The 12th Conference on Applied Logistics, held at the end of 2008 in Zakopane, provides an opportunity to ask about the benefits that would come from recognizing logistics as an independent scientific discipline. For several years now, efforts have been made there to bring this long-awaited moment closer.
Undoubtedly, those who would like to earn academic degrees and titles with the addition of the word “logistics” will benefit. Within the framework of so-called institutional science, it will be possible to formulate and subsequently recognize so-called paradigms, i.e., what the majority of scholars believe in. By subjecting them to scientific criticism, they could be used as models for the proper application of logistics.
Currently, various paradigms regarding logistics are also recognized, but they are not scientifically verified. It is almost universally accepted that logistics is a process, and many well-known scientists believe that it should become the subject of research within the emerging scientific discipline. Others, in turn, expand this subject to include the study of the system, arguing that the process is not ontologically independent and does not exist without the system in which it takes place. However, this is only a formal addition, as in both cases it is assumed that the subject of research is empirically accessible. This means that for a process to appear as a subject of research, a system must first be created. This is also done in practice, after which the manifestations of the process are observed and studied within so-called “delivery networks,” originally perceived as “supply chains.” It only remains to rely on these practical observations and draw conclusions.
For example, a factory for women’s shavers was built to experimentally verify that a collective pallet label should be a separate marking, and that the pallet number cannot be the sum of the numbers of the products carried on the pallet, even though they can supposedly be read without any problems using a radio reader. It is strange that such ideas could not be dissuaded to professionals without this costly experiment. If logistics were a scientific discipline, perhaps on the basis of its authority, a lot of money could have been saved. Another example is a cannery, where after 18 months of experimentation, it was discovered that RFID tags mounted on metal cans are shielded by other cans and cannot be used to identify the cans. If there were a science of logistics, that time could have been spent on something else.
Similarly, a scientific method would be useful to clarify today whether the application of ideas known from the West in the field of so-called “urban logistics” in Warsaw could be beneficial. For now, we will have to find out experimentally. Some concerns may be raised by the fact that the experiment is planned for the period of the European Football Championship. As a result, it will not be known whether any potential traffic paralysis in the capital will be caused by this experiment or by the transport strategy being applied.
As you can see, without science, serious difficulties cannot be avoided. Therefore, a permanent item on the Conference program was another attempt to get closer to formulating the subject of research and the class of research methods appropriate for the emerging field of logistics science. Taking advantage of the fact that the conference is held at the end of the year, one can use what others have done in the passing year.