Developing and Improving the Efficiency of Transportation in a Manufacturing Company

At the moment, many companies are experiencing difficulties with logistics and supply chain management due to the complex geopolitical situation in Russia and the world. Changing markets and familiar routes is something that all manufacturing companies exporting their products to other countries are facing. One of the most important aspects of improving logistics is to increase the efficiency of transportation, as it accounts for the major share of all logistics costs. The relevance of the topic is caused by the emerging need of Russian companies in developing a new list of measures that will allow not only to return pre-crisis indicators, but also to reduce transportation costs, which increased after the introduction of sanctions. It is also worth noting that possible proposed solutions will be applicable not only in the period of uncertainty, but also in more stable circumstances. The issue of increasing the efficiency of transportation has been considered by many authors of domestic and foreign literature, who put forward their proposals on this topic, but under the current conditions there is no ready solution to this problem. The purpose of the work is to develop a list of measures to improve the transportation of sawn timber to export countries (Egypt and China) for the company «Segezha Group». In order to achieve the goal it is necessary to solve the following tasks: Analyze the current activities of the company Segezha Group», in particular its logistics department; Analyze the market of forest products, as well as the main competitors of the company, comparing key indicators; Analyze existing routes and methods of transportation of sawn timber to Egypt and China, assessing their strengths and weaknesses; Study theoretical and practical data on the topic of transportation and increasing its efficiency; Develop a list of measures and alternative transportation solutions, as well as the procedure for their implementation; Evaluate the financial efficiency of the proposed solutions. The object of the study is transportation of sawn timber to export countries, and the subject of the study is transportation solutions and routes of «Segezha Group». Both theoretical and practical research methods are applied in the work. In domestic scientific literature, the topic of increasing the efficiency of transportation was considered by such authors as Dybskaya, V. V., Sergeev, V. I., Gerami, V. D., Kolik A. V., Nerush, Y. M. These authors review in their works all aspects of transportation, including, types and methods of transportation and current trends in this topic. Among foreign authors it is possible to highlight the works of Bowersox, D. J., and Closs, D. J. about the general concepts of logistics and transportation in particular, as well as the work of Tseng, Y., Yue, W. L. and Taylor M. A. P. about the role of transportation in the supply chain. This work is practical, as the proposed solutions for improvement will allow PJSC Segezha Group to reduce transportation costs and will be a competitive advantage. The structure of the paper consists of an introduction, three main chapters, conclusion, list of used literature and appendix. The introduction describes the relevance of the topic under study, the goals and objectives of the work, the subject and object of the study, as well as the characteristics of the main sources of information. The first chapter analyzes the current activities of the company, geography of presence, financial indicators, as well as analyzes the market in which the company is represented. The logistics activities are analyzed in detail. The second chapter analyzes literature and other sources of information on the topic of transportation, as well as reviews practical research and best practices in this area. The third chapter presents practical solutions to the problem posed and ways of their implementation, as well as an assessment of their financial efficiency. The conclusion summarizes the results of the study.