ABSTRACT
All organizations want to improve their supply chain. They continually look for new ideas and better management principles that will lower costs, improve service and give a competitive advantage. However, logistics managers also face the stream of ideas that are aimed at the supply chain–strategic alliances, vendor-managed inventories, continuous replenishment, quick response, efficient customer response and so on. Current thinking is centred on the integration of the supply chain, to remove barriers and give a smooth flow of products from original sources through to final customers. Stock control is, perhaps, the area of logistics where it is possible to obtain most reliable measure of performance. Current thinking says that minimizing stocks is the best way to reduce costs–at the same time improving flexibility, response time and customer service. It is very difficult to measure the performance of logistics, particularly as it is so closely integrated with other operations. Available measures generally involve a subjective assessment and comparison with some standards.
