Bargaining Power Of Suppliers
Car2go is a subsidiary of the Daimler AG. As such, Daimler happens to be the sole supplier of Car2go in its areas of operations. Nevertheless, we will have to consider the elements of time and cost that will be used in the project.
Since Car2go already has an established system of supply from the mother manufacturer of the smart cars which get to supply internationally in countries and regions such as U.S.A, U.K, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands; the company will still make use of the same supply distribution for the purposes of cost and time efficicacy.
However, there are instances that there may be complications like delays by the suppliers or even jurisdictional restriction by traffic laws thus limiting some transportations (Watanabe, internationaltransportforum.org ).
In times like this, Daimler will subcontract other suppliers so that the company is able to duly serve its new customers at Osaka, Japan.
In this regard, Car2go will have to add some suppliers for their Japanese market so that it is not affected by any market fluctuations. However, such a change will occur when the need arises.
Distribution Management and Logistics
Distribution management and logistics refer to the movement and transportation, warehousing, and branding of products (Kapoor 101).
In logistics, there is the need to analyse the transportation costs that may be involved as well as the delivery options so as to point out the required changes that have to be reached at ( Berken 23).The operations on a daily basis for Car2go will have to be perfectly and routinely managed.
Car2go has an uphill task of redesigning its smart cars to be left hand driven compared to European market right hand driven smart cars. In this case, Car2go will procure smart cars from Daimler that fit the bill mentioned above.
This has some cost implications but however necessary to comply with the Japanese legal frameworks.
To avoid supplying more than required smart cars, the company will periodically conduct the demand forecasting in the market to ascertain the approximate number of cars that the company will have to procure for its Japanese market.
Car2go should have a warehouse that will house its cars in one place. The ware house will also serve as an area where the cars will periodically undergo servicing or replacements for any spoilt parts.
For the purposes of cost minimisation, the company feels that instead of having many hotspots within the town like in Ulm, Germany, that may require monthly rental payments for the company, it will be prudent for the company to find a central warehouse within Osaka’s Central Business district that should serve as the nervous centre.
This will also serve as the regional headquarters housing the regional organisational offices, the garages, and the parking spaces for the cars awaiting orders from the clients.
This will ease the task for clients identifying where Car2go is based since it will be a single place that can be easily found in Osaka.
The issue of order processing appears to be a daunting task that Daimler should carefully undertake. This is aimed at avoiding instances of double booking or having many orders at one time than the available smart cars.
For this purpose, all the cars will have special numbers. Once one is booked, it is marked as taken and the next available free number put up for the next booking.
However, if the forecasts show that the clientele size has grown, then the company will have to increase the number of its fleet to sere the market and not risk the danger of client substitution for other players in the industry.
The company endeavours to offer the best customer service in the market. Daimler’s vision is to offer excellent service to its customers in all its regional operations; thus, Car2go will have to maintain the same in Japan.
Car2go will have support services for its clients. Customers will be able to communicate to the support staff by phone calls or through internet chat services that will be operational on a 24 hour service.
For this purpose, the company will have a number issued for such services as well as the company website where customers can ask questions through chat concerning the company’s services.
We owe this thanks to the growth of smart phone technology and computer technology in the Japanese market.
Bran name and image is a central factor that builds customer loyalty (Scott, degreedirectory.org). The company will brand all its cars in a manner that will maintain the prestige of both the company as well as the clients.
The intention is to build the image of Car2go as prestige services that all the clients will feel honoured to associate with. In addition, the company finds it as a matter of importance to control its fleet using the latest tracking technology to monitor the movement of its fleet.
This means that all the vehicles will be fitted with tracking devices that will help the management monitor each car.
Works Cited
Berken, Peters. Knowing when Logistics is good for you. London, Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
Kapoor, Satish. Basics of Distribution management: A Logistical Approach. New York: Irwin, 2006. Print.
Scott, Philip. Logistics and Distribution Management. degreedirectory.org. n.d. Web. June 2012.
Watanabe, Ryo. Overview of the Public Transport System and Policy in Japan. internationaltransportforum.org. March 2005. Web. June 2012.