In-Plant Logistics Need to be focused On

Hello everyone, I am Peeyush Pareek, pursuing my MBA second year from Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore. In this blog I am going to share some brief knowledge on “In-plant Logistics” 

 

When we think of logistics, a picture of material movement material from one factory to the other for turning it into finished product or from warehouse to the market loaded in big trucks, small delivery vehicles are come to the picture. But how about the movement of material, parts, components, sub assembled components in a factory. Does that need a logistics system too!!!

 

Yes, In plant logistics is the movement of material inside the factory. This system requires similar inputs as the logistics for out delivery takes. This also needs an infrastructure, system and processes, Information flow and a lot of money is involved in this. This is well integrated with the external logistics as well. So, organizations which overlook the In-plant logistics have to face problems like bottlenecks, less production, high cost of production, poor quality and higher time to reach the markets.

    

 

In- plant logistics is a much faster process than the external logistics, as material needs a lesser distance to cover, information flow is focused to smaller area.  let us see some basic functions of In-plant logistics. 

1. Movement of raw material from the external logistics  
2. Storage of raw material 
3. Moving the raw material to the manufacturing floor  
4. Moving the components to different places in the plant 
5. Assembly support (in case of products which need the assembling process) 
6.  Moving the finished goods to the inventory  
7. Moving the finished goods to the gate 
8. Loading in the dispatch vehicles   

 

But this process is more complex than it seems and requires a lot of support system like inventory control, material handling solutions, distribution solutions, scheduling dispatch. Information in form of receipts, identification of bottle necks, optimization for in-process inventory storage, labelling the material, inventory level information, feedback from every point and much more information is required.  

But with the modernization of process and introduction of advanced technologies, it has become easier than before. For physical movements we can see the automation and robotics has done this work efficiently is much lower time and with much lower costs. For information flow the integrated system in information technology has dome all the work. Inventory control and tracking of the material system has seen the dramatical changes with integration of the information technology.

 

Most of the people think that it doesn’t add the value has a cost. But if we don’t move the material all of the functions of the plant will shut and no more manufacturing happens. More value is added with more efficient work in it. The initial cost can be higher but it adds too much value in long run.

  

It can be out sourced also from the variety of logistics companies which provide the smartest solution to In plant logistics.  It has also become a business for several companies like North West carrying company, Nissin ABC logistics and many more which are fully dedicated for the same