Relativity of the “new logistic technologies” and of their inventory aspects

Abstract

The idea of new logistic technologies could be broadly understood as the whole set of innovations of technological, organizational, economic and managerial character in production, trade, transportation and communication aimed at raising the efficiency of material flows in the economy. In highly industrialized economies such technologies generally go in pair with high degree of automation, growing number of different kinds of robots, highly sophisticated equipment for communication purposes, etc. However, this is not the only possible solution for more efficient product flows. In some economies generally low level of technology does not restrict the efficiency of materials flows. The example of lunch-boxes carriers in India, the country known for enormous resources of cheap labour power, shows that even in developing countries just-in-time systems can be implemented. Those systems without high-tech standards operate with no inventories. These specific economic circumstances predetermine also the importance of the impact of new logistic technologies on inventory investments. These issues depend greatly on economic policy makers who may enhance the use of all relatively new logistic technologies and their impact on inventories as one of the tools aiming at higher efficiency of economy due to a bigger number of competitive companies.