Logistics hub: Dispatch and Shipping 4.0

Logistics hubshave taken center stage due to the enormous challenges posed bye-commerce logistics: returns management and super-fast order deliveries. This has compelled companies to set up camp closer to big cities and to the main communication hubs to ensure efficientlast-mile delivery.

In this post, we analyze logistics hubs, the aspects to take into account when designing one, and their role in logistics nowadays.

What is a logistics hub?

A logistics hub is an area allocated to logistics activities relating to thetransportation, sorting, dispatch, and distribution of goodsfor national and international transit.

In other words, logistics hubs are logistics areas inprized locations, preferably close to metropolitan areas or major communication hubs, such as ports or airports. This facilitates the organization of work and optimizes the productsupply chain.

Made up of multiple facilities, office buildings, and distribution centers, these spaces usually encompass a wide variety of businesses, which make the most of the privileged geographical location to optimize their logistics systems. There are also logistics hubs run by a single organization, normallylogistics providersor companies with a high demand for products.

Logistics hubs rarely incorporate production centers. Their main function is tostreamline the dispatch and shipment of the product to the end customer.

Advantages of logistics hubs

A logistics hub is a solution for increasing thelevel of service and commitment to logistics. These are the main benefits businesses can obtain by establishing themselves in these logistics spaces:

• Efficiency in product dispatches and shipments: a logistics hub ensures agility ingoods dispatchand shipping with multimodal transport.
• Reduced operating costs: the logistics hub should be synchronized with the production and distribution centers to avoid cost overruns in key stages such asorder fulfillmentand consolidation.
• Adaptation to e-commerce logistics: a logistics center close to a major city cuts delivery times and makes it possible to improve management oflast-mile delivery.

的实现ation of a logistics hub makes it possible to have a facility specializing in the management of dispatches and shipments to end customers. Coordinated with the main warehouse, the hub can have spaces dedicated tovalue-added services (VAS),the preparation of orders forcross-docking, and/orreturns management.

Logistics hub location

A logistics hub is agroup of warehouses and logistics and administrative facilities负责优化商品派遣和船ments. These spaces are set up in prime locations: not far from big cities, close to the country’s major ports and airports, and in the major land transportation hubs.

These centers must be located in aneasily accessed areawith the aim of streamlininggoods receiptfrom thedistribution centeror from other suppliers. The lack or precariousness of the necessary access points could lead to order delays and mistakes in coordination, making the companies in the platform less competitive.

When choosing the site for this type of logistics zone, it’s crucial to correctly determine its distribution. As noted above, these hubs are not only home to warehouses, but also tooffices, service areas, and customs zones(in ports and airports). Therefore, it’s critical to design thelogistics centerlogically to ensure that these spaces are coordinated, thereby streamlining operations.

What to consider when designing a logistics hub

The structure of the logistics hub consists of multiple warehouses belonging to one or various companies and charged withmanaging order delivery logistics. Thus, the logistics hub must be properly organized in order to take advantage of its excellent location. To design the layout of the logistics center, it’s necessary to carry out aprior analysisto determine the most suitable location for each building’s access points and for thewarehouse docks. It’s especially important to establish the way in whichvehicles, handling equipment, and people will circulatewithin the logistics area.

The hub design shouldn’t only take into consideration current product demand. Whether for one or more logistics providers or companies, it’s vital to have aninvestment and development plan that makes it possible to scalethe storage and dispatch preparation systems that make up each building and the hub itself.

In this vein, and to shorten delivery times, businessesautomatetheir processes: they incorporateconveyors for palletsand boxes and storage systems withstacker cranes. These speed up the storage and retrieval of goods and guarantee that the unit loads won’t become damaged in warehouse operations. Logistics hubs usually feature thelatest technologyin their operations, for example: from pallet checkpoints in the goods receipt and storage area toautomatic truck loading and unloading systemsand sorters for streamlining goods dispatches and shipments.

This was the case of the newIntersurgicallogistics hub in Lithuania. The new logistics center, topped off by a 98-foot-tallrack supported building, receives more than 500 pallets a day from other company plants in the UK, Italy, and China.“We’re happy to say that, in a matter of very little time, we now have better control over all our logistics processes. This will be essential in the future as our business grows and we seek to maintain this center as our main global distribution hub,”notes Martynas Tamosiunas, Group Supply Chain Manager at Intersurgical.

Thelayoutisn’t the only design process in the commissioning of a logistics hub. In a logistics complex such as Intersurgical’s in Lithuania — where the priority is to reduce costs and order delivery times — thewarehouse management system (WMS)acts as the brain of the hub. That is, it syncs operations between the distribution center and the logistics hub.

Software is the tool that ensuresreal-time control of the stocklocated among the firm’s various warehouses. The logistics manager — and the customer in the case of a logistics provider — will havecomprehensive visibility of the stockand of the status of each order.

Likewise, the WMS is responsible for synchronizing with the software of the different carriers to expedite delivery to end customers. TheMulti Carrier Shipping Softwaremodule enables the logistics hub to automate dispatch according to criteria such as carrier route, end customer, and even transportation agency.

Logistics hub: shipping from a prime spot

Logistics hubs are deemed the ideal solution forminimizing order delivery times. Their privileged geographic location close to the main communication hubs streamlines goods transportation, ensuring efficiency in last-mile delivery.

But that’s not the only factor for which these logistics hubs stand out. They’re also equipped with cutting-edge technology to increase their process throughput. New consumer trends such asomnichannel retail, demand both proximity to metropolitan areas andprocess automation to avoid the risk of wrong orders.

For over 50 years, Interlake Mecalux has been providing its customers with solutions that help them to be more competitive in order dispatch and shipment processes.Get in touch. One of our experts will show you how to automate and digitize your processes to ramp up the throughput of your logistics hub.