The material presented in the article “Logistics training needs from the perspective of a manufacturing company” is based on observations made in a medium-sized company in the automotive industry. It shows that logistics training should be combined with auditing and consulting and should cover most of the company’s organizational units (including top management). This is a prerequisite for such training to be applied in practice and to bring measurable results. It also shows that limiting oneself to so-called hard logistics without taking care of the entire “infrastructure” enabling its implementation will result in the knowledge gained from lecturers not being fully utilized.
The company I represent has been operating on the Polish market for over 30 years, and during this time it has managed to develop a certain pattern in defining tasks and the way they are performed by the logistics department. However, since access to the latest achievements of this young but extremely important field of economics – logistics – is largely limited for the company, especially one located far from large scientific centers, it seems necessary to me to supplement the know-how possessed and gathered over years of experience with theoretical knowledge.
KAPENA began its operations as a municipal enterprise specializing in major overhauls of buses, which even today – now as a private company – constitutes its core business. The center of gravity of the areas of operation has been shifting gradually, starting from 1997, towards the production of new buses, based largely on Italian styling and technical thought. While ensuring materials for the production of new buses is a typical problem posed to logistics, the proper organization of the flow of information and the resulting flow of materials to ensure the continuity of major overhauls is perhaps one of the more complex logistics problems (the repair cycle must be very short, as the Customer wants to get the vehicle back as soon as possible, each repair is different – each time different parts must be provided for production, and although some repeatability and certain regularities can be noticed here, they have been rapidly becoming outdated in recent years due to the constantly aging fleet being sent for repairs).
A separate problem is the different scopes of repairs, as well as meeting special customer requests. Also, the production of new products – MINI and MIDI class buses – is an activity that, due to strong competition in this sector, poses a great challenge for logistics. Especially for a medium-sized company like KAPENA – when it has to compete on equal terms with large Polish companies like JELCZ and AUTOSAN and global giants with huge capital, such as VOLVO, MAN, NEOPLAN. We are, therefore, a company that, in order to be able to offer an assortment that allows it to be competitive, must have an extremely efficient system of information and material flow. This system must allow for the minimization of capital frozen in production materials, production, and finished goods, while at the same time being flexible enough to allow for meeting diverse customer requirements, as we treat the approach to all special customer requests as an extremely important factor in competitive struggle.
It is impossible to cope with all this without excellently organized logistics, and its proper organization is impossible without the help of specialists who can share their theoretical knowledge with us, as well as their experience from implementing similar solutions in other companies, so that the implementation process proceeds quickly, without disruptions that entail additional costs and often reduce the practical use of the developed solutions. I believe, therefore, that such training should consist of an audit, consulting, and a package of training tailored to the specifics of the enterprise, which was previously determined during the two previous stages.
The main task of logistics is often considered to be the minimization of material stocks, and many people associate logistics with the organization of deliveries based on the just in time principle. I will not dwell on the method of minimizing stocks and the danger that the introduction of the just in time system entails in Polish conditions, especially when dealing with a shrinking market for repairs of IKARUS 260 and 280, JELCZ M11 and PR110, and BERLIET buses, which until recently reigned in our cities, accounting for almost 100% of the fleet of so-called MPKs, PKSs, and MZKs. A dying market entails an aversion to any investment, and consequently also to the method of goods distribution, while the conservative management of most companies is reluctant to change.