ABSTRACT
Logistics has been recognized as an important weapon in the battle for competitive advantage. As such, companies need to have a well-defined relationship between their competitive strategies and their logistical missions and concepts. This chapter introduces the elements of an integrated logistics concept and illustrates their applicability to distribution logistics with some examples. An integrated competitive logistics concept represents a combination of a business logistics strategy with competitive strategy theories. The cost leadership strategy involves all efforts being directed to reducing the total costs of a company. This can be done by exercising strong cost control in each functional area: sourcing, production, marketing and especially logistics. Ideally, organisation of functional logistics starts at the point at which decisions relating to the logistical strategy have been made. In most studies on customer service and the value chain, the internal processes that take place within a link are assumed to be a ‘black box’.
