Why are Japanese companies’ logistics costs so low?

Source：本站Author：admin Addtime：2017/6/4 Click：0

Japan's logistics does not have a long history, but it has developed very quickly. Now, with its advanced logistics technology, management methods, etc., it has well controlled costs and has become an advanced country in the world's logistics field.

Compared with the United States, Japan's logistics industry started later, but it was still earlier than China. Through decades of development, Japan's logistics industry has made great progress, and many technologies and indicators measuring the logistics industry are very eye-catching.

Paying attention to costs is something that Japanese companies have been doing for decades. In this issue's special topic, let us take a look at the specific logistics cost level in Japan? What effective reforms have Japanese companies made to reduce logistics costs?

1. Low proportion of logistics costs

Internationally, the ratio of total social logistics costs to GDP is usually used to measure the development level of a country's logistics, and the proportion of enterprise logistics costs to product sales is used to measure the logistics development level of the industry.

In 2013, the ratio of total logistics costs to GDP in China was 18%, basically the same as the previous year. An analysis report by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing points out that this ratio is about 9.5 percentage points higher than Japan and about 6.5 percentage points higher than the global average. Compared with developed logistics countries like Japan, my country's logistics cost ratio is significantly higher.

Judging from the data of the Japanese logistics industry, from 1995 to 2003, the proportion of logistics costs of enterprises in the entire Japanese logistics industry to product sales gradually dropped by nearly one percentage point, and then remained at around 5% since 2003. stable level. In the United States, corporate logistics costs accounted for 7.87% of product sales in 2012, and in 2013, corporate logistics costs accounted for 8.41% of product sales, which is higher than Japan and showing an upward trend.

From the perspective of the manufacturing industry, in 2013, logistics costs in Japan's ceramics, soil, stone, glass, and cement industries accounted for the highest proportion of product sales, accounting for 8.69%; the second place was the food industry that required cold chain transportation. The proportion is 8.57%; and the food industry that can be transported at room temperature has a proportion of 6.01%.

To further analyze the specific cost structure, take truck transportation as an example. From the survey data of the Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Bureau and the All-Japan Trucking Association in 2011, transportation labor costs accounted for as high as 45.9%. Considering the reasons for this data, : First, labor costs in Japan are generally high; second, non-labor costs have been compressed as much as possible.

2. Improvement from automation and information systems

In different eras, each industry will present itself differently and face different problems, which will also lead to solutions in corresponding contexts.

In Japan in the 1860s, corporate production and sales surged, leading to a surge in logistics. Not only that, inflation has led to rising prices and rising labor costs for companies.

In order to alleviate these two major problems, the Japanese logistics industry adopted increased mechanization during this period to improve logistics processing capabilities and reduce labor. It was at this time that the three-dimensional automated warehouse appeared to rationalize the use of high-rise warehouse space and realize automated access to goods.

Today, three-dimensional warehouse has become an independent discipline and is developing rapidly in Japan. Since the late 1880s, Japan's three-dimensional warehouses have spread from manufacturing to agriculture, warehousing, wholesale and retail, banking and insurance industries, and logistics automation has been widely used. At present, Japan has become the country with the most extensive application of automated three-dimensional warehouses in the world.

In addition to automation equipment, the Japanese logistics industry began to improve efficiency through information systems in the 1870s.

After the first oil crisis, Japan's era of rapid economic growth ended, logistics flows began to stabilize, and the need to improve logistics processing capabilities became relatively weak. In this context, the Japanese logistics industry began to focus on improving logistics efficiency.

Prior to this, the information system in the Japanese logistics industry had not been popularized, and relying on traditional methods was inefficient. For example, the sales department in Japan usually prepares a monthly report on warehousing, shipping, inventory and other information at the end of the month and submits it to the head office. The head office cannot quickly and in real time modify the production plan or make other adjustments based on the information from the sales outlets.

Since the late 1870s, logistics information networks have begun to develop rapidly, integrating various outlets, production, sales and other related departments into one system, realizing real-time online logistics information processing and interaction, greatly improving efficiency.

In the short term, the introduction of information systems increases the cost of introduction and maintenance, but in the long term, it saves communication costs and time costs, and avoids costs caused by problems caused by information asymmetry. With the development of economy, the information system of Japan's logistics industry has become more and more perfect.

3. Three major ways to reduce costs

Although Japan's logistics industry is already at a leading level, they are still working hard to reduce costs.

According to a survey of 182 Japanese companies in the "2013 Japan Logistics Cost Survey Report" released by the Japan Logistics System Association, a public interest corporation, in 2013, the top three methods of reducing logistics costs adopted by Japanese companies were: Improvement loading rates, reducing inventory and re-planning logistics locations.

In fact, this is a method that Japanese companies have continued to use in recent years to reduce logistics costs.

In the logistics industry, loading rate is a method to evaluate operational efficiency. From the perspective of logistics costs, transportation costs account for about 60%. Small batches and frequent transportation will lead to low efficiency. Increasing the loading rate can reduce the number of vehicles and other transportation vehicles used, thereby reducing transportation costs. This is the driving force behind their efforts to increase the loading rate.

The reason why the logistics loading rate is low is largely due to the contradiction between weight and volume. For example, when the goods are full but the weight is less than half of the carrying weight, logistics companies generally charge freight based on weight, which will cause a waste of vehicle tonnage resources, require more vehicles to transport, and increase transportation costs.

Therefore, how to reasonably match goods for transportation is very important to reduce logistics costs. Before carrying goods together, a detailed analysis of the relevant data of each delivery address's route, delivery time, weight and volume, packaging, logistics network, loading method and other factors will help rationalize transportation and improve loading rate.

It seems simple, but the actual operation is more complicated. And because Japan puts customer needs first and is subject to the requirements of the JIT production method, the difficulty of increasing the loading rate cannot be ignored. It can be seen that the Japanese logistics industry has entered a period of intensive cultivation.

In addition to breakthroughs in loading rates, Japanese companies have begun to reduce inventories.

Reducing the number of products in stock will help reduce storage costs, improve capital flow, and make warehousing and warehousing operations more convenient. However, inventory cannot be reduced at will, as it will affect the whole body, and many aspects need to be considered. For example, whether the goods placed in the logistics center are consistent with the best-selling goods.

In addition, due to the high degree of internationalization of Japanese companies, many companies have set up production bases overseas and sell products abroad. In this context, once the inventory is insufficient and needs to be replenished, more transportation costs and time costs will be faced. Currently, accurately forecasting inventory requirements and rationally setting inventory from the perspective of the entire supply chain are regarded as the core of inventory management. Currently, the most commonly used methods to reduce inventory are clearing out dead inventory, organizing categories, intensifying inventory locations, shortening production preparation time, and improving sales forecast accuracy.

At the same time, affected by Japan's aging and population decline problems, logistics needs have decreased. Japanese companies have re-planned logistics bases, integrated logistics bases, and reduced the number of logistics bases. Many Japanese companies have even begun to adopt direct factory delivery.