Evolution of Modern Distribution Environment

The Advent of Omni-Channel Commerce

In today's business environment, there's a saying: "There's omni-channel commerce, but no omni-channel logistics." This highlights a critical contradiction facing the market today. While customers purchase products through various channels, logistics systems are not designed to effectively handle this complexity.

This issue is the fundamental reason why companies need to adopt omni-channel logistics solutions.

Issues in Modern Diversified Distribution Structure

Rapidly Changing Business Models

The modern distribution environment is fragmenting into various channels, moving away from traditional mass production methods:

• Traditional Model: Manufacturer → Mass Media → Large Public
• Modern Model: Brand (Manufacturer) → Social Media/E-commerce/Live Commerce, etc. → Fragmented Groups

These changes are putting serious strain on existing logistics systems. Each channel has different requirements and operational methods, and managing them individually requires enormous costs and resources.

Increasing Logistics Costs

As seen in Amazon's case, logistics costs have increased from 15% to 32% of total sales. In particular, fulfillment costs take up a larger proportion than shipping costs, highlighting the importance of optimizing center operations.

Limitations of Existing Logistics Systems

Result-Centered Management Systems

Typical logistics management systems focus on results rather than logistics processes. Looking at logistics from an upstream perspective, WMS (Warehouse Management System) and TMS (Transportation Management System) simply manage inventory and shipping status. This approach is not effective in complex omni-channel environments.

Limitations of Physical Integration

Many companies try to optimize through integrated logistics centers, but many problems occur in actual fields:

• Ideal Integration: Maximizing space utilization, integrating tasks, sharing infrastructure
• Realistic Integration: Unclear inventory management and work instructions, confusion of field workers

In particular, complexity above a threshold can lead to risks in shipping beyond management difficulties (catastrophe theory). This forces conservative responses in the field.

The Need for Omni-Channel Logistics Solutions

B2B, B2C, D2C Logistics in One Warehouse: Importance of Logical Integration

Effective integration should focus on logical integration rather than real estate or physical infrastructure. Omni-channel logistics transforms diverse logistics service requirements through logistics engineering, grouping and integrating them to alleviate complexity and improve work productivity. As a result, it is necessary to process various types of logistics such as B2B, B2C, and D2C in a single logistics warehouse to improve corporate competitiveness and productivity.

Detailed Inventory Attribute Management

Omni-channel logistics solutions provide the following detailed inventory management:

• Real-time available inventory identification
• Item-specific shipping standard management
• Inventory ownership management by shipper, business unit
• Scheduled shipping inventory locking by delivery destination

This detailed management leads to practical effects such as reduced inventory disposal costs, reduced delivery failures, and improved work productivity.

Order Pattern-Based Task Integration

In actual logistics operations, delivery methods and order volume and patterns are more important than business units or sales channels. Omni-channel logistics solutions:

• Analysis of delivery destinations and item patterns rather than order sources
• Similar order grouping and effective work method allocation
• Improved productivity across centers

Need for Automated Planning and Execution Systems

Automation of Complex Tasks

Omni-channel logistics needs to manage very complex delivery standards. This is impossible without system automation. The central management system in real-time:

• Order receipt and processing
• Inventory allocation and availability check
• Work method selection and allocation
• Work planning and execution

By automating this process, the daily 6.5 hours of work performed by IT staff can be reduced to within 20 minutes.

Real-time Response to Abnormal Situations

When anomalies are detected in the field or inventory changes occur, the system can immediately respond by replanning all related tasks in real-time.

Success Cases and Effects

When adopting an omni-channel logistics solution, the following practical effects can be achieved:

1. Process Reduction: Reduced 11 processes handled by IT staff to 3
2. Increased Spatial Capacity: Increased capacity by 16% by improving center space turnover (3,467 pyeong → 4,037 pyeong)
3. Improved Temporal Capacity: Reduced working time by 28% (16 hours → 12.5 hours)
4. Improved Inventory Management: Enhanced overall inventory management metrics and performance
   • 24% increase in sales opportunity cost due to reduced undelivered items
   • 23% reduction in inventory disposal costs due to improved inventory accuracy
   • 50% reduction in inventory-related VOC
5. Enhanced Promotion Response: Stable response even with up to 200% increase in orders during short-term promotions

Conclusion: The Future of Omni-Channel Logistics

Omni-channel logistics solutions are not simply upgrades to logistics systems, but essential strategic investments in modern distribution environments. MSA (Micro Service Architecture) cloud-native solutions that calculate industrial engineering-based logistics workflow can greatly enhance business agility and efficiency in complex modern distribution environments.

The use of digital twin technology and AI agents for logistics center operations enables optimization and continuous improvement through simulation. In particular, the pipeline that verifies and learns algorithms based on actual data and reflects them in the operating system shows the future of logistics operations.

Ultimately, omni-channel logistics solutions are not fragmentary solutions, but continuously evolving logistics center re-engineering methodologies that are essential for maintaining competitiveness in the modern business environment.