Logistics Resource Management

Logistics resource management (LRM) is a new IT tool providing browser-based software for automating, planning, managing and optimizing the e-commerce logistics activities. It is a plat­form for the command and control of logistics execution, which can also operate as a central clear­ing house of logistics data to meet a variety of other decision-making needs of the e-commerce firm. The LRM environment provides information on the following:

• Cross-border regulatory compliance
• Total landed cost (including taxes, duties and levies)
• Goods movement (by tracking)
• Alert notification messages in exceptional situations
• Carrier selection and negotiation
• Route and lane optimization

Ideally, the LRM platform should be integrated to a payments platform in order to encompass the full cycle of delivery and payments. The platform coordinates and integrates with suppliers and customers through EPR, SCM, CRM and other software applications. Applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Material Resource Planning (MRP), Distribution Require­ment Planning (DRP) and Warehouse Management System (WMS) do not provide much com­petitive advantage. The key to a robust LRM is vehicle management, which includes the use of prescheduled and dynamic dock scheduling, real-time routing of trucks and material-handling equipment, automatic material picking applications, and so on. LRM data provide complete vis­ibility in inbound and outbound logistics operations of the company, suppliers and customers. It is a proactive system for notification of exceptions operating on a real-time basis. LRM provides true cost data for cross-border shipments in inbound and outbound logistics. It is a new weapon for the logistician for proactive decisions in a dynamic marketing environment.

Source: Sople V.V (2013), Logistics Management, Pearson Education India; Third edition.