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本科毕业论文外文翻译
外文题目： Logistics strateges and practices in Venezuela 出 处： Operations & Technology Management 作 者： Angel Diaz Matalobos & Candido Perez Costela 原 文：
Logistics strateges and practices in Venezuela
Angel Diaz Matalobos & Candido Perez Costela
Abstract
This paper presents an empirical and statistical analysis identifies the key characteristics and opportunities of logistics in Venezuela. Among the key findings are conservative approaches to logistics in a protected market whose environment is changing faster than preferred by the responsible actors, limiting the application of modern logistics practices. This and other considerations, such as geographical location, production of commodities and the identification in the strategy of the firms of the need for better logistics practices indicate important opportunities for the application of modern logistics practices.
Keywords
Logistics in Venezuela, conservative approaches, modern logistics practices
Introduction
Logistics management has become a strategic tool in the success of business plans, due to its impact on cash flow generation and service quality. The processes of transformation and delivery demand a strategic vision of the links among manufacturing, purchasing and marketing, including organizational and environmental considerations. Venezuela, with a promising geographical location, but with operational inefficiencies (e.g., high inventory
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costs Esqueda, Diaz and Sanchez, 1996) and other market and state inefficiencies is particularly sensitive to advances in logistics. This situation is examined in this paper.
Logistics in Venezuela, an important emerging market (Bowman, 1998)constitutes a test bed for advanced logistic practices, due to extensive commodities production, its geographical location and a relatively low level of logistics performance. Commodities produced in the country include petroleum and derivatives, natural gas, steel, aluminum and electricity. These are lead by Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) –an state owned firm responsible for the petroleum and natural gas exploration, production and delivery- which is developing outsourcing as a focus strategy, ceding non-core activities to specialized firms. The geographical location of Venezuela –near the continent’s center of gravity, Figure 1- constitutes a comparative advantage, as the country could become a commerce hub between the north and south of the Americas. This could be facilitated by strong improvements in the efficiency of the main port of the country, Puerto Cabello (Diaz and Dresner, 1997; Gooley, 1998), and by the consolidation of the road to Manaos, Brazil (Acosta and Canakis, 1996). Other regional hubs are under development. Such are the cases of Panama, where a Pacific-Atlantic rail link will move 500,000 TEU by 2003 (Wilner, 2000) and Mexico where a similar link is also being built (Logistic and Distribution Report, 2001).
1. Logistic potential of Venezuela
These comparative advantages are marred by the backward state of competitiveness in the country. Venezuela has been ranked next-to-last in the world competitiveness report (IMD, 2000) for the last seven years, and this could be partially related to very small production scales and inefficient distribution channels (Esqueda et. al., 1996).Logistics techniques and practices such as cross-docking, outsourcing in transportation and warehousing, process orientation (driven by ERP implementations), and considerable investments in information technology could help to improve this situation, even when other advanced practices like benchmarking, network design and cooperative schemes are still lacking. This profile is similar to the one described for Latin America as a whole by Zinn (1996).
With this motivation a survey of key logistics players in Venezuela was conducted, resulting in a map of current practices, strategies and logistics opportunities.
1.1The Logistic Survey
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The instrument was designed in mid-1998 as part of an academic collaboration between a consulting firm (AT Kearney) and a business school (IESA). This was the first logistic poll documented in Venezuela. The respondents fulfilled Likert-type scales and numerical questions. The questions were designed to obtain descriptive information on logistic practices, while avoiding the disclosure of sensible financial information.
The sample and profile of the firms A total of 384 logistics providers and users were initially contacted, with 31 responses received by February 1999. The low proportion of responses (8 per cent) is about average for Venezuela, where many companies do not have formal information services, or are suspicious of disclosing information.
Respondents are representative of the industrial and service sectors, employ 820 persons in average with annual sales close to US $ 35 million, and exports of about 15 % of total sales. They tend to have large organizational structures for their sizes, averaging six hierarchical levels. This article continues the exploratory study previously performed by Diaz and Perez (2000). The raw data obtained was processed with standard statistical methods (including correlation and factor analysis), to study the relationship patterns among the variables in the survey1.
1.2Logistics Strategy
Among key results it was found that logistics strategy is mainly concerned with the integration of th supply chain: Long-term relationships with customers and suppliers, on-site services and delivery dependability, as shown in Figure 1. This is in line with the Mega-trends reported by Bowersox, Closs and Stank (2000).Figure 1. Key strategic considerations in Venezuelan logistics.
Response speed was described as more valuable than transportation costs, suggesting that efficacy is preferred to efficiency, a usual trend in protected markets.The development of proprietary distribution channels is thought of as safer than outsourcing –implying the absence of reliable third-party providers.The main perceived threats to logistics in Venezuela are economic uncertainty (due to short-term economic policies), infrastructure limitations and human resources scarcity.Suppliers’ selection policies reveal the behavior of Venezuelan managers: quality, price and dependability were reported as the key influential characteristics. This looks again as a consequence of the use of hierarchies –instead of markets- and conglomerates (subcontracting with firms owned by the same economic
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外文翻译--委内瑞拉的物流战略与实施
