This year’s sixth Young Logistics Forum, organized by the Student Club of Applied Logistics at the Faculty of Transport of the Warsaw University of Technology, adopted a completely new, innovative format. Each of the invited clubs received a case study prepared by partners from the DGL company a month in advance to solve.
The task was to present a tender offer by a fictional company, WED, for the company Rost, which was preparing to enter the Polish consumer electronics and home appliances market. The offer had to include: supply logistics, warehousing, order picking, distribution, and returns and recycling logistics.
Upon arrival, each of the clubs that managed to solve the task presented their solutions in turn.
– The case was by no means easy; to be honest, we were worried whether the research clubs we invited would be able to solve it in just a month. The project teams were subjected to the real laws operating in the market – said Michał Gromek, main coordinator of the VI YLF. – As it turned out, however, the solutions, as well as the commitment of the clubs to working on the projects, fully met not only our expectations.
The clubs had 20 minutes each to present their solutions, during which they had to convince the jury of the validity of their approach; both the substantive content and the method of presentation counted. After this time, the jury asked questions, clarifying and analyzing each piece of work in detail. The experts delved deeply into the details, noticing every shortcoming, but also praising innovation.
– Remember that everything you want to present in logistics must first be calculated, as it is a very precise science – commented Ryszard Warzocha, Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe at Wincanton, on the presentations.
Each presentation was different and had something that distinguished it from the others: from the use of inland waterway transport to leasing land from the Military Property Agency. Everyone tried to add something of their own, to draw attention to a detail that others had not thought of.
– I am very pleased that we did not receive rigid, but very well-thought-out solutions. – said Aleks Domaradzki, DGL Partner and moderator of the VI YLF.
According to the experts, the best solution was provided by the “Logistics” Research Club from the Poznań University of Technology. They were the ones who anticipated and overcame the most potential problems, best analyzed the current situation on the Polish logistics market, and sold their solution in the most compelling way.
– Solving the case took us three weeks. During the work, we divided the tasks, and everyone did what they were supposed to do; we tried to contact practitioners a lot. We would not like to reveal the details, as this is our own recipe for success. Such a project was a novelty for us; we had not encountered similar ones at the university. We finally had the opportunity to use the formulas we learned during classes – says Natalia Edwarczyk from the “Logistics” Research Club.