Business Logistics in Modern Management 

About: Business Logistics in Modern Management is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Supply chain & Supply chain management. It has an ISSN identifier of 1849-5931. Over the lifetime, 164 publications have been published receiving 430 citations.

Innovative solutions for a “last-mile” delivery – a european experience

Abstract: The “last-mile” delivery represents the last part of a supply chain that is considered to be the most inefficient due to its specificities such as a spatial distribution of relatively small receiving points, demands for more frequent but smaller shipments, delivery time windows, etc. As far as its ecological dimension is concerned, the “last-mile” delivery done by common type of delivery vehicles for an inner urban supply is thought to be significantly ineffective especially in cities that are faced not only with modern distribution practices but with increasing urbanisation and e-commerce development as well. This leads to the conclusion for necessity to introduce innovative types of delivery vehicles that improve business results while reducing a negative ecological and social impact of transport on functions in inner cities. With this reference, the paper presents the innovative transport technologies in the “last-mile” delivery in developed European countries that provide an ecological and social sustainability as well as an increased competitiveness of the suppliers. Key words: “last-mile” delivery, City logistics, transport vehicles, sustainability of urban freight

Maturity levels for logistics 4.0 based on nrw's industry 4.0 maturity model

Abstract: The development of logistics sector is strongly connected to the development of industry, which just now transforms its production and business models according to Industry 4.0 concept. Industry 4.0 is a current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies that includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things/services, cloud and cognitive computing. Logistics, an ubiquitous activity, consequently follows this trend and strives to realize the vision of Logistics 4.0, which expands the concept of industry 4.0 in the field of logistics. In doing so, traditional logistics in industrial environments has to lead the development along the evolutionary path determined by the control points, named as maturity levels, in which the development reaches previously defined characteristics, typically in the form of specific assessment items. Maturity is the state of being fully developed and implies an evolutionary progress in the accomplishment of a target from an initial to desired end stage, in our case Logistics 4.0, over a certain number of maturity levels. Maturity models are supportive tools to assess the as-is state, derive and prioritize improvement measures and control the progress. Paper contribute to the development of Logistics 4.0 maturity model, which would help companies to develop needed characteristics for seamless connectivity with mature Industry 4.0 companies. Although a number of maturity models for industry 4.0 have been developed, maturity models for Logistics 4.0, as an emerging phenomenon, are still in their infancy. Because no dominant design for Logistics 4.0 company is find already, NRW’s Industry 4.0 maturity model is studied with purpose to deduce a rough outlines of Logistics 4.0 maturity model. Key word: logistics, Logistics 4.0, Industry 4.0, maturity model

The role of logistics service providers in international trade

Abstract: Logistics service providers are an important factor in the business success of companies engaged in trade activities at national and international level. They play an important role in achieving competitive advantages of business entities directly involved in the buying and selling in international trade. The main objective of engaging logistics intermediaries, such as logistics service providers, is to facilitate the operation of companies that deal with the buying and selling at international level in regards to the organization of shipment and / or delivery of goods. As the business processes and business entities in international trade are becoming more complex, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage all of the activities on one’s own. Logistics intermediaries are, on the other hand, qualified to manage certain areas of business operations. Logistics intermediaries come in different forms and under different names, but they all have the same goal: to provide help to companies in the transportation, storage, shipment and the distribution of goods from the seller to the buyer or the final consumer, of course, for a certain fee. This research revolves around logistics intermediaries in international trade such as international freight forwarders, 3PL, 4PL or LLP. The objective of this paper is to, based on the analysis of the different types of logistics intermediaries, their classification, functions, the ways they facilitate business operations for international companies, indicate the benefits of their engagement and the differences and similarities among them. Key words: international trade, intermediaries, international freight forwarders, logistics service providers

Three-state markov model of using transport means

Abstract: Guarantee of the high level of tasks execution in enterprise is a proper organization of processes and provision of necessary resources for their implementation. Particularly important, especially from the distribution company point of view, is reliability of held transport means. It depends on rational fleet management, adherence to service intervals, proper their use, as well as even workload and avoidance of unnecessary mileage, which contributes to accelerated wear. The analysis presented in this article showed that exploitation of transport means is also affected by factors not directly related to them, such as personnel decisions, which strongly determined the degree and manner of their use in the investigated company. Incompetent employees of the customer service department caused that there were generated unavoidable mileage, which could be avoided. They contributed not only to the increase of process costs, but also increased the degree of transport means consumption, unnecessarily reducing their efficiency and effectiveness. In the study, Markov models were proposed in both discreet and continuous physical time. It concerned two stages of the process, before and after implementation of changes. An analysis of the process evolution over time was also made, calculating boundary probabilities. The obtained models not only allowed for a description of the analyzed system and prediction of selected logistic indicators, but also indicated the directions for possible improvements.

Dimensions for developing supply chain integration scenarios

Abstract: The paper focuses on the issues of supply chain integration. The integration process is considered from the perspective of possible directions of its implementation. The choice of integration directions and types of actions is limited by space defined by: specific integration factors, their aggregate measure as well as assessment measures applicable to supply chain operation. The space in question determines the dimensions for developing supply chain integration scenarios. The authors undertook to verify this claim based on the 19 factors they had previously identified, their 4 described integration advancement levels, the supply model they had developed as well as using a series of simulation experiments. By applying process modelling and simulation methods, they managed to represent characteristic features of supply chain operation at each integration level for all identified factors. Empirical data necessary to verify the initial thesis were obtained by subjecting such model of supply chain to simulated material planning and flow in the option of dynamic changes resulting from the application of scholastic demand distribution. In doing so statistical methods were used for the general option (complete supply chain integration – all factors) and the specific option (for each factor individually). The authors found two issues to be particularly important – the correlation (established using binary methods) between supply chain performance and the integration level, or the lack of such correlation, but also regression power between these two variables. Key words: SCM – Supply Chain Management, integration process