Inventories and customer service in Polish manufacturing companies

Abstract

Challenging task of reconstruction of the Polish economy caused that the details of efficient company's management tend to be neglected too often. Marketing and sales seem to be the current issues since the demand constraint puts severe limits to the volume of goods sold. The theory of the principles of modern logistics management becomes more and more popular; however, the precise tools and methods for managing effectively the flows of goods are not a common knowledge of the majority of managers as yet. One of the major problems in the nearest future of Polish companies would concern strategy and management of customer service. The managers in Polish companies slowly becomes aware of the fact that a business that is successful in the long term is one of that provides for the needs of its customers better than its competition. However, performance measures of customer service are not widely used and recorded in many companies. An awareness of potential impact of the customer service on many aspects of the firm needs to be developed, so that it would help management increase the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm's competitive position. Inventories may support the customer service policy of a company, contributing to the net profits. On the contrary, inventories may be considered as a source of additional costs, therefore imposing some restrictions on reaching high levels of customer service. In both cases inventories play an essential role in shaping the final level of customer service in companies. The paper addresses all the above mentioned problems. It has been based on the results of the survey on logistics management made in a sample of Polish manufacturing companies in 1993 and 1994.