IT support for the logistics process in construction and assembly enterprise management
In conditions of constantly advancing technology and widespread computerization, comprehensive IT solutions supporting the implementation of economic processes within enterprises across various sectors and branches of the economy are available on the market of business software producers and suppliers. The necessity to meet growing market requirements and changing customer needs forces enterprises to use IT solutions to obtain reliable, current, and complete information as a basis for sound decision-making by managers at all levels of management. Focusing enterprises on meeting customer needs lies at the foundation of concentrating business activity around the logistics process. This process has a direct impact on creating value for the customer, and consequently, on the level of service and increased satisfaction. It therefore becomes necessary to support the logistics process in enterprise management at all levels of the hierarchy, using appropriate information systems and available IT technologies. Today, when enterprises are forced to compete in a new, global world, A. Smith’s principle of division of labor has no place. Products and services, as well as methods of selling and purchasing, have changed. Therefore, business activity should not be broken down into simple and basic tasks, but rather these tasks should be organized into processes and viewed holistically.
In conditions of constantly advancing technology and widespread computerization, comprehensive IT solutions supporting the implementation of economic processes within enterprises across various sectors and branches of the economy are available on the market of business software producers and suppliers. The necessity to meet growing market requirements and changing customer needs forces enterprises to use IT solutions to obtain reliable, current, and complete information as a basis for sound decision-making by managers at all levels of management. Focusing enterprises on meeting customer needs lies at the foundation of concentrating business activity around the logistics process. This process has a direct impact on creating value for the customer, and consequently, on the level of service and increased satisfaction. It therefore becomes necessary to support the logistics process in enterprise management at all levels of the hierarchy, using appropriate information systems and available IT technologies. Today, when enterprises are forced to compete in a new, global world, A. Smith’s principle of division of labor has no place. Products and services, as well as methods of selling and purchasing, have changed. Therefore, business activity should not be broken down into simple and basic tasks, but rather these tasks should be organized into processes and viewed holistically.
With the emergence of the process-oriented organization concept, the possibility of a comprehensive view of enterprise logistics as a process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficiency and economic effectiveness of the flow of raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods, as well as related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption, in order to meet customer requirements, has been revealed. The logistics process therefore includes the flow of materials and information along the entire path: from suppliers of individual production factors to users of finished products, including the disposal of any waste. For enterprises operating in the construction and assembly industry, logistics, and therefore a well-organized logistics process, is of significant importance. It is essential that the construction site does not “resemble a chaotic training ground where no one knows when materials will arrive or whether a crane needed for their unloading will appear at the same time.” Proper management of procurement, transport, production, inventory, warehousing, and thus everything directly related to the physical flow of materials, takes on enormous importance. The delimitation of the logistics process according to the phases of material flow, using the example of a construction and assembly enterprise, is presented in Figure 1. The diagram in Figure 1 shows the scope of the logistics process in a construction and assembly enterprise. It has been divided into four sub-processes: procurement logistics, production logistics, distribution logistics, and recycling logistics.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 4/2007.