Dell’s best practice
Dell’s best practice
Dell has successfully cooperated with its suppliers to directly fulfill their customer demands. We will examine the best practices of Dell in terms of the logistics operation, competitive advantages and customer service.
Logistic operation
Dell has been choosing the right transportation mode for each order type to minimizing packaging, they are continuously refining their global transportation and logistics network so their transactions are more eco-friendly without added extra cost or complexity.
They have also been optimizing transportation networks for more efficient trips. As they described on their official website, “one of the biggest ways we cut waste is by continually refining our global processes and tools to find the most efficient use of air, land and ocean transportation for every occasion — receiving supplies, shipping products, delivering services and accepting returns.”
Below examples were selected and cited from 2012 Dell Annual Report, the Business Process Management Journal and other related articles.
1. Transportation Model “Air to Sea” and “Truck to Rail”
Dell has designed the shipments from Asia to Europe and from China to South Asia. The Air to Sea initiative has reduced carbon emissions by shifting many international shipments from aircraft to ocean freight. Distributing products by sea rather than air can be able to reduced emissions and fuel usage per product shipped.
Transportation via ocean freight instead of aircraft can greatly improve the amount of product Dell could ship in a single trip. While the freighters use more fuel than aircraft, the fuel associated with each product shipped is much smaller proportionally.
On the other hand, Dell also achieved further efficiency through their truck-to-rail initiative. For many routes, such as Asia to Europe and China to South Asia, they now use rail rather than trucks to transfer shipments from ocean terminals to Dell fulfillment centers.
2. Pallets selection
Dell has successfully cooperated with its suppliers to directly fulfill their customer demands. We will examine the best practices of Dell in terms of the logistics operation, competitive advantages and customer service.
Logistic operation
Dell has been choosing the right transportation mode for each order type to minimizing packaging, they are continuously refining their global transportation and logistics network so their transactions are more eco-friendly without added extra cost or complexity.
They have also been optimizing transportation networks for more efficient trips. As they described on their official website, “one of the biggest ways we cut waste is by continually refining our global processes and tools to find the most efficient use of air, land and ocean transportation for every occasion — receiving supplies, shipping products, delivering services and accepting returns.”
Below examples were selected and cited from 2012 Dell Annual Report, the Business Process Management Journal and other related articles.
1. Transportation Model “Air to Sea” and “Truck to Rail”
Dell has designed the shipments from Asia to Europe and from China to South Asia. The Air to Sea initiative has reduced carbon emissions by shifting many international shipments from aircraft to ocean freight. Distributing products by sea rather than air can be able to reduced emissions and fuel usage per product shipped.
Transportation via ocean freight instead of aircraft can greatly improve the amount of product Dell could ship in a single trip. While the freighters use more fuel than aircraft, the fuel associated with each product shipped is much smaller proportionally.
On the other hand, Dell also achieved further efficiency through their truck-to-rail initiative. For many routes, such as Asia to Europe and China to South Asia, they now use rail rather than trucks to transfer shipments from ocean terminals to Dell fulfillment centers.
2. Pallets selection