Hubs, logistic

Manufacturing enterprises extend beyond the walls of a factory that just produces goods they encompass a range of activities from supply chain of materials or components to manufacturing processes and the logistics of the finished product. This involves a network of production sites, suppliers, inventory hubs as well as sales and distribution centres. 

Where is this supplier of logistics located Where are the hubs set up ... 

At the same time, urban areas are saturated and do not permit effective distribution of goods in the absence of logistic hubs set up in sufficient numbers. Frequent imbalances between transport supply and demand are seen leading to shortages of road transportation capacity on certain routes at certain times of year, for which alternatives are difficult to find because of the lack of availability and responsiveness of rail freight. Lastly let us mention the lack of maritime and rail motorways and the lack of harmonization for legislation in goods transport Europe-wide to appreciate the structural difficulties that players on the supply chain have to contend with. 

Trappey CV, Tiappey AJC, Lin GYP, Liu CS, Lee WT (2007) Business and logistics hub integration to facilitate global supply chain linkage. Proc Inst Mech Eng B J Eng Manuf... 

The supply chain configuration is relatively stable and it is well aligned with the global electronic supply chains. Atzema (2001) and APEC (2013) shows that the global electronics supply chains cluster around certain locations where facilities of major manufacturers, wholesalers, and 3PL providers are located. For instance, Amsterdam is one of such hubs where majority of large companies have their logistics centers. 

Barnes, E., Dai, J., Deng, S., Down, D., Goh, M., Lau, H.C., Sharafali, M. (2003). On the Strategy of Shup-ply Hubs for Cost Reduction and Responsiveness. White Paper, The Logistics Institute—Asia Pacific, National University of Singapore, Singapore. 

Each of Dell s facfories is served from a vendor hub , operated by third-party logistics service providers, the purpose of which is to keep a buffer of inventory from which Dell can draw as required. Suppliers are required to keep a defined level of inventory at these hubs and Dell only takes ownership of the inventory when it reaches their factories. 

Determined not to see a repeat of this catastrophic event - the size of the inventory write-off created a new world record and led to a major financial setback for the company - Cisco set out to build a state of the art communications network to enable information to be shared across the extended enterprise of their major tier 1 suppliers and logistics service providers. This has been achieved through the creation of an e-hub . The purpose of the e-hub is to act as the nerve centre and to ensure real-time visibility of demand, inventory levels and production schedules. Through its event management capability it can provide early warning of supply chain problems. 

A hub-and-spoke system is characterized by an organizational structure in which a central distribution center (hub) is connected by logistic channels (spokes) to multiple depots. A depot covers a region with specific collection and delivery points for goods, hard and soft. A soft good can be software, or orders. In some systems, links between depots permit transshipment (Grahovac and Chakravarty 2001). 

Daniel, D., White, A., Harrison, A. and Ward, J. (2003) The Future ofe-Hubs Findings of an International Delphi Study, Information Systems Research Centre and Centre for Logistics and SCM, Cranfield School of Management. 

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