Material Economy and Logistics 11/2022

The article constitutes the first part of the study which aim is to present changes in supply chain management before the COVID-19 pandemic and in the first months of this pandemic as well as to assess the influence of these changes on building a competitive advantage on the example of the selected Polish production, trade and service enterprises. It presents the essence and directions of managing contemporary supply chains. The research methodology has been described and a short description of the examined population has been made. The results of the research concerning selected conditions for managing logistics processes in the surveyed enterprises in 2018–2020 have been presented.

Incidental disruptions, especially those that were previously non-existent and unlikely in terms of their negative impact, have been an economic reality for several years. The consequences of disruptions affect the activities of entities located in the remotest parts of the globe, and changing sources of uncertainty require action to build more resilient systems. The identified ripple effect is increasingly a consequence of the global risks occurring. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of supply chain issues, the most frequently identified crises in recent years and their ripple effect consequences. The aim of the analysis was to indicate how interest in the subject of the ripple effect has changed in recent years, in the context of supply chain analysis, as evidenced by the increasing number of scientific publications, authors, area and scope of research analysis. The use of the ripple effect in supply chain research is a relatively new phenomenon, and the presentation of quantitative data is a new insight into the topic under study, which is difficult to investigate by other methods.

The quality of personnel, shaping the competencies of enterprise employees is more and more often an effective tool for building a competitive advantage in the dynamically changing socio-economic reality. Preparing staff for the modern economy requires the use of innovative solutions in the field of training systems. We are talking here, among others about educational and training tools specific to the 21st century, including simulator solutions using virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technology. The purpose of this article is to present selected examples of the effective use of various simulator technologies, including VR/AR technology in the field of staff training for the TFL sector in Poland, as well as the benefits and limitations of their use. An additional goal is to indicate Polish experience in the field of training with the use of simulators, as well as in the field of virtual reality.

The main goal of the study is to analyze and evaluate logistics platforms in terms of ensuring the continuity of supply chains during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted based on a critical analysis of the literature on the subject, analysis of statistical data, and reports published by the CO3 platform and the DHL Resilience360 platform. The author of this study also assessed the platforms in terms of the usefulness of tools whose role is to inform platform customers about disruptions in the supply chains resulting directly from the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of logistics platforms is to monitor risks in global supply chains in real-time, which over the last two years have been mainly related to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The platforms are intuitive tools which — thanks to constant updates with the latest data and analyzes conducted by a team of analysts — allow them to provide their clients with tools related to, inter alia, risk monitoring, critical point mapping, and filtering, data collection and sharing, as well as alarm profile building. Great opportunities should be sought in such an innovative, constantly updated solution.