The paper was presented at the Polish Logistics Congress “Logistics 2006 – Best Practices in Logistics”. Poznań, May 10-12, 2006.
“The essence of a supply chain’s competitive advantage cannot be understood by viewing it as a whole. Competitive advantage in a supply chain stems from a series of discrete activities that collaborating enterprises perform in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting their products. Each of these activities can contribute to the relative cost position of a product and create a basis for its differentiation (…)
An enterprise achieves competitive advantage by performing strategically important activities cheaper or better than its competitors (…)
The value chain decomposes the supply chain into its strategically important activities (areas of operation) in order to understand cost formation and existing and potential sources of differentiation.” Value chain vs. supply chain based on M. E. Porter
An enterprise achieves competitive advantage by performing strategically important activities cheaper or better than its competitors (…)
The value chain decomposes the supply chain into its strategically important activities (areas of operation) in order to understand cost formation and existing and potential sources of differentiation.” Value chain vs. supply chain based on M. E. Porter
Supply chain management draws many practical tips from design, controlling, or change management in the supply chain. A key issue in increasing customer value is mapping customer service goals to tasks in existing supply chains, identifying changes that allow for achieving the highest ROI, designing products that enable a lean supply chain, or implementing modern cost management strategies.
The key to improving the situation of any enterprise is improving the ability to create value for which customers want and are able to pay. Everyone in the organization (enterprise) should be aware that products (goods or services) for which there is no buyer have no value, regardless of the amount of work, money, and other inputs used to produce them, and producing such goods and services is harmful to the enterprise itself. This rather obvious realization leads to the distribution of responsibility in the supply chain for value and utility for the customer in many respects: demand identification, product design, its material composition, manufacturing technology, production volume, market availability, flexibility, and speed of response to customer needs, etc. Each link in the chain has its supplier and recipient, aware that it is an element of a joint process of serving a common customer. Hence the need for competitor analysis and demand forecasting, customer service level management, cost control and steering, and investment planning. In a word, to be competitive, we must control our market position and that of the chain in which we happen to operate.
The key to improving the situation of any enterprise is improving the ability to create value for which customers want and are able to pay. Everyone in the organization (enterprise) should be aware that products (goods or services) for which there is no buyer have no value, regardless of the amount of work, money, and other inputs used to produce them, and producing such goods and services is harmful to the enterprise itself. This rather obvious realization leads to the distribution of responsibility in the supply chain for value and utility for the customer in many respects: demand identification, product design, its material composition, manufacturing technology, production volume, market availability, flexibility, and speed of response to customer needs, etc. Each link in the chain has its supplier and recipient, aware that it is an element of a joint process of serving a common customer. Hence the need for competitor analysis and demand forecasting, customer service level management, cost control and steering, and investment planning. In a word, to be competitive, we must control our market position and that of the chain in which we happen to operate.
The results of research conducted by the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing and the Poznań School of Logistics presented in Table 1 indicate that enterprise managers consider the following factors as the primary sources of competitive advantage for the enterprise and its product on the market:
Table 1. Results of research on enterprise competitiveness factors
| Factors of competitive advantage of the enterprise and its product |
Percentage share of responses [%] |
| Speed and flexibility of operation | 100 |
| Product availability | 96 |
| High product quality | 89 |
| Low product price | 87 |
| Company reputation and product brand | 83 |
| Matching of the sales network and system | 74 |
| Modernity and attractiveness of the product | 62 |
Source: Own research by ILiM and WSL.
The research was conducted using a survey method on a representative sample of 150 managers.
Analysis of the product competitiveness factors presented in Table 1 indicates the significant role of supply chain management, which determines appropriate speed and flexibility of operation, product availability, quality of materials used, matching of the sales network, as well as cost management in the entire supply chain – allowing for dictating low product prices on the target market.
Analysis of the presented competitive advantage factors confirms the immutability of two fundamental directions for obtaining a competitive position of a product on the market – achieving cost leadership or product differentiation in relation to others on the market [1]. Achieving the effect of competitive advantage through cost leadership, enterprises use low prices by minimizing costs in the supply chain, at an acceptable level of customer service. This is most often the effect of selling large quantities of products, for which logistics systems and supply chains are designed for the throughput of large quantities of goods, utilizing the scale effect at the lowest possible costs (capacity strategy).
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