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The business success in express industry results
from superior processes. Excellent process
performance is based on effective design and
management. As the market has undergone profound
changes in the competitive environment, time-based
competitive strategy and supply chain management
triggered a new round of reengineering. In this new
round of process reengineering, time will be an
important indicator measured the efficiency of
supply chain operations (Qunli Shen, 2007).
The main steps of the process are ①customers
determine their needs of express; ②order services;
③ picking up the express; ④ transfer orders and
transportation; ⑤sorting and transhipment; ⑥arrival
of expresses and delivery. After classification and
integration, we divide the process of express
operation into six major parts: ordering process,
picking process, sending process, transferring
process, arriving process and delivery process.
Optimizing every process can fundamentally
strengthen the operational capacity and enhance the
overall competitiveness of express delivery
enterprises.
Starting from process optimization face to time,
it points out goals and meaning of the competition
for time by analysing the time value of processes.
Shown in Figure 2, the time analysis of the whole
existing operational processes can obtain two main
bottleneck of time: sorting process and
transportation process. When we develop a strategy,
the time bottleneck should be considered. Breaking
two time bottleneck will improve efficiency and the
level of quick response to the outside.
4.2 Optimizing Customer-centric
Services
In 1993, George • Stoke published an article which
reviewed their own 89-theory in the "Harvard
Business Review". He proposed Japanese companies
had been to the dark side because of the blind
pursuit of time with time-based competition. It leads
to the increase in cost and the lack of market
reaction, especially the inadequate response to
customer demand. Therefore, optimizing customer-
centric services is the second aspect to the time-
based competition. Customers are the basis for the
development, so that the express company must
provide customers with convenience, and maximize
the value of customers.
In time-based competitive environment, with the
rapid changes in customer demand diversification,
customer loyalty and brand no longer exists. The
customer will tend to the competitors who can be
faster to meet customer needs and maximize the
value of them. Therefore, express delivery
enterprises should be based on customer-oriented in
order to quickly and accurately understand their real
needs and potential needs. At the same time, but also
as far as possible to provide added value to
customers so that their needs can gain the greatest
satisfaction.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Time reveals new opportunities for express
companies to gain competitive advantages. After
analysing the feasibility of time source based on
VRIO, this paper confirms time-based competition
can be a strategic weapon to gain success in express
industry. The findings allow us to conclude that
express delivery enterprises can be a time-based
competitor by developing strategy with four
connotations (time saving, precision control, quick
response and customer-oriented) and two steps (time
management of the whole operational process and
the optimizing of customer-centric services). The
main value added of this study is the development of
time-based competition in express industry.
Nevertheless, a more research is needed to develop
this strategy tool. Future developments currently
underway are aimed at investigating whether our
conclusions can be extended, and an in-depth case-
study is necessary.
REFERENCES
Stalk, G. Jr, “Time – the next source of competitive
advantage”, Harvard Business Review, July-August
1988, pp. 41-51.
Evans, J. R. (1993), Applied Production and Operation
Management, 4th ed., West Publishing Company, New
York, NY.
Blackburn, J. D. (Ed.), Time-based Competition: The Next
Battleground in American Manufacturing, Business
One Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1991.
Clark, P., Organizational Innovations [M]. SAGE
Publications, 2003.
Stalk, G. Jr and Hout, T. M., Competing against Time:
How Time-based Competition Is Reshaping Global
Markets, Free Press, New York, NY, 1990.
Wang Yao-ping, Yang Yong-fang. Analysis of the
Competition of the Express Market in China [J].
Social Science of Beijing, 2009 (2).
Qunli Shen. Research on market conditions of private
express delivery companies [J]. Price: Theory &
Practice, 2007 (10).
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