XPO Logistics Case Study Sample

• Subject Name : global logistics

Abstract on XPO Logistics

The world's top ten suppliers of state-of-the-art chain solutions for the best-performing businesses is XPO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: XPO). The company offers services for forklift brokerage and freight, last-mile logistics, orchestrated solutions for what is the supply chain, high-value-added storage, and distribution, earth and air acceleration, low-carrying, intermodal, irrigation, managed transport, and global shipping. Through a tightly distributed network with over 87,000 staff and 1,440 sites in 33 states, XPO serves more than 50,000 customers. The headquarters of XPO is located in Greenwich, Conn., USA and it's head office in Lyon, France. XPO Logistics, Inc. plans to expand its global routes in all four transportation modes. The company uses robots to boost risk management for security purposes. Road, rail, sheep and aeroplanes are the major transport vessels for XPO Logistics.

Introduction to XPO Logistics

In terms of logistics and transport services, XPO Logistics is rated as number one. The company operates in 30 countries as a Third-Party transporter or third-party distributor, with the number of customers reaching the 51,000-mark. However, the company uses not less than $550 million a year in technology investments to continue to improve the industry. In 2021 XPO projects to be operating in 35 countries comprising regions such as South America, Europe (UK & Ireland), Southern Africa (SA), Asia (China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore) and Australia. Also, the company targets Nigeria and Tunisia in Northern Africa are the company’s major customers. The company has over 200,000employees with annual revenue of $23billion. The purpose of this paper is to discuss global logistics using XPO logistics as a better case. Transportation regulation and public policy, strategic supply chain management, transportation modes, security and risk management are essential aspects in efficient operation of XPO Logistics Inc. as a global company.

Transportation Regulation and Public Policy

Transport policy includes the implementation of a range of constructions and policies to achieve particular social, economic, and environmental goals as well as the operation and efficiency of the transport system. It is rarely used and always interchangeable in terms of "regulation" and "planning." However, it is unfair to pair them together. On the other hand, Behiri, Belmokhtar-Berraf,& Chu (2018) observed that policy and preparation are different aspects of the overall intervention method. It is possible to develop policies without any clear scheduling implications and preparing is often performed outside of any direct policy scope. Transportation policy has made XPO Logistics Inc. take appropriate decisions on mobility resource distribution, including the management and control of existing transport operations in various regions of the world.

Various governments globally participate in the policy pathway as they own and handle many elements of the XPO Logistics Inc. transportation network. Governments too often feel that the essential public service they deliver is their role in managing transport networks as well as in enforcing regulatory frameworks (Esq & Henry, 2018). Across virtually all areas of cultural, social, and political action in national states, transport policies emerge because of their importance to transport. XPO Logistics Inc. regards transportation as a critical element in sustainable development by government bodies of all inclinations from interventionists to the most moderate.

Transport is taken as an important tool to encourage, develop, and shape the national economy. The transportation sector is founded on a number of development plans, (XPO Logistics Inc. in particular) and the 1960's Appalachia project, EU policy on trans-European networks and China's Belt and Road Initiative. Public authorities and international organisations such as the World Bank are also collaborating to develop public infrastructure for transportation in places where private capital or resources cannot be invested. Paradoxically there are sometimes unclear ties between transportation and economic development.In national security, transport is often a concern. From Cheng (2019) perspective, policies to build sovereignty or monitor national room and borders are created. For reasons of national security, the Interstate Highway policy enacted in the year1956 enhanced the US with its network of expressways.

Strategic Supply Chain Management

Between 2007 and 2009 XPO Logistics Inc. economic uncertainty was unprecedented, reflecting not only the world economic crisis but also customer demand turmoil and the gradual movement of prices for raw materials, fuel, and products. According to Borau (2019), managers in chargeof the supply chain of the organizationwere forced to create more effective, customer-focused supply chains and find creative means of cost reduction and development. In the meantime, they were also required to take benefit of their investment opportunities. The arrival of smartphones and analytical tools on the market even further disrupted the business, providing exponentially increasing target market and ease of access to products and information, as if the biggest crisis since the global economic crisis had not been enough of a supply chain industry challenge.

XPO Logistics Inc. has been able to develop e-commerce platforms and transactions with a single click have become more common. All these changes in the industry culminated in a lifetime disturbance to supply chains.For the supply chain business, the world after this time has not been the same and supply chain experts had to respond to something that was rapidly becoming an outside environment driven by demand.Fryca-Knop & Majecka (2019) claimed that the speed of change has not slowed and the Internet of Things, digital models, and predictive analysis are now further growing the business' end-to-end capabilities. The members of the company did their best to adapt. Projects that minimise inventory and distribution expense were prioritised. Although this led to issues in the short run, professionals risked disregarding their long-term content delivery system demand-driven view.

Organisations plan for a turnaround in response to new normal conditions: a decreased workforce, strategic insights into the competition, stagflation and deflation, electricity and sustainability problems and a growing market for omni-channels (Fryca-Knop &Majecka, 2019). In conjunction with a well-funded strategy and right tools, effective strategies have helped supply chain professionals relieve pressure and ready managers for future market shifts.

Global Transportation Modes – Motor Carriers & Railroads

A vehicle can carry certain freight whereas a passenger airplane is fitted with a holding system for cargo and luggage. A collection of technological and business features is essential for XPO Logistics Inc. Tech qualities such as speed, power, and mobility technology are involved in technological traits, while operational attributes include modes used, such as speed limits, security conditions or operating times (Behiri, Belmokhtar-Berraf & Chu (2018). Road infrastructure is a large space used with the lowest physical restrictions between modes of transport. In road building, however, physiographic constraints have been important, with substantial extra costs for overcoming features such as waterways or rough terrain. While it has been developed historically to support motorised transport (trekking, home animals, and biking by the sunset of the nineteenth century), motorisation has played the role in the most growth since the early twentieth century.

The average versatility in road transport is provided as vehicles can serve many purposes but are seldom capable of operating outside roads. Unattractive costs for both automobiles and infrastructures are correlated with road transport systemsthat are negatively impacting the operations of XPO Logistics Inc. They are mainly connected to the light industry and the delivery of freight where fast transport in small loads is the norm. Yet public transport has become the main link in freight allocation with continuous delivery. Blackwell et al. (2019) claimed that the track on which wheel vehicles are tied is made up of the railways. Based on recent technological innovations, rail transport also comprises maglev and monorails. They are physically constrained on average and necessitate a low incline, particularly for freight. Lower manufacturing sectors are historically associated with rail infrastructure systems, but in conjunction with road and littoral modes, containerisation has increased rail transportation versatility. With a fully loaded carbon unit train of 23,400 tonnes, the highest load ever for XPO Logistics Inc.

Pipelines can be built on land or underwater almost unlimited. This helps to transport liquids such as oil products cost-effectively over large distances. Alberta is linked by the lengthiest gas pipeline to Sarnia, 2,911 kilometres in length. From Grant, Trautrims,& Wong (2017) perspective, it stretches close to 9,400 km from Russian Arctic oilfields of eastern Siberia to Western part of Europe, the longest pipeline being the Trans-line, covering 3/4s of XPO Logistics Inc. route. Low physical restrictions include arctic conditions with the terrain and escapement. The costs of pipelines vary according to diameter and increase proportionally to the amount and viscosity of fluids. It was constructed and must be ground for much of its length, a 1300-km long Trans Alaskan pipeline. Terminals for pipelines have considerable significance because they suit refineries and ports.

Global Transportation Modes – Airlines, Water Carriers, and Pipelines

Maritime shipping is the most efficient way of moving large quantities of cargo over huge distances with physical properties such as surface tension and minimal friction. Oceans, coastlines, oceans, streams, rivers, and canals are the key maritime routes. As the economic activities are nearby, maritime traffic occurs across certain parts of the marine world, in particular in the north and north of the Pacific which favours the transport of goods by XPO Logistics Inc. (Fulconis &Paché, 2018). The design of canals, docks and excavating attempts to promote marine movement by reducing discontinuity.

In the western part of Russland, there are extensive inland waterway networks between Volga / Don, St. Laurel and the Grand Lakes, the Mississippi and the Amazon Rivers, Panama / Paragua and inland China. Seaside transport is costly because of the expense of constructing, maintaining, and running port infrastructures. According to Fulconis & Paché (2018), these high costs often apply to shipping where ships are intensively built, run, and maintained. Maritime transport is more related to the heavy industry than any other method, such as stainless steel and petrochemical plants next to the harbor. Yet maritime transport has become a pillar of globalisation by continuous delivery, allowing a multitude of commodities and products to be traded.

Although the airways in North Atlantic and Europe and the Northern Pacific are virtually unlimited, they are thicker. The restrictions on air transport are multifaceted and include the location, the atmosphere, fog, and air currents affecting XPO Logistics Inc. negatively. The commercial airplanes require around 3,300 meters of runway to land and take-off. Air operations are related to the tertiary and quarterly industries, in particular finance and tourism, depending on people's long-haul mobility. Supply (2017) has recently claimed that aviation has taken on increasing numbers of high-quality goods and has become an increasingly active player in the global logistics industry.Air transportation, the next largest transport field for energy use, covers all passenger and cargo aircraft, for example, aircraft built for commercial transportation, freight or mail transport. The IATA reports that 4.1 billion passengers were transported globally by airlines in 2017 (Hossain, 2019). This figure rose to 7.3% in 2016. Between 2016 and 2017 it represented another 280 million journeys by air.

Transportation Security

XPO Operations has announced the launch that its public safety robot program, which started in October 2017, will reduce its logistics facilities in Atlanta, Ga., to nil during the first six months. XPO is a world leader in transport and logistics services. The C3-XPO autonomous safety robot controls the car park and the outside of the site 24 hours a day (Roussat & Rouquet, 2019). In order to use a solution that offers a commanding presence and perceives real-time data, XPO contracts with robotics provider Knight-scope, Inc. C3-XPO saved over $125,000 at the expense of the conventional security services, in addition to minimising parking accidents. "We are leading in incorporating emerging technology across our enterprise, including less well-known areas such as defence," said Troy Cooper, the chief financial officer of XPO Transportation.

Through Knight-scope the company has been able to deploy C3-XPO to ensure our Atlanta plant 100% external protection while providing substantial customer saving. "C3-XPO has large capabilities to secure personnel, equipment, as well as the physical installation. Grant (2019) claimed that the 360 grade, the high-definition weather-resistant robot has small-light cameras and two terabytes of storage for recordings and event retrieval. C3-XPO uses visual and audible warnings to discourage suspected offenders and to track cars and trucks.

In addition, C3-XPO utilises human sensing methods for identifying potential risks to human beings and vehicles on the premises and computerised license plate acceptance. From Etemad, Júnior,& Matwin (2018) perspective, the emergency call button helps employees to seek help and C3-XPO will send the employees to the major roadways if necessary. If the location is unsuitable, the double-way communication device of the robot helps the operator to interact with possible threats effectively in the XPO security control centre without posing a risk to human existence. XPO invests over $450 million in its big organisation yearly in technology, contributing to the advancement of prominent systems of innovations and mobile apps (Dain, Paché,& Calvi, 2019). The business focuses on four technology areas: automation and smart devices, service, and support and accessibility, the digital freight industry, and the dynamic data sciences.

Transportation Risk Management

ISO 31000 describes "the impact of uncertainty on goals" as "the risk." Risks are usually anything that might impede the achievement of goals and objectives. According to Żak& Galińska (2018), managing risk is an empirical and management activity process focused on defining and addressing the inherent uncertainty about the management and properties of a complex organisation. Mature risk management techniques applicable to leading international transport companies. They also developed policies and procedures for risk identification, assessment, management, and monitoring.

There are regularly discussed issues and can be answered directly by transport companies that have established risk management systems, processes, and tools. In the transportation industry practice, risk management is implicit. Companies set strategic objectives and priorities-effective and efficient flow of people and goods, so there is no question about their progress (Beaurepaire, 2018). The accomplishment of these goals and priorities may be adversely influenced by internal or external threats. Similarly, organisations set performance measures and build asset management programs to improve investment decision making. It is highly complex and unpredictable to operate transportation networks, including management of departments, implementation of the system and the execution of projects.

Conclusion on XPO Logistics Case Study

Therefore, a wide range of organisational and technological tools should be organised by XPO Logistics Inc. administrators, planners, and engineers in controlling the efficiency of the transport network. Although most staffsin the transport agencies agree that they automatically recognise and handle risks during daily operation, a recent study showed that only 13 transport agencies have formal business risk management systems, with fewer having a systematic organisational, program, and project management strategy. In shipping, risk management is involved. Fryca-Knop & Majecka (2019) claimed that transport organisations set strategic goals and priorities. The accomplishment of these goals will affect internal and external risk events. Agencies are also implementing performance measures to improve investment decisions and improving asset management programs. Again, performance and assets may be affected by risks. In transportation, the danger is daunting. Transport agencies are responsible for developing specific client plans, approaches, and instruments for managing risk.

Recommendation on XPO Logistics Case Study

In the fast turning back from the rapid growth of an organisation by acquisitions to highest ranks in the logistics provider XPO Logistics Inc. investigates the potential sales or bounce-off to one or more of its business segments. XPO said claimed that its board of directors has approved the revision, which would not include the main construction business in the company, to explore "strategic options" for its divisions (Richards, 2017). In after-hours trading, the company stock rose 16%. The Greenwich, Connectors, said that it has retained its investment advisors Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as their legal counsel in the review process. XPO should reduce its 2020 turnover by referring to 'continued macro-smoothness' and it should start decreasing from a 1% sales outlook to 0.6% in 2021, from 2.5% to 4% over the year. It should also post substantial billion in sales for the third quarter, but challenges analysts' profit expectations, results that are due to cost reduction and technology utilisation.

References for XPO Logistics Case Study

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