The modern economy is characterized by increasing competition in the market for goods and services, shorter product life cycles, and an ever-faster pace of innovative change. Furthermore, many companies, mindful of the global crisis, are trying to prepare for the looming economic slowdown. They are implementing cost-reduction plans, scrutinizing expenses more closely, and improving their products.
Some of them are starting to think about staff reductions. They are also looking for other solutions and actions that can help in coping with the recession, particularly in terms of: the ability to reduce costs, increase profits, and thus achieve more with less or through other means. Among other things, slogans such as: efficiency – perceived as the result of actions taken, described by the ratio of effects obtained to expenditures incurred, speed, and innovation are appearing. However, is that enough?
The growing globalization of the market, increased competitiveness, and the need to intensify efforts aimed at acquiring customers force business organizations to search for new solutions in many areas, including, and perhaps above all, in the area of distribution logistics. Nowadays, it is not enough to react quickly and at the right time. Thinking and acting aimed solely at improving enterprises in terms of operational speed, including accelerating the processes that make up the supply chain, is slowly becoming an anachronism.
This is primarily due to the fact that the most common type of supply chain today is a stable and rigid chain. It is based on long-term and lasting relationships that rely on undertaking joint ventures aimed at achieving often highly diverse individual goals, which are, however, subordinated to the goals of the entire supply chain. The synergistic effects obtained in such a supply chain allow for gaining and increasing its competitive advantage. (…)
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Source: Logistyka Magazine