Track: Logistics

Abstract

With rising competitiveness in the express delivery industry in Thailand, the national postal service company encounters heightened rivalry from its immediate competing companies in the market. This paper proposes the conceptual supply chain digitization strategy with the aim to increase operational efficiency and enhance customer serviceability. The operational gaps of the case study company are identified and analyzed.  We undertake the customer survey to obtain the level of satisfaction and ways forward for the industry, which is factored into the determination of company-specific digitization strategy. The survey indicates that a substantial number of customers have had previous encounters with reliability issues from the provided service of the case study company.  It is discovered that the market demands for three vital aspects of delivery excellence - timeliness, accuracy, and acceptable parcel condition. Furthermore, three of the market-winning elements identified by the Thai market include pre-delivery SMS reminders, real-time traceability, and clear or flexible delivery timing, which are incorporated into the conceptual framework. The proposed digitization conceptual framework for the case company integrates four main methods - RFID with smart labels, AIBA telematics, cloud computing, and last-mile delivery vehicle routing to enable the achievement of improved operational efficiency and serviceability. Eventually, we derive the lessons learnt for the industrial peers to realise the importance of process integration, automation, cloud computing integration, last-mile delivery process, and  customer comprehension – which has increasingly become vital for logistics companies going forward.