One. the overall situation of supply chain management of German enterprises

Enterprises begin to realize the importance:

In the academic field of Germany, supply chain management generally refers to the process optimization of products from planning, supplier selection, procurement, production, transportation and distribution to buyback oriented to the final customer demand. Logistics is a link in supply chain management. Supply chain management involves most of the value chain of commodities. It goes beyond the industry and requires all participants to cooperate closely. The advantages of implementing supply chain management lie in reducing procurement cost, shortening delivery time, reducing product inventory, improving supplier loyalty and service level.

The logistics management of German enterprises has gone through the following stages:

1970s (traditional logistics, the goal is to optimize the function of each link) : procurement -- transportation, transshipment, warehousing -- production -- transportation, transshipment, warehousing -- sales;

1980s (horizontal cross-logistics, with the goal of optimizing orders) : procurement -- traditional logistics -- production -- traditional logistics -- marketing -- customers;

1990s (value chain logistics integration, the goal is to optimize the value chain) : customer orders -- r&d (subcontract to suppliers) -- procurement (subcontract to suppliers) -- production (subcontract to suppliers) -- distribution (subcontract to suppliers) -- recycling (subcontract to suppliers) -- customers;

The 21st century (globalization value chain integration logistics, the goal is to establish and optimize the global network).

According to the survey, 81% of German enterprises believe that the implementation of supply chain management will improve the competitiveness of enterprises. However, only more than 20% of enterprises have established effective supply chain management, because 95% of German enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises. Large enterprises and large-scale medium-sized enterprises pay more attention to supply chain management, while small enterprises have basically not established supply chain management due to their size and strength. In addition, according to statistics, 37-39% of large enterprises in Germany do not have strategic supply chain.

Total costs of supply chain management in Germany typically account for 7 per cent of business turnover. Firms that manage their supply chains earn twice as much as those that do not. Manufacturers of standard products that practice supply chain management have an average profit margin of 11 per cent, while manufacturers of personalised products have an average profit margin of 9 per cent.

In general, compared with countries with strong service industries such as the United States, German enterprises, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, still have a process of accepting the new thing of supply chain management in practice.

Main practices of supply chain management enterprises:

SCOR model

The majority of German enterprises implementing supply chain management are large enterprises, which have their own complete supply chain and manage and integrate by themselves. SCOR model is generally adopted in supply chain. The SCOR model, recommended by the institute for supply management, can be used to optimize an enterprise's current supply chain. It transcends the boundary between enterprises and departments, pays attention to the upstream and downstream partnership of supply chain, and pays attention to the strategic connection and efficient operation of related enterprises.

Contract logistics model

Germany's contract logistics (Kontraktlogistik), namely the third party logistics (3pl), is similar to the "li & fung model" of Hong Kong from the perspective of the contract executor. Simply put, contract logistics is a mode in which manufacturers or retailers sign long-term contracts with logistics enterprises and outsource the whole logistics process.

Contract logistics mode is popular in Germany, especially in the supply chain management of export-oriented enterprises. According to incomplete statistics of Kompass enterprise exchange website, there are more than 700 contract logistics companies in Germany, including not only big companies like deutsche post DHL, deutsche bahn Schenker, Kuhne&Nagel, Dachser and Fiege, but also small and medium-sized enterprises like Grieshaber and Karldischinger. These enterprises generally sign contracts with customers for 3-5 years and enter into the product value chain of customers from the product planning stage, so as to create greater value for customers through their professional services. Germany's contract logistics companies are active in the automotive, textile, food and frozen products and pharmaceutical industries. In 2008, German enterprises' supply chain management market size was 81 billion euros, nearly 30% of which used contract logistics mode.

It is worth noting that the trend of supply chain management outsourcing of German enterprises has slowed down significantly. At its peak in 2005, many companies outsourced entire supply chains. However, according to the research report of the federation of German industries, the outsourcing of supply chain management as a whole did not increase in 2010, and some large enterprises restored the supply chain management part back to the enterprise.

The state has no support measures:

Germany is a typical market economy country, except for special circumstances (such as economic crisis), the government has less intervention in economic life. Specific to the supply chain management industry, the German government has no direct specific support measures.

Two. Suggestions for the development of supply chain management foreign trade enterprises:

As the world's largest manufacturing nation, we cannot rely on demographic dividends to drive down labor costs forever. Moreover, the foreign trade environment China is facing is not optimistic day by day. The number of anti-china cases is increasing, and it is spreading from developed countries to developing countries. Our manufacturing enterprises need to upgrade their industrial structure and strive to occupy the two high ends of the global value chain, namely research and development and sales. We should strive to develop and promote enterprise supply chain management and supply chain management enterprises. The competition in the 21st century may no longer be simply the competition between enterprises, but the competition between supply chains. The current trend is that, with the deepening of globalization, enterprises are accelerating the pace of strategic alliances. We can consider:

Large enterprises should strive to optimize their supply chains:

Chinese companies are going global. With the rapid development of China's economy, our large enterprises have the ability to make global procurement. Our enterprises should cultivate a global perspective, not just satisfied with the order-production-export model. The former "two ends are outside" processing mode is the appropriate mode under the conditions at that time, but it can only bring the lowest part of the value chain, can not meet the needs of industrial upgrading of foreign trade enterprises. Big business needs to be global

Strengthen the study of supply chain links such as procurement, supplier selection, transportation and distribution and even foreign seller selection, and strive to integrate resources to build a multinational enterprise. Large transportation enterprises with natural advantages, such as postal, railway and aviation, should rely on their own advantages to build their own supply chain management service departments or subsidiaries and become excellent third-party logistics suppliers.

Smes should strive to integrate into the global supply chain:

For small and medium-sized enterprises, limited by their own strength, the most realistic approach should be to find the right market positioning and become a link in the supply chain of local large enterprises or foreign enterprises. Strive for a long-term stable contract, so as to ensure that the enterprise to plan for the future development of the basis.

Great efforts should be made to focus on sustainable development:

Sustainable development has become a worldwide topic. In order to maintain their image, multinational enterprises are very concerned about environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction. Whether to obtain a certain green certificate has become a necessary condition for multinational enterprises to select suppliers. Our enterprises must pay attention to, and strive to become environmentally friendly enterprises.