FAILURES IN LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT OF VINALINK’S LOGISTICS DEPARTMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Together with the growth of Vietnam’s economy in general and business sector in particular, the need for exchanging and transporting goods is getting greater and greater. Logistics has appeared to fill this market gap.

I NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVESITY ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES  ¬ LE THI THUY LINH INTERNSHIP report Topic: FAILURES IN LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT OF VINALINK’S LOGISTICS DEPARTMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS Hanoi- 5/2010 I NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVESITY ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES  ¬ LE THI THUY LINH INTERNSHIP report Topic: FAILURES IN LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT OF VINALINK’S LOGISTICS DEPARTMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS Field: Code: English for Business Studies 701 Supervisor: MS NGUYEN PHUONG HOAI, M.A Hanoi- 5/2010 II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study is completed not as the result of my personal effort but the outcome of enthusiastic support and contribution from many people involved in my internship process Therefore, I would like to thank Ms Trần Thị Thu Giang, Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages for giving me the opportunity to conduct this study I am also delighted to give my sincere recognition and appreciation to Ms Nguyễn Phương Hoài for her constant help with academic knowledge and her support during the time I complete my report I would also like to express my gratitude to Vinalink International Freight Forwarders particularly Logistics Department-Ha Noi Branch for allowing me to internship in the company I especially owe my thanks to people who directly instructed me who are Mr Nguyễn Quốc Vương, Manager of Logistics Department and other officials of the department Once again, I deeply appreciate all the great support that I received during my internship III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provides an analysis on the failure of Logistics Department-Ha Noi Branch of Vinalink International Freight Forwarders in terms of logistics management Data collected through methods of observation, horizontal and vertical analysis of revenue, growth and proportion shows that revenue of Logistics Department has moderate increase over the time However, the rate of revenue which Logistics Department contributes to the total number of the whole branch is rather low despite the fact that logistics is one of the most popular services recognized by Vinalink’s customers and partners Its revenue contribution is outnumbered by those of Air and Sea Departments This situation is the result of inefficient logistics management Its management failures are shown the most clearly in two of its revenue generating sources: warehouse and freight transport Therefore, a management reform is the key solution to help Logistics Department overcome its drawbacks and attain greater competitive strength among other departments of Ha Noi Branch Recommendations discussed in this report include: • Improve warehouse management • Improve freight transport management IV INTRODUCTION Rationale Together with the growth of Vietnam’s economy in general and business sector in particular, the need for exchanging and transporting goods is getting greater and greater Logistics has appeared to fill this market gap In transport context, logistics is referred to as the planning, organization, management, execution and control of freight transport operations which determines the efficiency of freight transport Up to now, logistics has become a business with the emergence of new companies as well as specialized departments within existing transport organizations Vinalink International Freight Forwarders (Vinalink) is a long-time player in this business Since its establishment in 1999, Vinalink has provided logistics services in combination with its International transport services and from 2002 these services have been managed by specialized departments in Ha Noi, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City Among those three departments, Logistics Department of Hanoi Branch has become a popular provider of these services However, as a specialized department with its own management Logistics Department has failed to prove its role in revenue contribution into the total number of the whole office in comparison with other departments such as Sea and Air Departments This results from its inefficient management Therefore, in this study, I analyzed some drawbacks of Logistics Department in terms of logistics management from which I could draw some recommendations to solve the situation Methodology In this report I based on three main research methods to present my ideas and arguments, which are observational method, quantitative method and descriptive method Research questions: My report gives answers to the following questions: - What are issues of logistics management? - What are Logistics Department’s failures in logistics management? - How can Logistics Department improve its management? Sources and method of data collection V Analysis in my report primarily based on secondary data such as statistics of revenue, rates of revenue, growth and organizational records The data was collected through observation, Vinalink’s performance reports and minutes of meetings VI TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER TITLE PAGE Title page I Acknowledgement II Executive summary .III Introduction IV Table of content .VI Main chapters Introduction of Vinalink International Freight Forwarders and Logistics Department .1 1.1.Vinalink International Freight Forwarders’ background 1.2 Logistics Department’s background 1.3 Logistics Department’s performance Literature review .7 2.1 Logistics 2.2 Logistics management 2.2.1 Warehouse management .8 2.2.1.1 Use of building space 2.2.1.2 Minimum movement 10 2.2.1.3 Control and information system 10 2.2.1.4 Product integrity 11 2.2.1.5 Working condition and safety .11 2.2.2 Freight transport management 11 2.2.2.1 Choice of transport modes 11 2.2.2.2 Scheduling and routing control .13 2.2.2.3 Fleet management 13 Analysis and findings .15 3.1 Warehouse management 15 3.1.1 Warehouse design and layout .15 3.1.2 Information and communication system 17 3.1.3 Working condition and safety .18 3.2 Freight transport management 18 Recommendations 21 VII 4.1 Warehouse management reform 21 4.1.1 Warehouse design and layout 21 4.1.2 Information and communication system 23 4.1.3 Working condition and safety 23 4.2 Freight transport management reform .24 Conclusion 26 Appendix 28 References .29 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION OF VINALINK INTERNATIONAL FREIGHT FORWARDERS AND LOGISTICS DEPARTMENT Chapter provides an overview of Vinalink International Freight Forwarders’ business and after that zooms in the operation of Logistics Department of Vinalink Ha Noi Branch to introduce its main areas of services In addition, Logistics Department’s performance is evaluated in order to find out its current situation 1.1 Vinalink International Freight Forwarders’ background Vinalink International Freight Forwarders or Vinalink for abbreviation founded under the decision of Minister for Ministry of Trade to equitize state-owned company, officially started its operations on September 01, 1999 as a Joint Stock company with 10% state-owned, and 90% individual-owned, with starting capital of VND8 billion Vinalink is headquartered at 145 – 147 Nguyen Tat Thanh, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City and has branches and representative offices in Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Binh Duong, Da Nang, Quy Nhon, Dong Nai… Vinalink has more than 270 employees and owns over 2.500 sq m of office building, 16.000 sq m of warehouse and open yards, over 40 prime movers, trucks and pick-up vans, loading and unloading equipments and devices Vinalink’s scope of business includes: - Freight forwarding (Seafreight and Airfreight) - Transport services - Logistics services - Bonded warehouse and cargo storage services - Shipping and Liner Agency - GSA (General sales agent) for airlines - Air ticket booking agency - Import - export and trading business - Infrastructure investment and real estate business As a trustworthy partner of cooperation Vinalink has achieved membership of honorable associations of freight forwarders as well as economic organizations such as Vietnam Freight Forwarders Association-VIFFAS, International Federation of Freight Forwarders-FIATA, American Moving and Storage Association-AMSA and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry-VCCI… Vinalink Ha Noi Branch Vinalink Ha Noi Branch was launched on January 1st, 2005 at No.2 Bich Cau Street, Dong Da District, Ha Noi In 2006 its office was moved to level 6, Lang Ha Builiding, Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi Until the end of the year 2009, Ha Noi Branch had 70 employees working in departments The organizational structure of Ha Noi Branch is described in Figure Figure 1: Organizational structure of Ha Noi Branch Ha Noi Branch Ocean Export Dept Ocean Import Dept Airfreight Dept Logistics Dept Hai Phong Office Accounting and Administra -tion Dept 16 Figure 4: Design and layout of Vinalink’s warehouses Reserve stock and order picking stock Small items Inbound Reserve stock and order picking stock Fast moving goods Fast moving goods Office Shipping preparation Outbound Firstly, the organization creates a lot of aisles and the width between stocking blocks is quite broad To take the warehouse in North Thang Long industrial zone as an example, within a total area of approximately 150 sq m there are nine aisles separating five different sections The broadest aisle is 3m wide; the narrowest is 0.8m wide Having many wide aisles is very helpful in avoiding congestion because they provide easy access to the stock But that is not fully true in the case of Vinalink As Vinalink provides special warehouse services which are mortgaged cargo management services for banks, its warehouses have to keep a large quantity of mortgaged cargoes and they are treated as long term reserve stock As a result, it is more necessary for Vinalink’s warehouses to make good use of space to stock as much goods as possible Having many wide aisles becomes a disadvantage in this case because this limits stocking areas 17 Secondly, Vinalink’s warehouses are designed with mixed stocking locations of reserve and order picking goods As shown in Figure 4, in the design and layout of Vinalink’s warehouses there is no separation between reserve goods and order picking goods Vinalink’s warehouses hold a large quantity of reserve goods But at the same time order picking tasks are also requested by the warehouses especially the one in North Thang Long industrial zone which undertakes stocking machine spare parts, components and production materials for plants and product lines in the zone Those kinds of stock require both long term reservation and frequent withdrawal of small quantity of stock requested in each order Therefore, organizing mixed stocking locations between reserve goods and order picking goods slows order picking activities down by wasting time in finding and picking the right goods to be delivered and even cause congestion in the area Vinalink’s warehouse workers also suffer from this mistake in warehouse design Sometimes, they have to move many stocks to pick the right ordered goods which are placed in mixture with other reserve goods This work is tiring, time consuming and annoying at the same time Lastly, the design and layout does not make effective use of building height Stock is placed in low stacks, racks and shelves covering large floor space This results from the lack of handling equipments There is only one forklift in big warehouses such as the one in North Thang Long industrial zone, and there is no handling equipment for small ones Most movement, lifting and handling tasks are fulfilled by manual work, which discourages vertical building up of stock to take advantages of building height 3.1.2 Information and communication system Each warehouse of Vinalink is equipped with walkie-talkies, a computer and telephones to assist communication among operators and between operators and the management system However, this information and communication system can not satisfy management requirements of the warehouses because of two main reasons One reason is that stock location and stock movement are traced by memory and notes of warehouse workers This is ineffective for the management of Vinalink’s warehouses because these warehouses employ random location system which means stock locations are not fixed for workers to learn and memorize As a result, order picking becomes a time consuming task and more labour is wasted on controlling and coordinating the circulation of stock in the warehouses 18 The other reason is movement routes in the warehouses are planned separately by individual operators who are assigned for particular tasks This is a problem since it increases the occurrence of traveling without payload which is a waste of labour and resource of these warehouses Moreover, manually planned routes are not optimum, resulting in extra cost of movement in the warehouses 3.1.3 Working condition and safety Safety has been one of the major concerns of Vinalink when operating its warehouse activities Therefore, Vinalink’s management has been aware of providing its warehouse operators with labour protection program such as the supply of protective suits, helmets, shoes and gloves Nevertheless, there has been hardly any professional training of warehouse operators on labour safety and company’s regulations of safe working environment Consequently, even when fully equipped with protective clothing, many warehouse operators not follow the rules of wearing uniform at work In stead, most of operators go to work in casual clothes despite of the proneness to injuries of their daily work It is dangerous for warehouse workers and costly for Vinalink when work accidents occur Although there has not been any serious loss of human since Vinalink’s foundation, injuries during working such as cuts in hands, legs, bone break, sprain occur from time to time These accidents have caused many delays for the warehouse operation since they stopped the workers from doing their jobs in days, even weeks 3.2 Freight transport management Logistics Department of Vinalink Ha Noi Branch provides transport services in two types of transport modes: road freight and rail freight Among those two, road freight transport is the more frequently used and container trucking accounts for majority of Logistics Department’s revenue To assist road freight transport mode, Vinalink has a transport team of container trucks, among which were newly bought at the end of 2009 and 11 drivers Most of the container trucks and drivers work in Hai Phong office, but report to logistics manager in Ha Noi Branch In order to have an effective management of the transport team, logistics manager keeps a log of each container truck’s schedule, revenue cost and profit An example of a monthly log of one truck in the team is shown in Table 19 Looking at Table we can see the first weakness of transport management which is most of containers trucking services provided by Logistics Department are long-distance travels with the use of road freight transport mode Although road freight transport has an advantage in delivery time, cost and expense of its operation such as oil, maintenance, parking, and amortization is rather high leading to lower profit Meanwhile, as shown in Table about Logistics Department’s revenue in 2008 and 2009 and contribution of each sectors, rail freight services account for a very small part of revenue and become less popular for Vinalink’s customers despite the fact that rail freight is suitable for long-distance travel and cost economical This situation proves that there has been a lack of balance in the way Logistics Department manages its choice of transport modes Another drawback comes from having a spontaneous and unprofessional scheduling and routing control It is the case when one truck is responsible for delivering to some different destinations in a day Logistics Department does not strictly control the route of its trucks but lays the decision on the drivers Moreover, although Vinalink has a lot of regular customers who request delivery services to the same destination over the time, there is no analysis and conclusion on the optimum route to those regular destinations to instruct the drivers The consequence of these practices is that drivers of container trucks may choose the route basing on their experience and inexperienced drivers may make bad choices That results in heavier expense of oil, toll, working time and even dissatisfaction of customers due to late delivery The above analysis has revealed the weaknesses in management of Logistics Department Vinalink Ha Noi Branch This ineffective management is one of the major reasons for its low revenue in comparison with other departments On the basis of my research and analysis I will suggest some personal recommendations to improve the situation in Chapter of my report 20 Table 5: Monthly log of one container truck MONTHLY LOG_CONTAINER TRUCK 30M-6250 DRIVER: TRAN BAO THANG No Date Client Place of dispatch Dest DECEMBER, 2009 Km Revenue (VND) Cost Oil Legal fee Profit Toll Lunch Salary 02/12 HN/ Cai Lan HP Cai Lan port Quang Ninh 160 2,000,000 757,900 20,000 100,000 80,000 1,042,100 03/12 VNLHO HP Ninh Binh 326 4,500,000 1,530,100 40,000 320,000 100,000 150,000 2,259,900 09/12 HN/Cai Lan HP Cai Lan port Quang Ninh 160 2,000,000 757,900 20,000 100,000 80,000 1,042,100 11/12 HN/ Khoang san HP Tien Hai Thai Binh 234 6,000,000 1,101,100 40,000 160,000 100,000 110,000 4,288,900 14/12 Vina-starlines HP Hung Yen 195 2,500,000 915,200 40,000 160,000 100,000 90,000 1,194,800 17/12 Vina-starlines HP HP-Q.Minh VP-Cai Lan 295 3,591,000 1,387,100 40,000 640,000 150,000 130,000 1,243.900 18/12 Vina-starlines HP HP-Q.Minh VP-HP 295 3,028,000 1,387,100 40,000 640,000 150,000 130,000 680,900 24/12 Vina-starlines HP HP-Q.Minh VP-HP 295 3,028,000 1,387,100 40,000 640,000 150,000 130,000 680,900 26,647,000 9,223,500 280,000 2,560,000 950,000 900,000 12,433,500 TOTAL Other costs: - Maintenance and repair: - Parking: - Monthly truck amortization: = 1,960 500,000 450,000 2,500,000 3,450,000 Final profit: 8,983,000 VND 21 CHAPTER RECOMMENDATIONS Basing on analysis and findings which are some weaknesses in management of Vinalink’s warehouses and freight transport presented in Chapter 3, Chapter will provide some recommendations to overcome those drawbacks The basis from which recommendations were drawn is the theoretical framework from Chapter of my report The key solution to Logistics Department of Vinalink Ha Noi Branch’s problems is a management reform concerning two aspects: warehouse management and freight transport management 4.1 Warehouse management reform 4.1.1 Warehouse design and layout Design and layout of Vinalink’s warehouses has some major mistakes which are having great number of wide aisles, using mixed stocking location of reserve and order picking goods and ineffective use of building height A warehouse management reform will give answers to those weaknesses First of all, the number as well as the width of aisles should be reduced to satisfy large quantity of reserve goods placed in Vinalink’s warehouses Vinalink’s warehouses should minimize the number of aisles to five aisles for all of their activities In order to have broad stocking area and good access to stock at the same time, one suggestion for warehouse management is to design suitable systems of aisles for each section in the warehouse For reserve stock, the number and width of aisles should be minimized, or even eliminated to make better use of space Reserve goods can be stocked in stacks or racks, one block next to another For fast moving goods, the transport of the goods should be assisted by a denser system of wider aisles, for example 0.5m wide aisles to make sure minimum congestion in the warehouse will occur Another suggestion is that warehouse should be equipped with mobile racks and shelves They are easily moved from place to place so a flexible aisle system can be brought into play The quantity and width of aisles can be changed immediately, which means there is no limitation for the layout of the warehouses Consequently, the warehouses can deal with any sudden inflow and 22 outflow of goods These mobile systems may be manually or automatically operated depending on technology level of each warehouse, but they are all helpful to attain both use of space and good access and movement within the warehouses Secondly, reserve goods and order picking goods should be kept separately There are two options to organize them, vertical or horizontal separation as shown in Figure and Figure Figure 5: Vertical separation Figure 6: Horizontal separation (Source: Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management, Kogan Page, 2000) Vertical separation can prove its effectiveness in the case when the quantity of reserve stocks outnumbers order picking stocks Order picking stocks are placed in the lowest layers of the racks to be moved out of their stocking locations conveniently and easily Reserve stocks occupy the rest higher layers In the other case, when the quantities of each kinds of stock are equal, horizontal separation will be the optimal 23 method These options to warehouse design and layout will solve the questions of large stocking space and smooth circulation of stock within warehouses Lastly, the design and layout of Vinalink’s warehouses should make better use of building space In stead of covering broad floor area, stocks should be built up vertically in higher stacks, racks or shelves which require handling equipments rather manual work of operators to perform handling tasks This is a trade-off between stocking area and less expense for resources However, according to more and more various services provided along with Vinalink’s warehouse and their rising popularity, an investment in resources to enlarge the warehouses’ serving area is necessary Some main types of handling equipment in warehouses to choose from include: pallet truck, fork-lift truck, stacker truck, side loader and order picking truck 4.1.2 Information and communication system Information within one Vinalink’s warehouse has been communicated ineffectively through poor communication system which cannot perform successfully tasks of stock location and stock movement planning and tracking Therefore, to overcome this problem warehouse manager should invest in a modern information system Warehouse management goals can be achieved with the help of warehouse management software such as 3PL Warehouse manager by 3PL Central, AdvancePro by Advanceware Technologies, TECSYS Elite Series by TECSYS… They are widely used in many big transport companies in Vietnam and in the world, for example Vietrans (Vietnam), A.N.T Shipping Service Co., Ltd (Vietnam), Lovson Group (India), New Chain Logistics Co., Ltd (China)… These technological supports will assist warehouse operators in tracing stock location and planning movement to assure a smooth operation of warehouse and effective use of resources 4.1.3 Working condition and safety The efforts of Vinalink’s management to create and maintain a safe working condition for its warehouse employees are not fully successful due to little cooperation from its working staff To make Vinalink’s employees take part in these efforts warehouse manager should carry out some actions Firstly, warehouse manager should increase awareness of warehouse workers about labour safety To meet this purpose warehouse manager should organize annual training courses and conferences on this topic or give immediate instructions to new 24 employees From these programs warehouse workers can be equipped with necessary knowledge on underlying risks of their jobs, ways to protect themselves and proper interaction at the occurrence of work accidents Once the workers have adequate understandings of labour safety and its direct impacts to their health and work effectiveness, warehouse workers will be more active and cooperative in keeping a safe working environment By investing in constant educational programs, Vinalink can reduce the cost and loss resulting from accidents at its workplaces Secondly, there should be stricter regulations concerning labour safety The regulations should clearly state proper working uniform, time and place of application and especially sanction for violation cases A summary of the regulations should be displayed in the most easily seen place such as the warehouse entry, so that every worker will be reminded More importantly, a supervisor should be assigned to track workers’ observance of the regulations A suitable candidate for the post may be a long working and reputable worker who has great influence on others As long as application of the regulation is strict from the early days, wearing uniform to work will become a good habit for every worker and they will observe the regulations voluntarily 4.2 Freight transport management reform Freight transport management of Logistics Department has two weaknesses which arise from its choice of transport modes and routing control To carry out management reform in this aspect Vinalink logistics manager can consider the following suggestions To begin with, Logistics Department should increase the balance between its two transport modes The role of rail freight transport should be enhanced to account for greater proportion in Logistics Department’s utilization of transport media To make this happen, the department should assign more rail transport for long distance travels which are not urgent instead of road transport This can lighten working load for road transport operation and resources, as well as reduce transport cost and expenses for the department leading to higher profit for Vinalink More highlighted recommendation for effective transport management is to make use of multimodal transport Multimodal transport is a transport mode involving at least two different modes under one single transport contract This is the combination of advantages of different transport modes for the most effective 25 transport of freights To apply this suggestion, Logistics Department can use rail – road mode to combine long-distance suitability, speed and cost economy of rail freight transport mode with flexibility of road mode In detail, freight is transported by truck to departing station, and then is carried by train to arrival station After being unloaded from the train, freight is distributed to the place of delivery by truck By applying multimodal transport the department can achieve both cost effectiveness and satisfaction over its transport services The other recommendation is Logistics Department should improve the efficiency of scheduling and routing control to reform transport management Effective scheduling and routing is vital to Logistics Department since it is the key solution to increase profit and cut down cost One recommendation to achieve good scheduling and routing control is to use high-tech information systems which assist transport manager in monitoring and administering transport operation Good examples of transport management information systems include Enterprise Transportation software by TMW Systems, Horizon by Melton Technologies, TruckMaster 2000 by TruckMaster Logistics Systems… These are specialized database packages that track and analyze every activity of the fleet in order to help transport manager decide the optimal schedule and route for the operation of the fleet With help from these systems Logistics Department can maximize profit and minimize unnecessary cost of its fleet operation Even more importantly, they assure good transport services to satisfy Vinalink’s customers and attract a bigger market for Vinalink’s services In short, Logistics Department can reform its logistics management by aiming at improving management weaknesses in two aspects: warehouse and freight transport All of my recommendations are drawn from putting the theoretical knowledge I have researched into the reality of Vinalink’s business and operation In the last session of my report, the conclusion, I will discuss the lesson I have drawn from the case of Vinalink’s Logistics Department, the development potential of my research as well as its limitation CONCLUSION 26 Logistics is a new and developing business in Vietnam It emerged from rising market need for transport services and control of freight transport Vinalink is one of the first transport organizations to provide logistics services The rapid growth of logistics market led to the foundation of logistics specialized departments of Vinalink Although Logistics Department of Vinalink Ha Noi Branch had an increase in revenue in 2008 and 2009, it still incurred many problems of a young enterprise expressed through lower rate of revenue when compared to other departments of the branch Its major problems lie in it management, especially in two aspects warehousing and freight transport Therefore, this study suggested a solution to Logistics Department’s problems The recommendation was that Logistics Department should reform its management focusing on two sections warehouse management and freight transport management to improve the situation and achieve better result From the case of Vinalink, many useful lessons can be drawn for logistics management in particular and business management in general The first lesson is manager should constantly pay attention to the implementation of analyzing and evaluating the organization business’s performance The evaluation must be carried out on every aspects of its business to find out what activities bring about high revenue, what have low result Basing on these findings manager can design strategies to develop well performing sections and improve bad ones Constant evaluation will help an organization determine where it is and which direction it should follow Secondly, it is always necessary for businesses especially young enterprises to keep researching and learning from experiences of earlier participants in the business The experiences then should be selectively applied to the organizations regarding particular situation of each one Experiences from predecessors will save successors time and money to find the optimal solutions for their businesses Moreover, these lessons will lower risks when implementing business strategies and losses resulting from bad decisions Finally, manager should be alerted and ready to modify organization’s business strategies Because market demand is changing, business strategies should be ready to change to satisfy customers’ needs and wants However, any changes of strategies should be put under careful consideration since there will be a trade- off between 27 stability of business and customer’s satisfaction If a change is beneficial in many ways, manager then should take action and attract greater market Limitation Although this study tried to give the most fundamental and specific strategies for logistics management it still had a limitation The design of logistics management strategies must take into account many variables such as market size, market characteristics, business size, financial resource and technological level of the company The fluctuation of these variables will lead to different design of management strategies However, due to the size of scope of this study, it had to simplify the formulas by crossing out these variables when building recommended strategies for logistics management of Vinalink Suggested further research Science and technology in the world is developing rapidly, which brings about many benefits for human life, including business activities Thank to science and technology achievements, business operations become easier, faster and more effective Logistics management also benefits from science and technology development with modern applications and software to assist the control of logistics operations For example, in warehouse management, modern equipment can save human labour and assure more efficient operations, information packages can support warehouse manager in planning, organizing and controlling goods stocking and goods circulation In freight transport management, scheduling and routing activities can be modernized by high-tech information systems in order to increase work effectiveness and lighten work load of manager According to these benefits, it is necessary for businesses to know how to make best use of science and technology achievements This inspires a closer research into the application of modern technology in logistics management In this further study, the application of technologies should be addressed on three aspects: benefits of modern technologies to logistics management, choice of technologies to apply and education of technologies use for logistics operator 28 APPENDIX List of Figures Figure 1: Organizational structure of Ha Noi Branch Figure 2: Revenue contribution 2008 by departments Figure 3: Revenue contribution 2009 by departments Figure 4: Design and layout of Vinalink’s warehouses 16 Figure 5: Vertical separation .22 Figure 6: Horizontal separation 22 List of Tables Table 1: Logistics Dept.’s Revenue 2008-2009 .4 Table 2: Ha Noi Branch Revenue 2008-2009 .5 Table 3: Some main storage systems .9 Table 4: Characteristics of transport modes 12 Table 5: Monthly log of one container truck .20 29 REFERENCES Vietnamese An Thị Thanh Nhàn (2004) Quản trị Logistics kinh doanh Nhà xuất thống kê Đoàn Thị Hồng Vân (2005) Quản trị Logistics Nhà xuất thống kê Nguyễn Hồng Đàm (2005) Vận tải giao nhận ngoại thương Nhà xuất lý luận trị English Anonymous (2008) Logistics overview, European Commission 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ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES  ¬ LE THI THUY LINH INTERNSHIP report Topic: FAILURES IN LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT OF VINALINK’S LOGISTICS DEPARTMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS. .. Logistics management Like management of any other businesses, logistics management includes tasks of planning, implementing, and controlling logistics operation One of the most detailed definitions of