Efficiency and effectiveness drivers in wholesale transport
5. CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH
In a highly competitive market environment, wholesalers face current challenges in transport logistics due to the fact that customer demands on the one hand and transportation costs on the other hand are constantly increasing. For competitive reasons, a holistic investigation on transport performance and its influencing factors needs to be done.
In this paper, we have studied influencing factors on transport performance considering both transport efficiency which means how efficient resources are utilized and transport effectiveness which implies if customer goals are achieved. The contribution of the research presented in this paper is twofold. First, we illustrate transport management processes and activities of wholesaling companies which were not yet examined before. Second, cause-and-effect relationships on wholesale transport performance on operational, tactical and strategic levels are presented. Based on eight in-depth grounded theory interviews, a framework of processes and activities of transport management in wholesale has been illustrated. Transport management in wholesaling companies is indeed considered as a core process but logistics still lacks strategic importance. In this context, main transport management tasks such as controlling are not done. Transport managers only have operational goals with regard to transport execution. Previous literature mainly addresses effects on transport performance.
Within this contribution, main causes with effect on transport performance are elaborated. In terms of transport effectiveness, currently, basic requirements cannot be fulfilled to customer’s expectations and there is a lack of a holistic customer-oriented logistics strategy based on company’s focus. Regarding efficiency, wholesalers have difficulties in information flows. There is a current need to develop consistent, accurate information flows. Finally, wholesalers do not sufficiently know customer needs and do not address transport performance by continuously monitoring performance features. The achieved results provide some managerial implications and can be used to reconsider logistics in wholesale within a holistic view. Given the background that transport, as the last link in the supply chain, only reflects the entire logistics performance, transport should not be subject to individual local consideration. Thus, the proposed findings allow companies to improve both, transport efficiency and transport effectiveness. The results provide implications for corrective actions at different levels. For this purpose, wholesalers need to be aware of further strategic focus in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. Differentiation in transport logistics might help wholesaling companies to obtain competitive advantages.
However, our contribution shows some limitations. First, our research focuses on production-related wholesaling companies in Germany. Nevertheless, the wholesale industry is one of the most representatives in Europe in terms of turnover and employees. Second only wholesaling companies were interviewed. In order to get a broader view on transport performance it is necessary to also focus on customers. Besides the limitations, there are some issues which constitute opportunities for future research. This paper has focused on production-related wholesale. Findings might be different for other wholesale sectors. Furthermore, it would be of scientific value to validate and extent the acquired findings. Therefore, a broad empirical basis seems necessary. Finally, an extended view on cause-and-effects on transport performance in the other sectors could be meaningful.
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17 APPENDIX
Interview Guide
1. What are your tasks in transport management?
2. How does the interface between transport and other departments work?
External requirements to the transport department
3. What are (your client’s) external requirements to wholesale?
5. How is the wholesale transport department set up to meet these requirements?
6. How satisfied are your clients currently with wholesale transport services?
Internal requirements (management, other departments)
7. Which internal requirements does the transport department have to meet?
8. How do you measure the transport performance?
Wholesale transport performance
9. Which factors do you think have a positive impact on transport performance?
10. Which factors do you think have a negative impact on transport performance?
11. How do you use your knowledge about these factors to improve transport performance?
1