The paper was presented at the Polish Logistics Congress “Logistics 2000 – Meeting the logistics challenges of the 21st century”. Poznań, June 1-2, 2000.
Introduction
The passing decade of economic transformation in Poland, a decade of building a competitive market economy, is also a period of practical learning, implementation, and development of new management concepts and tools. Their use in a shortage economy, an economy dominated by the producer’s market, was, for obvious reasons, not justified. It was precisely competition and the resulting change in the consumer’s position in the market that shaped a new perspective on the processes of resource flow and mutual cooperation of entities participating in these processes, which are common in the economy. The traditional field of competition in the cost sphere, in the sphere of increasing the productivity of production factors and a recognized manufacturer’s brand, has been supplemented, especially in recent years, by competition in the sphere of increasing the level of customer service. Competition has become a multi-criteria phenomenon, in which a well-chosen product, its brand, and an appropriate price (production cost) are a sine qua non condition for being on the market. Implementing new techniques and technologies for the production of goods in enterprises is much easier and faster today. The production of traditionally branded products can be easily replicated in many other economic organizations, while simultaneously adapting them to the individual needs of consumers, local markets, and specific market niches. In this situation, the objective law of competition directs the activities of enterprises to those areas of economic activity where there are still significant reserves for cost savings, especially as a result of shortening the duration of processes and acquiring customers by increasing the quality level of their service. The main component of production-consumption processes is the flow of goods from the places of their production, or rather the places of obtaining the raw materials necessary to produce them, to the places of consumption of final products. These processes, defined as logistics processes, when carried out effectively and efficiently, provide a number of market benefits. Shortening the cycle of the flow of goods usually results in an increase in customer satisfaction, and overhead costs decrease. Thus, thinking in global categories is the basis of logistics thinking and logistics competition strategies. The processes of the flow of goods in the socio-economic system, which are shaped by the infrastructure, organization, and technology of previous stages of development, today often constitute specific “sponges” soaked with excessive costs, too long duration, and unnecessary, irrational distances of the flow of goods in space. Such processes, subjected to reengineering, are organized anew using and adapting to new technologies and the organization of transport, warehousing, storage, etc. The multiplicity and multi-variant nature of possible ways of organizing logistics processes, while taking into account the multiple constraints and conditions that appear in real spatial connection systems, cause the common occurrence of trade-off and trade-up decision-making problems. This makes the optimization of these processes a serious theoretical and practical problem, the solution of which should be sought in multidisciplinary knowledge. A properly optimized logistics system is not only the rationalization of operations in the sphere of flows in terms of costs and efficiency, but also, and often primarily, the proper level of customer service. This refers, of course, not only to the final customer – the final consumer of goods, but also to the internal customer, who is commonly present in the logistics chain. By raising the level of this service, one reaches for an important criterion of contemporary competitive behavior of enterprises, or rather entire logistics chains. As is commonly emphasized, competitive actions have begun to shift from arrangements between enterprises and capital groups to competition between supply chains.
The passing decade of economic transformation in Poland, a decade of building a competitive market economy, is also a period of practical learning, implementation, and development of new management concepts and tools. Their use in a shortage economy, an economy dominated by the producer’s market, was, for obvious reasons, not justified. It was precisely competition and the resulting change in the consumer’s position in the market that shaped a new perspective on the processes of resource flow and mutual cooperation of entities participating in these processes, which are common in the economy. The traditional field of competition in the cost sphere, in the sphere of increasing the productivity of production factors and a recognized manufacturer’s brand, has been supplemented, especially in recent years, by competition in the sphere of increasing the level of customer service. Competition has become a multi-criteria phenomenon, in which a well-chosen product, its brand, and an appropriate price (production cost) are a sine qua non condition for being on the market. Implementing new techniques and technologies for the production of goods in enterprises is much easier and faster today. The production of traditionally branded products can be easily replicated in many other economic organizations, while simultaneously adapting them to the individual needs of consumers, local markets, and specific market niches. In this situation, the objective law of competition directs the activities of enterprises to those areas of economic activity where there are still significant reserves for cost savings, especially as a result of shortening the duration of processes and acquiring customers by increasing the quality level of their service. The main component of production-consumption processes is the flow of goods from the places of their production, or rather the places of obtaining the raw materials necessary to produce them, to the places of consumption of final products. These processes, defined as logistics processes, when carried out effectively and efficiently, provide a number of market benefits. Shortening the cycle of the flow of goods usually results in an increase in customer satisfaction, and overhead costs decrease. Thus, thinking in global categories is the basis of logistics thinking and logistics competition strategies. The processes of the flow of goods in the socio-economic system, which are shaped by the infrastructure, organization, and technology of previous stages of development, today often constitute specific “sponges” soaked with excessive costs, too long duration, and unnecessary, irrational distances of the flow of goods in space. Such processes, subjected to reengineering, are organized anew using and adapting to new technologies and the organization of transport, warehousing, storage, etc. The multiplicity and multi-variant nature of possible ways of organizing logistics processes, while taking into account the multiple constraints and conditions that appear in real spatial connection systems, cause the common occurrence of trade-off and trade-up decision-making problems. This makes the optimization of these processes a serious theoretical and practical problem, the solution of which should be sought in multidisciplinary knowledge. A properly optimized logistics system is not only the rationalization of operations in the sphere of flows in terms of costs and efficiency, but also, and often primarily, the proper level of customer service. This refers, of course, not only to the final customer – the final consumer of goods, but also to the internal customer, who is commonly present in the logistics chain. By raising the level of this service, one reaches for an important criterion of contemporary competitive behavior of enterprises, or rather entire logistics chains. As is commonly emphasized, competitive actions have begun to shift from arrangements between enterprises and capital groups to competition between supply chains.
The outlined trends in the development of competition provide sufficient justification for recognizing the importance of education in the field of logistics, adapted to the needs of the labor market – the professional preparation of staff capable of real control of increasingly complex logistics processes. This issue is important because, firstly, never before has economic reality faced the problem of operational and tactical control of the processes of the flow of goods within such extensive supply chains. Secondly, there has been a very intensive development of science in many fields, especially computer science and telematics, which create completely different possibilities for organizing logistics processes than the traditional ones.
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