Gaining competitive advantage by developing logistics systems

Abstract

The circumstances of the last decade (such as the catastrophe of September 11, 2001, the Ebola virus, the global drought or flooding, often as an answer to climate change, and the most recent, the COVID-19 global pandemic) the effects of which are still felt, have shown that both companies as well as, entire logistics systems and networks (Supply Chains (SC)) were not in any way prepared to handle this kind of events and situations, and the consequences are devastating for all involved and the global economy as a whole. Some of these effects will still be felt in the years to come. Moreover, while, up to recently, it was the individual companies that competed among themselves, today, due to the globalisation phenomena, entire supply chains compete. The internal logistics, the internal SC of a company has expanded into an external SC among companies (Vgl. Geimer (2005), S. 38.). In the course of this development, the risks, that were previously faced by individual companies and now endanger entire SCs, have changed and, thus, require new approaches. The tools used for Risk Management in an individual company are no longer sufficient in monitoring the entire SC. It is, therefore, mandatory to develop new concepts and tools which, holistically, can serve to support risk management in the SC. JEL: P13.