External and internal factors of development for contemporary organizations are fundamentally changing their priorities and approach to their operations. The desire to improve competitive position and limit internal potential in this regard requires verifying the nature of contacts with entities operating in the enterprise’s environment. In light of these trends, the role of procurement has changed. The growing share of suppliers in the costs and quality of final products, as well as their impact on the enterprise’s competitiveness, is popularizing concepts that assume deeper, yet partnership-based, cooperation with them. The proactive nature of procurement is manifested, among other things, in searching for and evaluating potential suppliers, concluding contracts, and establishing long-term relationships. Cooperation with suppliers involves the consolidation of key suppliers of raw materials, components, and packaging, and also requires the application of many logistical methods, such as just-in-time and VMI at the top of the supply chain. Obtaining the ability of raw material suppliers to replenish products according to the manufacturer’s requirements, taking into account the suppliers’ capabilities, and establishing closer cooperation in the design and development of new products is the main goal of supplier integration. Although supplier integration is a difficult and long-term undertaking, it brings many benefits, which include: quality improvement, sharing innovations, cost reduction, and the integration of production and delivery schedules. In this article, the author presents a delivery monitoring system operating in one of the bus manufacturing companies in Poland. This system is used to maintain constant communication with suppliers, as well as to ensure the reliability of deliveries of materials and products used for bus production. This system also acts as a control system used to assess whether a given supplier is able to meet agreed deadlines.
Logistics Service at Company X
The Logistics Service at Company X operates based on the following units:
– Material Control,
– Material Handling,
– Production Planning,
– Work Planning.
The X Logistics division is responsible for the transport of parts and materials purchased by employees of the Material Control Department (Fig. 1). Employees of the Material Control Department are responsible, among other things, for ordering production parts for the bodywork and monitoring deliveries. Employees of the Material Handling Department are responsible, among other things, for unloading and unpacking deliveries, storing materials and parts, and supplying production lines.
An important element of the Logistics Department’s functioning is close cooperation with the Marketing Department regarding product adaptation to individual customer requirements and with the Production Department regarding taking appropriate actions aimed at preventing potential shortages and ensuring production continuity. The adopted structure has many advantages. Among them, the following should be distinguished:
– streamlining the flow of information,
– the ability to react quickly to emerging problems,
– flexibility in adapting to customer requirements…