Since the beginning of the 1990s, agriculture as an industry has undergone many structural changes. One of the most significant was the change in the relationship of agricultural enterprises to their environment, consisting mainly of the openness of supply markets as well as sales markets [Wasilewski 2004]. The often reduced shelf life of products caused by their rapid aging, the need to shorten production cycles, and the growing demand for high-value goods place high demands on a market governed by the consumer [Gołembska 1999]. This has led to the need for optimization in the management process, especially in the processes of goods and information flow. Proper control of these processes should provide an answer to the frequent questions that a producer asks themselves: what? to whom? where? when? how much? how?
Since the beginning of the 1990s, agriculture as an industry has undergone many structural changes. One of the most significant was the change in the relationship of agricultural enterprises to their environment, consisting mainly of the openness of supply markets as well as sales markets [Wasilewski 2004]. The often reduced shelf life of products caused by their rapid aging, the need to shorten production cycles, and the growing demand for high-value goods place high demands on a market governed by the consumer [Gołembska 1999]. This has led to the need for optimization in the management process, especially in the processes of goods and information flow. Proper control of these processes should provide an answer to the frequent questions that a producer asks themselves: what? to whom? where? when? how much? how?
Logistical processes occurring within enterprises, as well as between them, involving the flows of means of production, work-in-progress, and finished products, are always accompanied by inventories. Their level and structure are conditioned by many factors, both internal and external. As noted by Dębski [1996], Pietraszewski [1995], or Skowronek and Sariusz-Wolski [1995], inventories to a large extent determine the level of logistics costs in an enterprise, and therefore their size should be economically and commercially justified. The need to maintain inventories is also associated with ensuring the continuity of production processes, continuity of sales (for example in supermarket chains), protection against price changes of both raw materials and products, as well as maintaining the appropriate quality of manufactured products. For such a supply and sales system functioning in an enterprise, it is necessary to have appropriate logistical infrastructure [Kowalski, Tabor 2003; Kuboń 2008]. But besides infrastructure, to rationally manage inventories, agricultural producers should have an appropriate level of knowledge about inventory management and an awareness of the need for their optimization.
Based on the presented considerations, the question arises: are inventories in agricultural enterprises a necessity or just the foresight of their owners? An attempt to answer this question was made through research conducted in 30 agricultural enterprises located in the Southern Poland region. The enterprises were divided into the following groups depending on the size of the production area and the distance from supply and sales markets:
a) depending on the production area: Group A (from 1 to 5 ha), Group B (from 5.01 to 10 ha), Group C (from 10.01 to 15 ha),
b) depending on the distance from supply markets: Group D (up to 2 km), Group E (from 2.01 to 5 km), Group F (over 5 km),
c) depending on the distance from sales markets: Group G (up to 1 km), Group H (from 1.01 to 2 km), Group I (over 2 km).
Level, structure, and storage of inventories
Inventories are maintained at various stages of flow within the supply chain – from raw materials and unprocessed materials, through so-called work-in-progress, to finished product inventories. Inventory management is a real challenge and usually involves choosing a specific operating strategy [Kuboń, Tabor 2010]. Most often, these are actions aimed at maintaining inventories at a level ensuring the normal functioning of the enterprise, while minimizing their level due to maintenance costs. An unfavorable phenomenon in agricultural production that favors the creation of inventories is the phenomenon of seasonality. In agriculture, the seasonality of production in the case of increased supply is the cause of inventory accumulation on the producer’s side and results from the existence of a disproportion between the seasonality of agricultural product procurement, the production of the processing industry, and the demand for finished goods. This inventory is used at a time when the supply-to-demand ratio is reversed [Wasilewski 2010]. The level of inventories in the studied facilities was at the level of 10.7 t ha-1 and increased with the increase in production area and distance from supply markets in the adopted groups (Figure 1). In the first case, an increase of 92.7% was recorded, and in the second, 27.7%. Taking into account the distances to sales markets, it was found that the lowest level of inventories occurred in facilities located at a distance of more than 2 km from sales markets – 8.9 t ha-1, and the highest from 1.01 to 2 km – 16.3 t ha-1.
In the structure of stored inventories, agricultural products prevailed, accounting for 98.5%, and the remaining 1.5% were means of agricultural production. The largest share of agricultural products in the total inventory structure was recorded in enterprises with an area of 5.01-10 ha – 99.4%, and the smallest – 98.4% with an area of 10.01-15 ha. In general, however, it should be stated that the differences in this respect between the compared area groups were insignificant and statistically irrelevant. The obtained results clearly indicate a certain trend in the structure of inventory accumulation. Farmers accumulate more goods produced in the enterprise and fewer means of production obtained from external supply markets.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 3/2011.