Integrated Virtual Logistics Network for Quick Responses

Trucking is a vital segment of the transportation system that supports Indian Manufacturing. Trucking companies are attempting at providing such non-traditional trucking services as warehousing, distribution, inventory management, picking and packing — assembly operations and return goods management as part of their value added services thus making manufacturing (brick and mortar) activity competitive in the information (click) age. The major stakeholders in this exercise are (i) manufacturing industries (particularly Small and Medium scale enterprises — SMEs), (ii) logistics service providers (transportation, warehousing, clearing and forwarding agencies), and (iii) government and financial agencies (Central Excise and Customs, Regional Transport Organizations, Surface Transport Agencies and Banks etc). The present scenario warrants an integrated quick response mechanism to extend complete logistics solutions in a seamlessly integrated manner to reduce costs rather than extending the services in a disjointed way. In this context, this paper attempts at 1) Study of the present IT architecture, business processes of different agencies, involved in providing and using logistics industry's services in India, like Transportation sector, Customs & Central Excise of India internal processes and their external interactions with EDI partners, Manufacturing Companies' IT infrastructures and 2) Developing a framework for "Integrated virtual logistics network for Quick Responses" which would factor in the existing processes, systems and organizations' roles and the government's, proposed investments in the e-commerce and e-governance infrastructure.