities. Intangible qualities are associated with some characteristics of the efficient public transportation system. They include reliability, comfort, safety, convenience, technology-orientation, and ease of service use.

Safety of the commuters is paramount. An excellent transport system must be safe from accidents or crimes (Nordahl, 2009). Big cities around the globe make use of trains which are safe both during the ride and at the station. The security system is advanced. It can monitor any kind of crime using CCTV’s and metal detectors to provide proper screening of the passengers.

Comfort is another area of concern; the transport system provides comfort at the station and during the ride. The authorities in the big cities regularly inspect the means of transport to ensure sufficient number of seats available, smooth ride, cleanliness, normal temperature and many other issues.

Technology-orientation is a factor that has greatly benefited the transport systems in the large cities. It ranges from enhancing security, customer service, convenience, safety to competitive tendering process. It has made the big cities like New York, London, Frankfurt, etc.  boast of their advanced public transportation system compared to the towns in the developing  countries.

Ease of service use means there is accurate information available and it is easy to figure out the routes to be used. It reduces stress and costs associated with the use of personal cars such as accidents, parking and traffic jams and other negative factors.

In the production of goods and services in the firms, a lot of problems were discovered.  They included handling, transporting and storage of raw materials, gathering and dissemination of information, managing finances, inventory and many others. The movement of goods and services from the supplier to the manufacturer and following the channels to the final consumer became a hectic and tiresome process. Some people sat down, brainstormed and found a process that can easily solve the problems. They came up with a way of coordinating and integrating the many channels followed by goods within the firms. The process could connect services within management in the companies and among the companies. This simple process evolved and resulted in the formation of Supply Chain Management to serve the oversight, coordination, and integration of all the factors of production.

Time affects the Supply Chain Management positively or negatively. Faster flow of channels makes the chain more competitive and vice versa. Time is an important factor in the inventory which is substantially associated with Supply Chain Management.

Leagile Supply Chain is the advanced integration of lean and agile approaches. It is applied in the production of goods and services where the flow of channels is divided into two designs: the fast-moving goods are directed to efficient chain of flow and the slow-moving products are directed to another route. Leagile Supply Chain enables the support and frequent changeovers in the channels which are branched (Agarwal, Shankar, & Tiwari, 2006).

Leagile Supply Chain maintains highly effective and efficient operations that lead to reduced cost of the company’s activities regarding warehousing, transportation, holding cost, carrying cost and many other costs.

Supply Chain Management using Leagile Supply Chain is quite beneficial for modern producers of goods and services and is well-known throughout the world.

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