logistics costs

In the two previous issues (Industrie 4.0 Management 5/2016 and 6/2016) the features and characteristics of supply concepts, the fundamentals of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) concept as well as all supply related logistics processes, referring to specifics of the TCO concept and the ne-cessary and appropriate instruments for the evalu-ation as a basis for the selection of an optimal supply concept were explained. With the third and final part to the structuring of the methodology and an example for the practical application, a holistic view of this topic complex is available for the selection of effective and efficient supply concepts ranging from the theoretical basis to the practical application of the methodology.

In the previous issue (Industrie 4.0 Management 5/2016) the features and characteristics of supply concepts and the fundamentals of the Total cost of ownership (TCO) concept were explained. The present article addresses all supply related logistics processes and refers to specifics of the TCO concept.

The design of the supply concept re-presents a decisive competitive factor for companies, since this significantly affects the throughput time and inventory levels. This paper explains how environmental issues can be quantified in addition to the conventional types of costs and presents a method for the selection and design of a supply concept.

The presented survey results aim to show an overview about the existing demand volatility and capacity flexibility in German manufacturing companies of the machining industry. Besides the consideration of logistical aspects regarding flexible capacities, cost aspects for accounting impacts of capacity options were taken into account. The result of the survey clarifies that the capacity options in companies seem to be sufficient. The cause of logistical problems due to demand volatility is located in insufficient methods for production monitoring.

Increasingly enterprises are hoping for a decline of marginal unit costs by turning away from in-house logistics. Free competition among contract logistics services is believed to open up new optimisation potentials. At the same time, performance related accounting models permit to transform the formerly fixed logistics costs into variable costs. However, because of the complexity and the customer-specific character of supply chain processes there is no standard method for the rating and selection of suitable service partners. The main problem is to provide information for a detailed description of the expected performance spectrum and thus to enable performance related contract positions. The method of „quantity and product related logistics costs” permits an exact quantification for multi stage products before placing a service order. It is a contribution to cope with the challenges described above.