That is where logistics redesign comes in.
To redesign means making lucid choices across four major tensions: service, to deliver a real customer promise rather than a theoretical one; cost, looked at globally rather than in silos; flexibility, to absorb changes in volumes, channels and markets; and resilience, to prevent an overly stretched network from becoming fragile at the slightest incident.
A network optimized too aggressively for cost can become rigid. A network built only for service can become economically unsustainable. A very flexible but poorly structured network can generate complexity and inefficiency. A resilient but oversized network can undermine competitiveness.
The strategic question is therefore not: how can we perform better with the current network? The real question is: is the current network still the right one?
Before looking for marginal gains, companies need to verify that their logistics architecture matches their commercial ambitions, operational constraints and real risks. Optimization only improves what already exists. Redesign makes it possible to reset the structural choices themselves.
In practice, companies that take this step seriously are not just trying to become more efficient. They are trying to build a network that is competitive, agile and resilient at the same time. In an unstable environment, that capacity for trade-off is often what creates durable advantage.
In practice, companies that take this step seriously are not just trying to become more efficient.
They are trying to build a network that is competitive, agile and resilient at the same time. In an unstable environment, that capacity for trade-off is often what creates durable advantage.