Communication management
The quality of information, its content, accuracy, and availability depend largely on the data source from which it originates. Due to the temporal relationship between the flow of material and information, we distinguish the following cases:
■ information flow precedes material flow – this includes activities such as issuing instructions, orders, notifications, etc.
■ information flow accompanies material flow – goods and work documents
■ information flow follows material movement – invoicing, service offers.
Information flow based on a documentation system is expensive and is also characterized by a high error rate, especially when information is processed or entered manually into a computer system. The use of computers for data storage and automation in the identification of items and goods movements (OCR code, Dot code, i.e., 2D barcode, barcodes) is also an important step towards error-free information flow, requiring participants in the logistics chain to have specialized reading and printing equipment. The same applies to mobile information carriers, which, as “electronic labels,” were introduced to obtain real-time information about material flow. In other cases, i.e., when information occurs before or after material flow, its processing is carried out with a minimal error rate through an existing computer network. The structure of data exchanged between different units in the network and computer transmission protocols must be standard so as not to become dependent on their manufacturer.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2001/3.