Показатели качества услуг и методы повышения эффективности функционирования логистической цепи почтовой связи Реферат

The mail or post is a system for physically transporting documents and other small packages; or, the postcards, letters, and parcels themselves. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century national postal systems have generally been established as government monopolies with a fee on the article prepaid. Proof of payment is often in the form of adhesive postage stamps, but postage meters are also used for bulk mailing. Modern private postal systems are typically distinguished fr om national postal agencies by the names “courier” or “delivery service” [1, p.43].

Postal authorities often have functions other than transporting letters. In some countries, a postal, telegraph and telephone (PTT) service oversees the postal system, in addition to telephone and telegraph systems. Some countries’ postal systems allow for savings accounts and handle applications for passports.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), established in 1874, includes 192 member countries and sets the rules for international mail exchanges [8, p.34].

Modern mail is organized by national and privatized services, which are reciprocally interconnected by international regulations, organizations and international agreements. Paper letters and parcels can be sent to almost any country in the world relatively easily and cheaply. The Internet has made the process of sending letter-like messages nearly instantaneous, and in many cases and situations correspondents use electronic mail wh ere previously they would have used letters. The volume of paper mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service has declined by more than 15% since its peak at 213 billion pieces per annum in 2006.

Some countries have organized their mail services as public limited liability corporations without a legal monopoly.

The worldwide postal system comprising the individual national postal systems of the world’s self-governing states is coordinated by the Universal Postal Union, which among other things sets international postage rates, defines standards for postage stamps and operates the system of International Reply Coupons [1, p.62].

In most countries a system of codes has been created (referred to as ZIP codes in the United States, postcodes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and postal codes in most other countries), in order to facilitate the automation of operations. This also includes placing additional marks on the address portion of the letter or

Quality as a requirement has great importance also in the service industry. If a service activity is not very sophisticated, the quality terms and requirements applied in industry can be adopted here. We can see that more and more transport companies let them be qualified by respective Quality Standards.

Logistics is a complex process, it is divided into activities. The activities themselves carried out at high quality will not automatically turn a process into a high standard one but they offer chance.

The logistics system has the following areas with quality concerns [2, p.116]:

• logistics facilities;

• logistics process and its subprocesses;

• human factors of service, organization, management.

Quality will be assessed by the consumers. It is not possible to find just one consumer in the logistics process to satisfy his requirements (but the final consumer is the real target), on the joint points of logistics chain there is always a seller-buyer relation. A buyer always has his quality requirements; the seller has to satisfy them. The final consumer should define these requirements but it is not easy to focus on his demands at the beginning of the logistics chain [3, p.91]. This way we will get suboptimums at joint points, a comprehensive optimization of the whole logistics process can be attained by a learning process.

A service activity is to be organized again and again every time. Its performance and its quality can be different any time, it shows a distribution. It is impossible to check its quality by instruments or automatically. Even the customers assessment can vary.

If we speak about the quality of logistics beyond the three areas (above), we have to involve the performance and productivity indicators and the expenses.

1. Quality of logistics facilities:

a) delivery facilities; warehousing facilities; packaging facilities; material handling facilities;

b) transport ways [3, p.116].

ad a) quality indicators of logistics facilities:

load capacity, performance; modern design; suitability to jobs; maintenance background; man-facilities relation (ergonomics, environment protection); good-

In this paper we discussed the performance of effectiveness and the ways of improvement of quality of logistics chains in postal service. Firstly the essence of postal activities was observed. It was found out that the mail or post is a system for physically transporting documents and other small packages; or, the postcards, letters, and parcels themselves. Modern mail is organized by national and privatized services, which are reciprocally interconnected by international regulations, organizations and international agreements. Paper letters and parcels can be sent to almost any country in the world relatively easily and cheaply. The worldwide postal system comprising the individual national postal systems of the world’s self-governing states is coordinated by the Universal Postal Union.

Then the importance of logistics chains in postal communications was discussed. Postal operators and large logistics providers play a dominant role as key stakeholders in the transportation and logistics industry. Logistics and Post practice has grown in step with the industry, supporting their clients through industry restructurings, regulatory transformations, technological advances, changes in financial reporting and new corporate governance requirements. Logistics in post communications is an ideal service for sending large consignments including multi-parcels, just-in-time parcels, bulk-break consignments and goods of any weight.

In the second chapter the quality indicators of services of the logistics chain of postal service were discussed. It was learnt that the logistics is a complex process, it is divided into activities. The activities themselves carried out at high quality will not automatically turn a process into a high standard one but they offer chance. Quality indicators in this sphere are connected with quality of logistics facilities, quality indicators of logistics process, quality of service, logistics performance at companies and costs of logistics.

Later the methods to improve the efficiency of the logistics chain were discussed. It was found out that 5 ways to improve logistical efficiency in postal communication exist. They are: getting an information management system; keeping a sizable inventory at a warehouse; training staff; redefining SOP; learning from the competition.