Management known as logistics pays special attention to improving the organization of supply, warehousing, transport, and distribution processes in relation to the enterprise of a specific manufacturer, but also to the modernization of contacts with external customers, forming the so-called logistics chain. The redesign of supply chains observed in the modern economy is most often dictated by a fundamental criterion, i.e., obtaining better commercial results, which can lead to far-reaching integration of enterprises.
Logistics in this sense should be treated as a science, a research field that provides new tools for management, especially through the construction of logistics chains. Logistics is therefore the science of organizing the processes of moving and storing raw materials, materials, and finished products in a systemic approach, aiming at the optimization of supply chains (from the acquisition of raw materials to the consumer). By successively introducing elements of logistics management, the aim is to build logistics systems, the implementation of which in Poland encounters many difficulties, especially in the area of partnership cooperation.
Logistics systems are (according to [3]) purposefully organized and integrated – within a given economic system – flows of materials and products and the corresponding information, enabling optimization in supply chain management (e.g., through automatic identification of goods, computer simulation, controlling, electronic data interchange, and comprehensive cost accounting). In light of this, logistics systems cannot be equated with IT systems, but the latter constitute the foundation for logistics, and without them, logistics could not be realized in its modern form.
Thanks to the observed process of building logistics chains, which all enterprises striving to increase the stream of goods delivered to the market with a guarantee of their sale aim for, it is possible to better understand the entry of logistics into enterprises, both with a logistics strategy and with individual logistics solutions. All this makes logistics systems, in their target form, a new generation of management that will sooner or later cover most countries desiring an economic community. Logistics therefore includes integrated systems of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the physical processes of the circulation of raw materials, materials, and goods, as well as their informational conditions, in terms of optimizing the activities and goals being implemented. The simplest approach is to define logistics as the process of managing the entire supply chain. At the same time, the supply chain is understood as the activity related to the flow of material (goods) from its original source through all intermediate forms to the form in which it is consumed by the final customer. One can also use the concept of logistics processes here, i.e., sequences of activities related to the flow of goods, including the physical movement and storage of raw materials, materials, and products, as well as the flow of information related to this through successive phases of various types of economic processes (starting from raw materials, ending with consumers), organized so that their implementation is efficient and economically justified (optimal). These processes can be considered both within a single logistics system and between different systems. This depends to a large extent on the connections between individual partners of logistics chains, at the stage of their creation and during their full development and widespread use.
Considering supply chains and further connections of manufacturers, e.g., in the automotive industry, one should – in accordance with the principles of logistics – reach back to the raw material used in the production of cars and their components, produced in cooperation, and only then consider systems in relation to factories producing different types of products, to finally deal with the problem of distribution of manufactured finished products. Each logistics chain indicates its quite high complexity, especially in this type of industry, resulting from the diversity of raw materials used for production, as well as modern technologies, and finally from very diverse types of finished products resulting from constantly changing tastes and preferences of users. This affects the entire raw material and material economy in this area (which in logistics falls under the term logistics strategy), as well as the methods of distribution of finished products through distribution centers.