۱- Introduction

۲- Background

۳- Customer-oriented logistics using product intelligence

۴- Case study

۵- Conclusions

References

Abstract

Customer orientation concerns the degree to which an organisation focuses on customers, recognises their desires and places meeting their needs as a first priority. As managing the needs of individual customers in supply chains become increasingly important, logistics companies have been recognising customer orientation as a critical aspect of their success. This study explores some of the challenges in the deployment of customer-oriented logistics systems and argues that the so-called product intelligence model can provide an approach for developing such systems. Using an industrial case study, in this paper we examine customer orientation for a third-party logistics provider by examining both the development of information systems that enable the offering of flexible logistics offerings to the end customer and the impact of providing these offerings on a company’s performance. We conclude with a set of functionalities required by information systems of logistics providers that wish to enhance customer orientation in their offerings.

Introduction

Due to the emerging importance of managing the needs of individual customers in supply chains, logistics companies have been increasingly recognising customer orientation as a critical success factor [1–۴]. Logistics companies and retailers alike aim to offer more customer-oriented logistics services by offering greater customisation and flexibility to their customers [5–۷]. In this paper, we focus on the design of information systems that can support customerorientation in logistics and its impact on existing operations and systems.We argue thatthe so-called productintelligence model[8,9] for logically linking data and rules to a product, provides a suitable approach for the deployment of customer-oriented logistics which is often difficult to deploy with today’s systems. Inparticular,this study focuses on logistics offerings which allow the customer to flexibly intervene while his order is beingprocessed. The development of these offerings are studied in detail via an indepth third-party logistics case study, the aim of which is the examination of the challenges associated with the introduction of the offerings and their impact of performance. Besides analysing a specific industrial case,this study aims to contribute more generally to the functionalities required by information systems that wish to enhance customer orientation, towards their actual deployment. It also contributes to the product intelligence literature by further exploring its role for enhancing the customer–provider interaction. This paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 we present the main characteristics of a customer-oriented logistics system and we explore how companies achieve such characteristics today. In Section 3 we introduce a procedure for the development of an information model for customer-oriented logistics and we discuss the role of productintelligence in enabling the model. An industrial case study with an e-fulfilment company is presented in Section 4 which investigates the development of a customer-oriented logistics system, analyses the changes required in order for a conventional system to offer customer orientation and the impact on key performance measures.