The end of the 6 Rs of logistics? – Part 2

The traditional view of logistics is limited in terms of its tasks to the now famous 6 Rs – as already mentioned in The end of the 6 Rs of logistics? – Part 1. This approach to logistics and supply chain management is understandable and, for many, “reasonable” in practice. However, the question must be allowed: Is this very narrow, self-limited perspective actually still up to date? Can it meet the demands placed on logistics today? A closer look proved – already in Part I – to be quite profitable. Why?

Logistics, SCM and the markets

A cross-company perspective generates new market opportunities and new markets along the supply chains. These market opportunities arise first and foremost from the constant reduction in the range of services provided by companies, also in the context of outsourcing. The redesign of entire supply chains and supply networks creates new procurement markets and new sales markets. Numerous opportunities are opening up for companies that take advantage of the newly gained options for action.

In numerous cases in practice, market failure is hastily spoken of in certain market constellations. However, many experts see this more and more as a failure to exploit the creative potential in companies and supply chains. Even though unimagined opportunities are associated with this, companies and supply chains are not creative and courageous enough to take calculated risks and accept uncertainties.

Thus, supply and value chains must be rethought system-wide, sometimes even reorganized, in order to open up completely new options for action.

A good logistician cannot limit himself to logistics

New markets arise from a change in paradigm, not from efficiency increases whose marginal utility is on its way out. However, the change must first take place in the minds of managers in logistics and supply chain. Logistics experts must break out of the narrowness and dustiness of the last decades in order to better solve the problems of the 21st century. What does that mean?

Due to the upheaval in the age of global supply chains, market movements are underway that require rapid and entrepreneurial action. Incentives for managers must be set in such a way that they think outside the box of the classic logistician. As a result, logisticians and supply chain managers are required to be more than just logisticians in the narrow sense of the word. Numerous problems with a logistical background are problems that typically can no longer be solved with the classic logistics glasses alone. For example, a capacity problem in the service chain is a logistical problem, but in many cases it can only be solved by market-based measures, such as price discrimination in terms of time or space. Sometimes strategic considerations have to be rethought in order to solve certain problems of companies and supply chains with logistical symptoms beyond the scope of classical logistics. Here we are all challenged to go far beyond our own self-imposed limits.

A very well-known logistics expert – Bretzke – once said something very important and true in a lecture a few years ago: a good logistician cannot just be a logistician!

You can find the first part of this article at The end of the 6 Rs of logistics? – Part 1.

Further information on the tasks of logistics can also be found in the article What can logistics achieve?.