Operating Characteristics Analysis among Different Types of Distribution Centers

• Main Authors: Tien-Shing Chou, 周天行
• Other Authors: Tsan-hwan Percy Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/07628984598578113282

碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 運輸倉儲營運所 === 91 === The existence of a distribution center (DC) is to meet logistics-related needs of its customers. Since different strategic positioning and motivations are present among different types of DCs (practitoioners) and customers, it is thus possible to have different strategies and operation systems in managing a DC. It becomes a critical issue to understand the differences to realize the benefits in managing a DC. The research starts from definition of third-party and dedicated distribution centers to find their differences. A key success factor (KSF) identification model is developed to have a list of possible success factors. Survey is conducted with respect to practitioners and their customers to identify the KSF of a successful distribution center operation through simple statistical analysis. Customers are also asked to evaluate their service-providers’ performances. T-paired tests are carried out to find different viewpoints between different surveyed constituents. The results show that different practitioners basically have similar viewpoints toward KSF. However, significant differences exist between practitioners and their customers, especially in customer-service related factors. It implies that practitioners must listen more carefully to customers’ needs. With respect to performance evaluation, practioners perform far behind customers’ expectations in top ten KSFs. This implies that “customer service gap” exists and improvement opportunities are plenty. Finally, dedicated DCs have the tendency to adopt focused stratey while third-party DCs focus more on differentiation one