Entreprises et valeurs culturelles

 [pic 1]

Submitted by: Nathan Piotrowski

Submitted to : Mr. Rabasso

Master in Foreign Languages Applied at distance: First year

Part 1: Logistic

Part2 : Intercultural management and international negotiation

Part3 : Social responsibility of corporate

Logistics

[pic 2]

In the land of my ancestors in Warsaw, Poland, we human beings are all part of the logistical process because we have been in constant motion since the dawn of time.

Topic: How has logistics revolutionized the world?

“My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” – Alexander the Great

Logistics is a very important concept within a corporation, as it enables a package to be carried from one stage in the manufacturing process to the final point, which is the consumer. Without logistics, there would be no way to transport merchandise from China to France. Shipping is a real challenge for all companies since having good logistics allows to reduce considerably the costs generated if it is well managed, and to fully satisfy the ultimate customer. The definitive and utopian goal of flawless logistics would be to be able to distribute a client at the end of the world with an unbeatable delivery time, with an item in perfect condition and a price that would crush the market.

Logistics has been revolutionised by several stunning technological advances that we will demonstrate in this analysis.

 Ninety percent of the products we consume every day come from container ships. The oceans and sea routes have constantly been the most efficient way to transport goods because there are no borders and taxes on the sea. Moreover the ships also have the capacity to store massive objects. The problem has always been to manually fill ships with a cargo that can take at least 10 days to load. But all this has changed thanks to containerisation. The principle has been to create containers of a single size that can be transported in trucks or trains. On the other hand, the ships have also expanded and we have seen large logistics companies emerging such as Maersk which is the world leader in sea transportation.

 The further great logistical challenge are the ports, where the technological revolution has made it possible to have much more developed terminals where huge gantry cranes lift the containers. As the revolution continues to grow, we are moving towards terminals that will be completely driven by artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, the ship is still a rather slow distribution element, because the mass of the ship is so large that it cannot go faster even with a great deal of technological improvement, and water is a component that slows down its progress considerably.

 However, new shipping routes are opening up with the melting of the Arctic ice cap creating even quicker transportation paths. In addition, there will be less danger, such as the piracy that reigns around the Suez Canal jeopardising the survival of crews and the delivery of goods.

 Another very important element that is accelerating global logistics is the worldwide conquest of China. The last great overall logistics challenge adopted by Xi Jinping in 2013, which requires a holding of 4 to 8 trillion dollars, is the creation of the new silk routes by implementing railways and a sea route to reach Europe facilitating Chinese trade and exports. China invests in many countries by establishing bilateral agreements: China lends money to states and helps them to develop their infrastructure. However countries that cannot reimburse their borrowings must either compensate in raw resources or in infrastructure. China has for instance annexed a seaport in Sri Lanka that had a debt that it could not repay to China had to cede its port to the mandarins in 2015.

 In addition, China is moving to Africa to develop the continent by lending money so that African countries can develop their infrastructure. For example, in Kenya 3.7 billion dollars have been lent for the construction of a train linking Nairobi to Mombassa. China's interest in granting its loans is, of course, geopolitical because China wants to become the new hegemonic power by extending its cultural influence through soft power, for example the Confucius centres have multiplied in Africa in order to learn Mandarin there. The second objective is to strengthen the instability in countries such as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan... Logistics is so crucial that it would have assets that would reduce poverty in underdeveloped areas and enable them to become trading partners with infrastructure... Logistics would become a revolution and therefore bring global political stability.

 Logistics has not only been revolutionised on the seaways or on the roads, it is a design model to be adopted in every company to ensure the success of their product. A good can be very promising but if the logistics or manufacturing chain is badly managed, the product will be impossible to sell because of many losses.

 Toyota is a firm that illustrates the concept of lean manufacturing very well. The company had to face an extreme scarcity of raw materials because of the Second World War which completely destroyed Japan. Toyota's pioneer, Mr. Toyoda, who had to renounce his textile factory due to the drop in demand for silk, converted to the automobile and invented a new production method called "kanban" or "Just in Time.” This method consisted of pulling on a rope to avoid any anomaly and waste of parts when designing an automobile. Unlike Ford's massive industry, Toyota did not want to have too much inventory and order only when necessary to reduce costs. The other important point is that this system is based on quality, forcing employees to solve problems and making them more competent, thus strengthening team cohesion.

  Internet has also revolutionised logistics since we are now all consumers around the world thanks to E-commerce. E-commerce is so powerful that it has created the greatest logistics company in the world with the largest market share in the globe (over 1 trillion dollars): Amazon.

This company was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, becoming the richest man in the planet. The name is very appropriate since a single tree has no use, but thousands and then millions of trees together multiply their effects and constitute the lung of the planet: the Amazonia. Originally Amazon was a simple company that delivered books but seeing the success of his business, Jeff Bezos decided to expand the range of products on the site.

...