Previous experience in logistics education indicates that in economic schools, the logistics curriculum is implemented more from a qualitative perspective. There is a clearly felt shortage of quantitative, IT, cybernetic, and system tools. Conversely, technical universities are characterized by a marginal treatment of economic aspects in logistics education. In the area of logistics education, there is a wide degree of freedom, both in the content of education and the number of hours allocated to it. Establishing, as Prof. Stanisław Oziemski writes, “…the semantics, common subjects, and the number of hours allocated to them…” was created by the Act of July 27, 2005, Law on Higher Education, and Resolution No. 205/2005 of October 13, 2005, of the Main Council for Higher Education, which positively reviewed the draft regulation of the Minister of National Education regarding the names of fields of study, proposing the inclusion of a new field of study – LOGISTICS.
Launching studies in the field of logistics requires the development of an education standard. It is recommended that the education standards contain the information necessary to build study programs for a given field. Given that only 40% of the total number of classes is regulated, the remaining educational content will result from the specifics of the university. This will allow for the standardization of essential educational content.
Regardless of the classification of the logistics profession, a graduate of higher education in the field of logistics should possess engineering, economic, and system knowledge and skills, with the caveat that the emphasis in education can be placed either on technical problems or on economic problems, as well as skills in using IT techniques. Hence, the education standard for the field of logistics can include two “paths”: the so-called engineering “path” and the economic “path,” or two separate standards.
The purpose of this study is to present the author’s experience in developing an “engineering” education standard for the field of logistics studies and views on the content of logistics education. To define the education system in the field of logistics, it is necessary to specify the subject of logistics, both from a theoretical and practical perspective. If a logistician is to be a designer of a logistics system and its operator, they must use the knowledge and solutions provided by a number of specialized fields of knowledge, among which technical knowledge is the most important.
Logistician – why an engineer
The essence of logistics is the flow of material goods and accompanying information. The flow of products, inventory maintenance, and the collection and processing of information are activities that require the use of many diverse technical means. Technical means used during the implementation of logistics processes include: warehouse buildings and structures, means of transport, machines and technical equipment ensuring transport and loading/unloading operations, packaging, as well as computing technology, without which the efficient flow of material and information streams is practically impossible.
Substantive arguments in favor of a logistician being an engineer include:
• an engineer is prepared to design and operate logistics systems, of which technical subsystems are an essential element
• it is difficult to imagine that the supply of an industrial enterprise, production logistics, internal and external transport, and warehousing would not be managed by a specialist with an engineering background
• increasingly, the distribution logistics of capital goods and complex technology is handled by engineers
• the implementation of logistics processes requires the use of various technical means, the operation of which should be handled by an engineer
• the realization of the basic goal of logistics, which is to improve the flow of material goods, takes place mainly through mechanization, automation, and robotization, which requires engineering skills
• it is not possible to apply certain logistics concepts, for example, Just-in-Time, Kanban, without a deep knowledge of manufacturing technology and methods of manufacturing tools and retooling workstations and production lines.
Answers to the question of whether a logistician should be an engineer are provided by the Regulation of the Minister of Economy and Labor of December 8, 2004, on the classification of professions and specialties for the needs of the labor market and the scope of its application (Journal of Laws 2004 No. 265 item 2644). Out of 1707 professions and specialties included in the Regulation, two professions related to logistics were found:
• in the group of specialists: transport engineer (logistician)
• in the group of technicians: logistics technician.
To manage something, you have to measure it – said Prof. Robert S. Kaplan of Harvard Business School, creator of the performance measurement system and author of the management tool known as the balanced scorecard. You cannot manage something or improve something that has not been measured. And who is better at measuring than an engineer?