BSC and Business Intelligence for Transportation

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Use of Balanced Scorecard is highly recommended for logistics companies and department that are willing to optimize performance, grow delivery volumes and attract new customers. This article focuses on logistics BSC and KPIs. Check additional information about business intelligence for Transportation.

As business turns international, logistics becomes extremely important. Goods and cargoes are delivered all over the world, and customers got used to the fact that they can order any product online from any part of the world and pick it up at their home's doors. Timely delivery of products and cargoes is a must for every company that values its customers. This is one of the most important factors that improves or decreases competitive advantage. This especially concerns huge wholesale companies that deal with thousands of orders daily.

Logistics management is not an easy thing. There are two main factors to be taken into account - timely delivery (or average delivery time) and delivery cost. Thus, it is possible to say that the ultimate goal of any logistics company or logistics department is to deliver products of cargoes within the shortest possible period of time and spend the minimum amount of money for that.

Sure thing this is not easy to take into account delays associated with change of transportation means, customs procedures, possible accidents etc. This is where Balanced Scorecard can help. Once implemented in a logistics department Balanced Scorecard will help optimize the process of delivery by evaluation of key performance indicators which represent key success factors for logistics business.

Implementation of Balanced Scorecard in a logistics department or even entire company does not differ from BCS implementation in other industries. The process starts with strategy development. In case of logistics it may be increase of market share or global volume of deliveries etc. Then the company should be looking for key performance indicators that will show progress or regress of a company on the way to implement strategic goals.

Is it possible to retain existing customers and attract new ones? Sure, it is possible. Company top management should measure customer satisfaction in order to improve services. Besides, if delivery gets cheap, either customers will pay less for the company decreases expenses related to delivery of products. Timely delivery is also an extremely important key performance indicator. However, it should be always evaluated parallel to delivery cost per unit, otherwise timely delivery may lead to increasing of delivery costs which is not good both for customers and a company.

It should be noted that choice of key performance indicators is one of the most important stages and BSC implementation in logistics. Company top management should make sure that all available resources and transportation means are used at their fullest potential. For instance, use of truck load capacity is very important as it is not efficient to drive a half empty truck to deliver products. Truck turnaround time can also increase or decrease delivery time. The company should think of the ways to decrease amount of products spoiled or damaged during delivery process.

In fact, the set of KPIs is chosen by company top management depending on company goals, structure and current problems, both in internal and external environment. Key performance indicators can be amended and substituted in course of time.

If you are interested in business intelligence for Transportation, check this link to find out more about business intelligence for Transportation. Also, you can check other articles in Customer Service and Call centers category.

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