Logistics 2010: 1st Plenary Session

– The last few years have brought significant changes in technology and business. We live in a world where everything can be connected and where technology is an integral part of our daily lives. Traditional boundaries for the flow of goods and passengers are disappearing – says Alfonz Antoni, President of ELA. – Today, we can create, manage, and consume every good and value virtually and physically, regardless of where they are located.
The center of this revolution is becoming logistics chain and supply chain management. This revolution has opened up extraordinary opportunities for business. Modern supply chains allow companies to create a wide range of additional values that the market desires. They can combine and unify demands and offers anywhere.

– This takes on particular significance now, as we find ourselves at an extremely difficult moment for the world, and our continent is no exception here – adds Alfonz Antoni. – We are facing difficult economic decisions. Our customers, partners, rivals, subcontractors, and communities have also faced problems that we did not experience even a year ago.

The next presentation was a short but substantive report by the Director of the Institute of Logistics, Grzegorz Szyszka, on the state of logistics in Poland in 2008 and 2009, i.e., during the times of the global economic crisis . Despite the fact that our country was the only one in the European Union to record GDP growth, the difficulties associated with the market collapse still affected Polish logistics, and in particular, transport.

– Thanks to low inflation and a high percentage of purchases made by Polish citizens, the crisis was not felt as much in Poland as in many other countries – says Grzegorz Szyszka. – However, a large decline in exports (20% compared to previous years), a decline in retail sales, and transport services could be observed. The crisis hit the rail transport industry hard, which in Poland is additionally characterized by high operating costs, high infrastructure access costs, and low transport speeds.

Hans-Christian Pfohl presented to the participants the current challenges in supply chain management and trends that are expected to prevail in the near future: differentiation of supply chains, sustainability in chain management, and their regionalization.

– Logistics costs in recent years have been characterized by an upward trend – says Hans-Christian Pfohl. – In the future, they are expected to continue to rise, stimulated primarily by transport costs.
The importance of product availability, lead time, and requirements regarding order fulfillment reliability will also increase.