Keywords: logistics enterprises; Informatization; Principle; Level; Countermeasures
1 Introduction
From 65438+February 2005 1 1, China logistics and the whole service industry ended the transition period and opened to the outside world in an all-round way. This will accelerate the integration of China's logistics market with the international market, and make logistics enterprises face severe challenges and rare opportunities. Faced with challenges and opportunities, many logistics enterprises are stepping up efforts to enhance their core competitiveness. As an important means and the only way to promote and realize the system innovation, technology innovation and management innovation of logistics enterprises and enhance the core competitiveness of logistics enterprises, logistics enterprise informatization has been generally recognized by many logistics enterprises in China, especially large enterprises, and has become their strategic choice. However, at present, the backward application level of modern information technology in most logistics enterprises in China restricts the improvement of their automation level, weakens their rapid response ability and competitiveness to the market, and has increasingly become a "technical bottleneck" for the development and core competitiveness of many domestic logistics enterprises. Therefore, it is urgent for logistics enterprises to speed up information construction.
2 the role of logistics enterprise informatization
2. 1 Promote the reduction of logistics costs
In the information management system of logistics enterprises, logistics enterprises should consciously apply modern science and technology and mathematical methods and means, and use mathematical models and tools to make decisions, predict and control the logistics activities of enterprises, so as to realize truly effective scientific management, realize the optimization and intelligence of management and decision-making, make the most rational use of limited resources, and achieve the greatest economic benefits with the least consumption.
2.2 Promote logistics business process reengineering and organizational structure optimization
Logistics informatization inevitably requires logistics process reengineering. Logistics process reengineering is the sublimation of logistics system, which makes logistics more reasonable, efficient and modern, and expands the space-time scope of logistics. On the other hand, informatization has greatly promoted the optimization of enterprise organizational structure, reduced management levels, flattened and rationalized the internal management of logistics enterprises, accelerated the response to market dynamic changes and improved management efficiency.
2.3 Promote logistics standardization
At present, China's logistics standardization construction is backward, and logistics informatization can promote logistics standardization. At present, the trend of modern logistics standardization based on information technology and modern network technology has three aspects: one is the standardization of business process, the other is the standardization of information flow, and the third is the standardization of file format.
2.4 Promote logistics enterprises to improve their competitiveness
From the perspective of competition scope, after enterprises apply logistics informatization, logistics competition has shifted from link competition to the whole process of supply chain competition. Without informatization, logistics enterprises will not be competitive in the whole supply chain. From the perspective of competitive means, after the formation of the supply chain, the ability of information processing and information management determines the ability of the whole supply chain to respond to the market and provide customers with efficient and high-level services. Without the informatization of logistics enterprises, it is impossible to improve the responsiveness to customers and it will be at a disadvantage in the competition.
3 principles of information construction of logistics enterprises
(1) principle of moderate scale. The so-called moderate scale is to determine the informatization goal according to the scale of your own enterprise and your own development needs, and to formulate appropriate informatization planning according to your own characteristics.
(2) The principle of overall consideration. From the perspective of enterprise development, information planning should be a long-term and complete planning. Therefore, enterprises should work out feasible long-term planning, medium-term planning and short-term planning when carrying out information planning.
(3) The principle of step-by-step implementation. Step-by-step implementation is to implement each subsystem step by step according to your own development and needs. When developing the system, logistics enterprises try to use the object-oriented method to develop the system. According to the demand and severity, they can develop and use one subsystem at a time, from part to whole. In this way, enterprises can add subsystem modules at any time, which is beneficial to the operation of enterprise funds.
(4) The principle of system integration. System integration has two meanings: first, in the information system, data is required to be highly independent and extensible, and each system module or user can fully enjoy it, so as to obtain an efficient management information system; Second, the information system should have a good interface and scalability.
(5) Long-term strategic principles. Enterprise information engineering is a long-term strategy, emphasizing lifelong service. Enterprise informatization is a process with only a starting point and no end point. Once an enterprise embarks on the road of informatization, with the development of the enterprise, the informatization construction will continue to deepen and upgrade, and the application of informatization will gradually become an important part of the enterprise as a whole. Stopping or giving up halfway will cause irreparable losses to the enterprise.
4 logistics enterprises to enhance the level of information technology
The informatization history of logistics enterprises is short and the foundation is weak, so its informatization construction needs to be gradual, and it is impossible to achieve it in one step. Looking at the development course and trend of informatization of logistics enterprises in China, we can see that the informatization level of logistics enterprises in China is shown in Figure 2.
The first level: basic informatization, which mainly solves the problems of information collection, transmission, processing and sharing, thus improving the decision-making level of enterprises and generating benefits. Its main function is to improve the efficiency and standardize the management of information systems. At present, the information informatization of most small and medium-sized logistics enterprises in China is still in its infancy, and its informatization level still stays at this level, even some large logistics enterprises are no exception.
The second level: informatization based on process reengineering, that is, applying system theory and optimization technology to the process design and transformation of logistics, and integrating it into the new management system, its role is to solidify the new process and management system and provide optimized solutions in the specified process, such as warehouse optimization and transportation path optimization. At present, a few logistics enterprises have achieved success in informatization involving process change.
The third level: information platform based on supply chain, that is, by connecting with customers' information systems, an efficient, fast and convenient information platform based on supply chain is formed, which improves the rapid response ability and makes informatization a key tool to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the whole supply chain. At present, some large-scale logistics enterprises and private logistics enterprises at the forefront of informatization in China have paid attention to this level and are taking relevant measures.
The fourth level: the stage of information deep processing and mining for the purpose of optimizing decision-making, whose goal is to transform information into knowledge and provide decision-making basis. This level is the ultimate goal of information development of all logistics enterprises.
The four-level demand of logistics enterprise informatization is from shallow to deep, and the latter level often starts from the foundation of the previous level.
5 to improve the level of logistics enterprise information countermeasures
The informatization construction of logistics enterprises is imminent, but it is a long-term process, which needs continuous improvement. We must plan from a strategic height and take corresponding concrete measures.
5. 1 Establishment of specialized agencies
The informatization construction of logistics enterprises should have long-term and independent organizations, such as information management centers. Information management center is the center of logistics enterprise information system. It is independent of other business departments and has sufficient communication channels with these departments. The information management center obtains raw data from other business functional departments, and carries out summary and centralized analysis and processing; Do a good job in information display and feedback in time, and establish various information files; Constantly improve the enterprise's information management system to provide decision-making basis for other departments and enterprise leaders.
5.2 Choose the appropriate information mode,
The informatization modes of logistics enterprises are as follows: the first mode is to develop information systems by oneself, the second mode is to cooperate with IT companies, and the third mode is to choose professional logistics software companies. Large logistics enterprises can choose the first two modes. However, the direct and indirect costs of these two modes are either too high to guarantee the progress, or they need a lot of communication time to guarantee the quality of service. Compared with the first two modes, the third mode is most suitable for small and medium-sized logistics enterprises, but at present, the level of domestic logistics software suppliers is generally low, and logistics enterprises need to carefully choose partners.
5.3 Strengthen information planning consulting services
No matter which information mode logistics enterprises choose, they cannot do without consulting services. The overall planning, process optimization, demand definition and demand control in the initial stage of logistics information system construction are the keys to ensure the smooth implementation of the information system and achieve good results. In addition, the information system construction of logistics enterprises also needs consulting services.
5.4 Process Reengineering and Informatization Synchronization
Business process reengineering is the core of informatization. Enterprise informatization and e-commerce are bound to be accompanied by business process reengineering, which must be superior to informatization and e-commerce implementation. At present, the main reason for the failure of informatization of some logistics enterprises in China is that they did not re-examine and transform the traditional processes before implementing informatization, but adopted new advanced technologies to adapt to the old management and production and operation processes, which greatly hindered the development of informatization. The essence of informatization is to realize the reorganization and reengineering of enterprise processes with the help of technical equipment and software, so as to reduce costs, improve management and production efficiency, and finally improve the economic and social benefits of enterprises.
5.5 Accelerate the establishment of logistics informatization standards
Logistics activities include many links, and the logistics information system needs to connect all partners and links in the supply chain into a whole, which requires standardization in coding, file format, data interface, EDI, GPS and other related aspects to eliminate information communication obstacles between different enterprises. Logistics information standards include basic standards, work standards, management standards, technical standards and individual standards. The formulation of logistics information standards will make it easier for logistics enterprises to communicate and serve with customers, subcontractors and suppliers, and logistics software will also be integrated into industry standards in format and process, thus creating a good environment for the construction of enterprise logistics information systems.
5.6 Pay attention to the integration and unification of information system operation.
Logistics information system is an integrated management system of enterprise logistics, capital flow and information flow, and its application runs through logistics business activities and spans multiple functional departments. Therefore, we should fully consider the connection between various management departments and operational links. Otherwise, even if each functional module of the information system locally promotes the automation of logistics operations and the improvement of management efficiency, it will also affect the improvement of the efficiency of the whole logistics system because of poor communication and information distortion between departments.
5.7 Take the step-by-step information road
The logistics informatization of China's third-party logistics enterprises is still in its infancy and its foundation is weak. In addition, the economic system and structure of the whole country are changing, and it is difficult to design a mature process at once. Logistics informatization projects have large investment and high risks, so third-party logistics enterprises should proceed from their own reality, pay attention to actual results and take a step-by-step road.
5.8 Long-term planning, focusing on the integrity and durability of information technology.
The information system of logistics enterprises will transition from simple information collection, storage, transmission and enjoyment to information processing, analysis, management and decision-making. From the solution of integrated supply chain logistics, we should not only realize the docking and exchange of logistics information with customers, but also realize the docking and exchange of data with resource (transportation, warehousing) suppliers, which truly reflects the "chain owner" of the three-party logistics enterprises as integrated logistics suppliers. Therefore, logistics enterprises should not only meet the current development needs of enterprises, but also closely integrate with their long-term development strategies to meet the needs of future market and enterprise development. Logistics enterprises should pay close attention to the development trend of information technology and actively adopt international standards or industry standards, especially the interface part, so as to provide a good technical foundation for the upgrading and expansion of information platforms in the future. This requires enterprises to have a macro and long-term plan for the whole system software before developing the logistics software system, that is to say, they should consider it as comprehensively and concretely as possible, fully take care of the future application needs of enterprises, and facilitate the upgrading and optimization of the software system.
5.9 *** Construction of Logistics Information Platform.
Logistics enterprises must keep close contact with customers and relevant government departments, establish a logistics public information platform, and realize the full sharing and exchange of information resources, which is the core and key of logistics informatization at present. The logistics public information platform can effectively integrate the old industry resources, realize the interaction and sharing of industry resources, and give full play to the overall advantages of the logistics industry. Its functions mainly include comprehensive information service, data exchange support, logistics business transaction support, goods tracking, industry application service hosting and so on. The direct use of logistics public information platform by logistics enterprises can promote the establishment of modern logistics distribution center and further improve and upgrade the industrial structure of logistics industry.
6 concluding remarks
Traditional logistics can only be called modern logistics by integrating information technology, and logistics enterprises can only reduce costs, realize rapid response, improve customer satisfaction and form their own competitive advantages by strengthening information construction. Informatization of logistics enterprises is the soul of modern logistics enterprises and the inevitable requirement and cornerstone of the development of modern logistics enterprises. Facing the influx of foreign logistics enterprises, China's logistics enterprises should seize the opportunity to improve their informatization level, so as to enhance their core competitiveness. However, the informatization construction of logistics enterprises is a systematic project, and the purpose of enterprise informatization construction should be very clear. According to the actual situation of enterprises and the law of enterprise information construction, it should be planned and implemented steadily in stages and at different levels.