Automotive Logistics

Expertise in automotive logistics, driving your supply chain operations towards efficiency and innovation.

What Is Automotive Logistics and Supply Chain

Automotive logistics and supply chain management involve the coordinated movement of vehicles, parts, and materials within the automotive industry. This includes everything from the procurement of raw materials to the delivery of finished vehicles. In an industry that is rapidly evolving with the advent of electric vehicles, autonomous technology, and changing consumer demands, effective logistics management is crucial for staying competitive and meeting market needs.

The Key Components of Automotive Logistics

There are two distinct automotive logistics categories; production and aftermarket. Production logistics refers to the processes and infrastructure to deliver parts on a just-in-time basis to a manufacturing plant, assembling new vehicles. Aftermarket logistics includes all of the activity to support the servicing and repair of vehicles throughout it’s lifecycle.

Whilst the requirements might differ, automotive logistics encompasses the same essential components, each requiring specialised attention:

Component

Description

Supply Chain Planning

Strategically managing procurement,
production schedules, and distribution to
ensure efficiency and meet demand.

Inventory Management

Balancing inventory levels to avoid surplus
and shortages, crucial for parts and
materials in the automotive industry.

Transportation Management

Efficiently moving goods and materials, a
critical component given the global nature
of the automotive industry.

Warehouse Management

Specialised storage and retrieval systems,
often involving automation, to handle
diverse automotive components.

Supplier Relationship Management

Maintaining strong relationships with a
network of suppliers for timely procurement
and quality assurance.

Customer Demand Fulfilment

Ensuring final products are delivered in line
with customer expectations and market
demands.

Reverse Logistics

Handling returns and recalls efficiently, a
vital aspect due to the strict quality and
safety standards in the industry.

Overcoming Challenges in Automotive Logistics with BoxLogic

The automotive industry faces unique challenges, from managing complex global supply chains to adapting to technological advancements.

With BoxLogic’s team of experienced logistics consultants, you benefit from:

  • Adaptation strategies for the integration of electric and autonomous vehicles into your supply chain.
  • Solutions for complex global networks, ensuring timely delivery and cost-effectiveness.
  • Advanced technological integration for enhanced visibility and control over your logistics processes.
  • Tailored approaches to meet the specific needs of your automotive logistics, from manufacturer to end consumer.

Why Choose BoxLogic for Aerospace Logistics

  • Deep Industry Knowledge: Our team has extensive experience in the automotive sector, understanding its nuances and specific challenges.
  • Customised Solutions: We provide tailored logistics strategies that align with your unique business objectives and operational requirements.
  • Advanced Technology Utilisation: Embracing cutting-edge logistics technology to enhance efficiency and precision in your supply chain.
  • Global Network Expertise: Proficient in managing intricate global supply chains, ensuring seamless international operations.
  • Sustainability Focus: We help you navigate towards more sustainable logistics practices, crucial in today’s environmentally conscious market.

Embark on a journey of transformation in your automotive logistics operations with BoxLogic. Our expertise ensures that your logistics are not just a link but a driving force in your supply chain. Contact us today to rev up your logistics strategy.

Our Process

BoxLogic pride ourselves on delivering projects using a proven approach that can be tailored to each client’s specific requirements. We use a blend of our team’s extensive sector experience and our methodical data driven approach to provide the best feedback for your business.

We work closely with our clients to deliver successful outcomes. We are flexible in our approach but there are always regular touch points throughout projects to update on progress, confirm assumptions, share results and make decisions about the preferred direction.

We start by visiting the operation to rapidly build our understanding of how it works and establish strong working relationships across the project team and stakeholders.

Our consultants work with data to confirm assumptions of the existing operation that is used as the foundation of any downstream work. These might include throughput or storage volumes, growth projections, productivities, customer distribution etc. depending on the project goals.

Using the assumptions developed during the analysis stage, a range of scenarios or options will be modelled to evaluate the solutions that provide the most attractive results.

After selecting a preferred approach, our team develop an end-to-end solution in more detail and support the client to build a financial case for change. This could also include further detailed drawings, further validation with the market or other steps that build confidence in the solution.

Speak to aN AUTOMOTIVE Logistics Expert Today

Call us on +44 (0)118 309 4030
to speak to a BoxLogic consultant about your automotive logistics project requirements

Get In Touch

Frequently Asked Questions

Ecommerce logistics is characterised by the presence of several functions and processes that do not take place in the traditional replenishment of stores or depots. The key difference is the atomisation of throughput volumes into much smaller orders to many more destinations with much greater flexibility. This is most notable in the transportation of goods to people’s houses, collection points or lockers instead of a small number of deliveries to retail outlets.

The smaller order profiles require new ways of picking, packing and despatching goods in the warehouse. Returns are another significant by-product of ecommerce, particularly in the fashion sector, where unwanted items are returned to the warehouse to be processed for refunds and put back into stock if required. Stock has a longer residence time in the warehouse and therefore must be protected from damage, typically with polythene bags.

There are two approaches to setting up ecommerce logistics operations: outsourcing to specialist service providers or establishing an in-house operation. The former may be quicker to implement, more scalable with lower up-front investment whilst the latter provides greater control over costs and service to the customers.

To fulfil online customer orders on a website, many small and large businesses choose to outsource their ecommerce logistics operations. This allows them to focus on their product, marketing, and customer service, rather than directing capital expenditure at buying warehouse premises as well as hardware and systems. The 3PL (third-party logistics provider) can use its customers’ carrier rate cards or sometimes use its own rate cards.

For companies that want to run their own operations in-house, they may need to reconfigure the storage layout to optimise it for ecommerce storage quantities and picking. Packing benches will need to be setup to process orders. New processes created in the warehouse management system and integration into other systems including the ERP, carrier systems and ecommerce platform.

Transport carriers need to be engaged. The impact on the warehouse team may be significant with potential changes to working hours and therefore contracts. Training needs to be rolled out so that work is conducted to the agreed standards.

Inventory management in ecommerce relates to the positioning and availability of items to maximise the probability of sales through the highest margin channel. For pure ecommerce retailers, this could simply be ensuring that the right items are in stock in the right quantities, particularly for retailers operating out of multiple locations.

For omnichannel retailers, this will be more complex and involve decisions around how much stock to allocate to the ecommerce stock pool and the retail outlets with the remainder held back for replenishing both channels accordingly. This is commonly done by setting ‘min/maxes’ for each stock pool, which involves setting minimum and maximum stock quantities for each SKU that automates replenishment.

The aim for retailers is to sell their merchandise at the highest margin possible and one way of achieving this is through making all stock available to the widest audience possible. Some retailers therefore operate in such a way that any online orders can also be fulfilled from stores. These require Order Management Systems (OMS) to select the optimal fulfilment route for each order, which may be fulfilled from stores, from the warehouse or a combination of both.

Efulilment is another term for ecommerce logistics and is the combination of processes, technologies and organisations to deliver an order placed online to the customer. This includes the website that takes the order, the systems that interface with payment providers, 3PLs and carriers, the warehouse that processes the order, the transport company that delivers the product and more.

There is a relatively new and specific type of 3PL (third-party logistics provider) that has gained significant traction recently by focusing entirely on supporting customers in the ecommerce space in the form of efuflilment specialists. They have streamlined and standardised the process of fulfilment to support rapid customer onboarding via flexible warehouse management systems operating standard integrations to customer systems. Multiple customers are housed in shared-user facilities to reduce operational overheads and drive cost reductions.