The paper was presented at the Polish Logistics Congress Logistics 2008 – “New challenges – new solutions”, Poznań, May 7 – 9, 2008.
1. Introduction
Innovations have always been considered the engine of social progress – however, in the sphere of logistics, the value of innovation is constantly underestimated and has not been subject to in-depth analysis. Nevertheless, the constantly growing needs of customers and new business models in trade and industry provide opportunities for developing new markets through the introduction of innovative logistics services. The development of technology also enables more effective creation of logistics processes.
As part of the Europe-wide study “Innovation Excellence in Logistics”, the European Logistics Association (ELA) and the company Arthur D. Little, with methodological support from Professor Hans Christian Pfohl (Technical University of Darmstadt), analyzed over 100 logistics service providers and their partners – shippers – operating in various industries across Europe.
Thanks to the “Innovation Excellence in Logistics” study, it was possible to identify significant potential for improvements and answer the following questions: what innovations are being pursued in each case, who initiates and drives innovation in logistics, how companies organize innovation management, which innovation approach and process takes place in each case, which areas of innovation are focused on, and what key success factors can be identified in the “Innovation Excellence in Logistics” study. These insights form the basis for the formulated recommendations, both general and specific.
2. Innovation in logistics
2.1. Innovation goals and their importance for logistics
Modularization of logistics services combined with cost reduction are the most important goals set for innovation today. However, the importance of these issues will significantly decrease in the future, and cost-oriented innovations will be replaced by customer-oriented innovations. Creating new services to meet current requirements and create new requirements will become the most important goal for innovation in the future (Fig. 1). Price and reliability are no longer the only selection criteria. They will become prerequisites when placing orders for standard logistics services. In this context, the importance of innovation as a decisive factor in concluding a contract will increase significantly. Consequently, more attention will be paid to activities related to customer-oriented innovation rather than cost-oriented innovation.
2.2. Responsibility in innovation management
Responsibility for innovation management is more often assumed by senior management in logistics service companies rather than in companies commissioning shipments. On the other hand, the degree of institutionalization of responsibility is higher in the case of shippers than service providers (Fig. 2).
The most successful companies in the area of innovation base their activities on a dedicated line function or focus them on a customer-oriented line function. The main reasons for failure in innovation activities are insufficient human and capital resources.
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