Address the following scenario, providing two distinct options and arguing the benefits and costs of each. You are the Vice President for Transport of a medium-sized company. Due to favorable economic conditions, strong performance, and an expanding market your company is poised to consider whether to continue to rely on commercially available transport from third parties, enter into partnerships with your suppliers and customers, or develop your own, wholly-owned transport network.
Consider the following factors in proposing your two options:
Raw materials come from both domestic and imported sources, currently primarily via a port that is 200km away from your manufacturing centre and via a distributed rail system .Some raw materials also come in via lorry, using the main national highways and motorways as well as secondary roads that will only accommodate medium-sized lorries.80% of your customers are national, but the vast majority of those are located 500km or more from your manufacturing centre, in a mix of urban and rural locations .20% of your customers are off-shore, with half receiving goods by maritime distribution networks and the other half via air.
The transport costs exceed 20% of your total costs, however, and average approximately 35% of overall expenditures on transport. In working out your responses to the discussion question, you should choose examples from your own experience or find appropriate cases on the Web that you can discuss. Credit will be given for references you make to relevant examples from real companies.
REFERENCING:Harvard style
Word count: 750