Logistics and Distribution Management Fundamentals Training Course

Course overview

Logistics performance is often judged at the point of failure: a missed delivery promise, a warehouse stock-out, an overloaded vehicle, an unexpected freight charge, or a customer order that cannot be traced. Professionals responsible for moving goods need more than familiarity with transport and warehousing terms; they need a practical way to connect demand, inventory, order fulfilment, warehouse activity, carrier management and distribution cost. This course equips participants to diagnose those links and make operational decisions using service, cost and inventory evidence.

Across five days, participants work through the end-to-end logistics flow, from order capture and inventory positioning to picking, dispatch, transport execution, delivery and returns. They learn to map logistics processes using SCOR principles, define service requirements, calculate inventory and transport measures, select distribution channels, assess carrier performance, and use warehouse productivity metrics. The programme also addresses Incoterms 2020, shipment documentation, basic network design, route planning, customer delivery performance, freight-cost control and logistics risk management.

Teaching combines instructor-led explanations with Excel-based calculations, process-mapping workshops, warehouse and transport case studies, and group decision exercises. Participants use realistic operational data to investigate a late-delivery problem, compare carrier options, calculate order-fill and inventory measures, and build a logistics KPI dashboard. They leave with a completed Logistics Improvement Action Plan containing a current-state process map, selected KPIs, a prioritised improvement backlog and measures for tracking results in their own operation.

The course is designed for professionals who work across warehousing, transport, distribution, customer service, inventory control or supply chain coordination and need a structured operational foundation before moving into specialist planning, warehouse management or transport-management roles.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map an end-to-end order-to-delivery process using SCOR process categories and control points
• Calculate order-fill rate, on-time-in-full, inventory turns, carrying cost and transport cost per shipment
• Classify inventory using ABC analysis and recommend replenishment controls for each category
• Design warehouse receiving, put-away, picking, packing and dispatch workflows with defined hand-offs
• Evaluate carrier proposals using a weighted scorecard covering cost, capacity, service and risk
• Apply Incoterms 2020 rules to identify responsibility, cost allocation and risk transfer in shipments
• Build a logistics KPI dashboard in Microsoft Excel using operational service and cost data
• Produce a Logistics Improvement Action Plan with prioritised actions, owners, milestones and measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Logistics Coordinators — who need to control daily order, dispatch and delivery activity using reliable measures
• Warehouse Supervisors — who manage receiving, storage, picking and dispatch productivity
• Distribution Managers — who balance service commitments, freight cost and network capacity
• Transport Planners — who allocate loads, carriers and routes while protecting delivery performance
• Inventory Controllers — who set stock controls and investigate availability or excess-stock issues
• Customer Service and Order Fulfilment Staff — who must resolve delivery exceptions with operations and carriers

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic workplace exposure to purchasing, warehousing, transport, inventory, order processing or customer fulfilment, and be comfortable reading simple operational reports. Familiarity with terms such as purchase order, sales order, lead time, stock level, shipment and delivery date is helpful. Participants should be able to perform straightforward calculations in Microsoft Excel, including formulas and sorting or filtering data. Prior experience with SAP, Oracle WMS Cloud, a warehouse management system or a transport management system is not required. This is a fundamentals course; complete beginners can attend, but should expect to work with practical operational data and terminology from the first day.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led modules followed by applied logistics work. Participants map a distribution process, calculate service and inventory measures in Microsoft Excel, and diagnose a warehouse-to-customer delivery case using order, stock, carrier and freight data. Small groups compare routing and carrier options, identify control failures, and present recommended actions to a simulated operations manager. Daily exercises build toward an individual Logistics Improvement Action Plan, refined on day five through peer review and instructor feedback for direct workplace use.

Course outline

Day 1: The logistics operating model

• End-to-end order-to-delivery flow and physical versus information movements
• SCOR framework processes: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, Return and Enable
• Logistics customer service requirements and service-level definitions
• Order cycle time, perfect order and on-time-in-full measurement
• Logistics cost structure: warehousing, transport, inventory and administration
• Distribution channel choices and fulfilment operating models
• Process mapping symbols, hand-offs, decision points and control points

Workshop: Participants create a current-state order-to-delivery process map for a distributor and identify three failure points affecting service or cost.

Day 2: Inventory and warehouse operations

• Inventory roles: cycle stock, safety stock, pipeline stock and seasonal stock
• ABC inventory classification and differentiated control policies
• Reorder point logic, lead time demand and safety-stock principles
• Warehouse layout zones, slotting principles and travel-distance reduction
• Receiving, quality checking, put-away and location-control procedures
• Picking methods: discrete, batch, zone and wave picking
• Warehouse KPIs for accuracy, productivity, utilisation and order turnaround

Workshop: Participants use stock and order data to complete an ABC analysis, recommend replenishment controls and redesign a basic picking flow.

Day 3: Transport planning and distribution control

• Transport mode selection based on cost, speed, capacity, reliability and product requirements
• Load consolidation, vehicle utilisation and cube-versus-weight constraints
• Route planning principles, delivery windows and stop sequencing
• Carrier selection criteria and weighted carrier scorecards
• Freight-rate structures, accessorial charges and cost-per-shipment analysis
• Shipment tracking, proof of delivery and delivery-exception management
• Incoterms 2020 responsibilities, risk transfer and cost allocation

Workshop: Participants compare carrier and route options for a regional delivery schedule and produce a justified transport recommendation.

Day 4: Systems, metrics and operational improvement

• Master data requirements for products, locations, customers, carriers and lead times
• SAP S/4HANA logistics transaction flows and operational reporting concepts
• Oracle WMS Cloud functions for inventory visibility, task management and fulfilment control
• GS1 barcodes, SSCC labels and traceability data standards
• Logistics KPI hierarchy linking strategic, tactical and operational measures
• Microsoft Excel dashboard construction using pivots, formulas and conditional formatting
• Root-cause analysis using five whys, Pareto analysis and fishbone diagrams

Workshop: Participants analyse a late-delivery dataset, identify the primary causes and build a KPI dashboard showing service, warehouse and transport performance.

Day 5: Risk, performance governance and action planning

• Logistics risk register development for capacity, disruption, damage, compliance and supplier failure
• Business continuity responses for carrier disruption and warehouse capacity constraints
• Returns logistics, reverse flows and disposition decisions
• Daily, weekly and monthly logistics performance review routines
• Escalation thresholds, corrective actions and accountable performance ownership
• Prioritising improvement initiatives using impact-effort and cost-benefit analysis
• Logistics Improvement Action Plan structure, milestones and benefit tracking

Workshop: Participants present a completed Logistics Improvement Action Plan for a case operation, including KPIs, risks, owners, milestones and expected benefits.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle WMS Cloud, GS1 Standards

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions