Executive Summary
Consumer behavior has changed; more consumers are intrigued to order almost everything online. E-commerce lets us order food, electronic appliances, clothes, and groceries online. The effect is that logistics industries will have to make drastic changes to meet consumer demands. Unfortunately, even with Amazon promising to deliver on time and anywhere, logistics issues can hold them back from achieving this goal. First, employee shortage has affected the timely delivery of products across the globe. Goods are often loaded on trucks, transported to the coast, and shipped overseas, where they are loaded on trucks again to be transported to retailers. However, if there are no truck drivers to transport the containers to the coast and receive them at the port, the containers will be congested at the cost. Supply chain operations might be interrupted by different factors such as weather, politics, or natural disasters. WSJ’s video highlights the lack of adequate human resources as the central cause of delays and shortages in logistics. The insufficiency in employees is primarily due to job dissatisfaction. Most workers believe that working in a warehouse of organizations such as Amazon can be draining at some point. Even with the necessary skills, some people prefer to avoid working in the logistics industry because it is labor-intensive. To address the labor issue in logistics, organizations have preferred automating some operations in warehouses, such as transporting goods through conveyor belts. Moreover, businesses have installed forklifts to enhance warehouse safety so employees are relieved from carrying heavy loads to enhance efficiency and save time. Reimagining the leadership style in business to fit a person-to-person management style is an excellent start to ensuring job satisfaction. Organizations that are intentional about workers’ welfare and outwardly encourage openness across the board are less likely to lose employees due to job dissatisfaction. Applying artificial intelligence (AI) in logistic operations can help organizations leverage different opportunities. Therefore, ensuring job satisfaction and technological innovation is critical when optimizing performance in the logistics industry.
As part of supply chain management, global logistics needs retooling to beat the rising demand for consumer goods. Nuances in logistics from warehouses, shipping, and inventory management can affect timely delivery. Moreover, supply chains are liable to disruptions that could have created artificial shortages. Therefore, it is necessary to unpack and make recommendations for the issues affecting the future of supply chains to meet consumer expectations. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) (2022), the main problems affecting logistics include inadequate labor, for instance, truck drivers, problems in cross-functional coordination, poor road infrastructure, operational disruption due to compliance challenges, and organizational complexities. This report aims to make recommendations on how these problems can be mitigated while considering the risks that come with such recommendations.
Improve Job Satisfaction
Most employers are unintentional when it comes to ensuring employee job satisfaction. Unfortunately, negligence of how employee job dissatisfaction is closely related to a high employee turnover rate can cause the organization to suffer from inadequate labor. In logistics, a shortage of employees to deliver can result in delays. WSJ affirms that the shortage of truck drivers stems from the unwillingness of truck drivers to engage rather than a lack of skills. Wang, et al., (2021) concur that there is no room for career advancement in online delivery jobs. Truck drivers complained about waiting long hours for their trucks to be loaded and taking a mandatory 10 hours of unpaid rest, which comes with a hefty penalty if they fail to comply. Mahajan, et al., (2019) show the importance of adhering to Hours of Service (HOS) rules while appealing to organizations to incentivize drivers. Partly, job dissatisfaction is due to low wages that barely sustain the workers in logistics lives.
For instance, a truck driver is paid 40 cents per mile, and they complete 2500 miles in a week. That accrues to around $1000 gross salary, after deductions such as taxes; this money might be less for a truck driver with a family. Phares and Balthrop (2022) highlight that the logistics industry is experiencing a higher driver turnover rate since the companies barely keep up with the increasing wages in other competing occupations. Employers must learn how to attract workers into logistics by paying higher wages than competing industries. One step towards managing worker retention in logistics firms is to increase their pay. Truck drivers should be paid 70 cents per mile. Besides increasing wages, job satisfaction in the logistics industry can be enhanced through optimum leadership.
Leadership at the workplace determines the level of success in project management. Person-to-person leadership is one of the best ways of improving communication, engagement, and ultimate productivity of any given workforce (Hynes, 2023). On the positive side, the WSJ video testifies that workers in the logistics industry have health insurance. Human resource managers in logistics, such as Amazon, FedEx, and United Parcel Service (UPS), should empathize with their employees. Kawiana et al. (2023) agree that employees feel motivated and enthusiastic while carrying out their duties if they feel appreciated. In that case, employees are more emotionally stable to build tolerance for burnout from physically demanding tasks such as carrying packages for doorstep delivery or lifting loads in storage facilities.
Additionally, workers who can manage and control their emotions can increase their threshold of job satisfaction. Employees need to work on establishing emotional intelligence to keep them grounded when going through tough times. Emotional intelligence involves understanding one’s emotions and those of others and appropriately responding to them (Goleman, 2021). For instance, when an employee feels listless or has disagreements with either colleagues or their bosses, expressing an emotional outburst might lead to cross-functional coordination. Emotional intelligence is one way to find healthier ways to address discontentment, demoralization, or any form of discouragement related to work. Furthermore, finding the necessary work-life balance requires a high sense of self-awareness linked to emotional intelligence. For that reason, workers should be advised to learn how to keep a journal, meditate, and practice gratitude and self-care routines to boost their emotional state as a journey towards gaining emotional intelligence.
Technological Innovation
Globalization has led to technological advancements in the global business arena. In logistics, technological innovations are a good strategy to optimize production and ensure workers’ safety in fulfillment centers. Furthermore, Min, (2023) mentions using drones to manage last-mile delivery. Last-mile delivery with drones could be highly efficient. According to Wang, et al., (2022), through human-robot coordination, Robots on mobile racks can be scheduled to picking in a warehouse. WSJ reports that warehouses that use robots in picking packages pick faster and much safer than manual picking.
Therefore, the integration of technology in storage facilities will not only reduce the movements workers make around the facility but will also spare them from lifting heavy loads. Freight needs innovative technology, such as freight broker software, to optimize their information systems for effective service delivery. Regarding technological innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) is currently indispensable. Foster and Rhoden (2020) acknowledge that artificial intelligence can automate routine tasks such as inventory management and predictive maintenance to reduce cost and maximize efficiency. Workers will be relieved of monotony if AI can handle the most repetitive jobs. According to Tan, et al., (2021) AI automated machines can pick, pack and sort parcels. Ensuring utmost efficiency through automation during fulfillment is essential for business-to-consumer (B2C).
Second, with AI, tracking a package in real-time is possible; this enhances communication between retailers and customers since delays can be communicated in advance. Third, through smart technology such as AI, big data analysis is easily manageable (Chung, 2021). Big data analysis involves interpreting raw and large amounts of data that reveal correlations, trends, or consumer behavior. According to Mangiaracina et al. (2019), aspects such as failed delivery or intensity of the consumers in a given destination affect last-mile delivery. Therefore, the logistics industry can employ big data analysts with the help of AI to make informed decisions. For instance, the insights that big data analysts gather can be used to determine more viable routes or how to influence consumer experience through packaging (Chen, et al., 2021). Lastly, AI uncovering trends through machine learning algorithms will help save resources in logistics from marketing to supply chain management.
Risks Related to These Recommendations
First, due to deregulation, it is highly unlikely that increasing wages, for example, for truck drivers, will be implemented. Moreover, it is not certain that workers will be motivated solely by increasing wages; some of the unproductive behaviors expressed by employees might stem from individual indiscipline or lack of initiative. For instance, when some employees get a raise at work, they might drink the extra cash rather than improve their living standards. On the other hand, instilling emotional intelligence in an employee would be more viable if self-driven rather than organizational requirements. According to Khaw, et al., (2023), prior communication while observing employees’ attitude towards organizational change can help reduce the resistance to change. For example, resistance to embracing change might be due to cultural differences; therefore, organizations must consider an individual’s cultural background.
On the other side, the use of technology to make work easier comes with a price. One of the eminent risks of technological integration is the co-existence of robots and workforce in warehouses and other logistics facilities. Workers might be required to move faster to keep up with the speed of the machines. Baldwin and Fredman (2021) highlighted the unignorable risks of automation: cyber threats and loss of privacy. Organizations must learn to use AI to protect themselves from malware and cyber threats. Moreover, organizations might be reluctant to adopt AI due to inadequate resources (Cichosz, et al., 2020). Despite AI fostering an organization’s agility by offering monitoring tools, acquiring these tools can be challenging, especially for young organizations. Resilience is a key performance indicator for global economic crisis management in logistics. Therefore, organizations should strategize expense management, for instance, when acquiring virtual data representation software for big data analysis and training employees to be experts.
Conclusion
The logistics industry has transformed in recent years, primarily due to drastic changes in consumer behavior. E-commerce has changed logistics operations; consumers can now easily order goods on apps like Amazon. However, to ensure the smooth transportation of goods and services to the final destination, organizations must take care of employees and use technological innovations such as AI. Understanding and establishing a meaningful relationship with employees will serve organizations a big deal regarding employee job satisfaction and worker retention. Logistics management teams can devise ways of motivating employees financially or through recognition to help employees set goals and targets. Ensuring job satisfaction will obliterate the increasing turnover rates in logistics. AI will not only streamline most logistics operations but also help businesses predict trends in the market and vulnerabilities within the organization.
References
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