Question

I need 1200 words essay on:

"Amazon International Supply Chain and Logistics"

Answer 1

In a short period of over 24 years, Amazon has transformed itself from a online book marketplace to a global retail giant and a force to reckon with. Over this period, it has grown at a impressive rate of over 20 percent per annum. It enjoys over 6 percent global sales in e commerce space. This astounding success of the company can be attributed to the innovative and efficient supply chain strategy, that has changed the face of online retail.

amazon's supply chain is characterised by the use of state of the art technology. an impressive network of warehouses, multi tier inventory system and transportation system that has helped to cut delivery time and offer world class service to the customers.

Amazon outsources its inventory operations to third party agencies to an extent of over three fourth if its inventory. These third party agents handle the storage of items not frequently purchased. However, it uses its own transportation services for most of the items, and it has enbled it to offer the option of same day or next day delivery to its customers. It combines the use of push and pull strategy by building its warehouse near big metropolitan cities to push the products and using pull strategy from its third party partners. The warehouses are classified according to their size and locations, designed strategically to ensure fulfillment and meeting the service timelines and facilitate the high moving items to move swiftly. The automation in the warehouses, which started in 2012, employs minimum human intervention in certain areas where the picking and packing is done entirely by robots, which increases efficiency and minimize the errors. With use of economies of scale, the company is able to provide cost effective and prompt solutions at lower price.

The supply chain is complemented by acquiring competency and strength through acquisitions and colloaborations. A example is the buying of Whole foods chain which wil help the company to get a leadership position in the grocery space, with which it has struggled so far. Another invention in the customer convenience is the dash button through which the orders can be completed thorugh wi fi, with button mounted at diffeent places according to the convenience of the customer and can be used as a wireless device.

Amazon has been working on the innovative delivery system through drones across 30 miles from its warehouses. It will enable it to serve the customers living in areas where swift movements are difficult due to constraints, to ensure the same swiftness of delivery.

In the recent times, Amazon has been focussing on building its own air cargo and ocean freight capabilities and slowly trying to do away with the outourced logistics to be able to move huge cargo from it production centres across China and Asia to the markets in the US and the EU. The effort is to build an integrated high technology solution to meet the challenging delivery timelines and reduce the operational cost through economies of scale and highly cost efficient processes.