Under the new Lead Logistics Partner (LLP) agreement, DHL will be wholly responsible for the manufacturing logistics of Konica Minolta’s domestic supply chain in the ‘Business Technologies’ business in China.
The partnership between the two companies first commenced in July 2013 when DHL was awarded a contract to manage Konica Minolta’s supply chain in Japan. Under the LLP arrangement, DHL assumed management of the tech company’s domestic distribution center network. It introduced quality improvement processes into distribution centre operations, standardised work processes, and established a new key performance indicator (KPI)-based quality management system to track performance and drive continuous improvement. In addition, DHL standardised Konica Minolta’s transportation contracts and implemented shared trucking services to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The value delivered by the DHL team in Japan was a key factor behind Konica Minolta’s decision to extend the scope to include China.