Material Economy and Logistics 02/2024

The subject of the research presented in the article is the Rear Area of Activity (RAA), which is a part of the theater of military operations conducted by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland (AF RP) as part of the national defense operation on the territory of Poland. The aim of the research included in the article is to check, verify and assess the validity of the deployment of military stationary material depots and repair workshops in the country during peacetime, as well as to examine the adopted doctrinal solutions in terms of maintaining the ability of the logistic system to ensure that fighting troops can maintain their operations. The research hypothesis adopted for consideration assumes that the location of the military stationary logistics infrastructure (material depots and repair workshops), due to the existing threat directions and the possibility of destruction of the logistics potential by the enemy, requires the transfer of part of the defense potential from the zone of direct operations to the RAA. The conclusions drawn allow us to state that in the current geopolitical conditions of Poland there is a need to transfer part of the stationary logistics potential of the army already in peacetime from the first zone of the theater of operations to the second and third ones. Moreover, taking into account the operational base, the authors of the study also found it necessary to implement changes in the organization of the mobile logistics potential of tactical level II.

The article constitutes the second part of the study, the aim of which is to present the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on logistics on the example of selected Polish manufacturing, trade and service enterprises. It includes an in-depth analysis of the results of the author's own empirical research. The results of own empirical research presented in the study constitute the effects of more extensive research on an in-depth analysis of the logistics process management in Polish manufacturing, trade and service enterprises in 2019–2021 in the context of shaping enterprise results. The research was conducted in 2022 among 335 randomly selected small, medium and large Polish manufacturing, trade and service enterprises. As a result of the research, it was found that the COVID-19 pandemic had a huge influence on logistics in all surveyed enterprises in 2020–2021. Changes in logistics conditions caused by the pandemic overlapped with the logistics determinants of contemporary enterprises before the pandemic. Strategic and operational management of logistics processes increasingly determined the economic and market results of the best surveyed enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enterprises achieving the best results during the pandemic implemented the supply chain management strategy that was in a constant state of creation and development, characterized by an immediate response to changing customer requirements, environmental conditions and competitors' activities, respecting, at the same time, the principles of sustainable development. During the pandemic, the most effective logistics managers took quick actions so as to reduce the likelihood of disruption, decrease the severity of the effects of events, and create and maintain competitive advantages of their enterprises. 

Due to the various crises and the geopolitical situation, it is emphasized that it is necessary to create resilient supply chains through nearshoring. The effect of this is the shortening of supply chains in the area of purchasing materials and components, i.e. in the sphere of supply management relations. This should result in changes at the level of trade in the area of purchases. The aim of the article is to diagnose whether there is a tendency to reduce the volume of supplies with the increase in the distance of supply sources from the perspective of their overall structure. The context of the considerations is the European Union, with special focus on Poland. Time series analysis was used as a research method to detect the nature of the phenomenon represented by a sequence of observations, as well as classic descriptive statistics. It was inter alia found that no reduction in the burden on international supply chains was observed in Poland and the EU, expressed in the volume of trade exchange in terms of value. Additionally, no positive structural changes towards shortening supply chains were observed, despite an increase in transport costs and pro-environmental policy. The research may support decision-making regarding ways to strengthen resilience in goods flows. Previously, research on this topic was usually conducted in an aggregate form. The new research contribution is an analysis that takes into account such moderators as short and long flows.

The general purpose of the article is to indicate the importance of introducing and then managing the AEO simplified procedure to a company trading goods with foreign countries. The specific objective, on the other hand, is to present an example of Kaizen management process analysis, where a load analysis was used, dividing individual activities into those that generate added value to the process and those that do not add any value to the process of preparing customs documentation, as an attempt to systematize an integrated approach for the AEO procedure management model. The Community Customs Code and, later, the EU Customs Code contain a catalogue of simplifications for traders conducting international trade in goods. One of them is the Authorized Economic Operator AEO, the obtaining of which involves meeting strict requirements. Customs authorities conduct a risk-based audit procedure before issuing the authorization. The group of AEO users in European Union countries indicates the number of trustworthy entities. The extensive experience of many customs and forwarding agencies operating in Poland in implementing AEO has a significant impact on comprehensive management control solutions.

The political and economic situation in Poland and internationally has a clear impact on the functioning of individual sectors of the national economy, including in the area of broadly understood logistics. The dynamics of restrictions in the years 2020–2023 caused by, among others, inflation, forced changes in the management method in enterprises from the logistics industry and beyond. The paper reviews the management models of logistics enterprises in the context of inflation. Guided by the purpose formulated in this way, the research problem was presented in the form of the following question: What business management models determine the efficient operation of logistics enterprises in the conditions of rising prices of goods and services and consumer services? The following research methods were used in the article: analysis, which was used to process material from the annual reports of the National Bank of Poland and statistical tables of the Central Statistical Office, as well as synthesis and inference, which made it possible to formulate conclusions. The initial part of the article presents a short description of the logistics industry in Poland, the next authors focused on its analysis with emphasis on the years, corresponding to the general crisis in the country. The last part of the article is the conclusions. The authors emphasize that the article is an introduction to further work in this area.

Since 2015, the Automotive Services Centre has been operating at the Motor Transport Institute for Disabled People (CUM) and since 2021, as part of the project entitled Knowledge Centre on Accessibility to transport and mobility for people with special needs (CWoD), there has been an information and consultation point active in which road users with disabilities, and in particular users of individual transport – drivers and passengers of passenger cars – can obtain information that will facilitate their functioning in road traffic. Part of customer service for people with disabilities is collecting information, also for scientific and research works. From November 2022 to June 2023, as a pilot research, interviews were conducted with beneficiaries of the above-mentioned entities, in order to learn their opinions on the systems and adaptive devices they use in cars. The results of this study, presented in this article, allowed for the development of general recommendations regarding advising people with special needs (PSN) – users of individual transport, the implementation of which would improve the quality of services in this area.

The aim of this paper is to identify risk factors and challenges highlighted in the scientific literature related to logistics and fuel supply chains. A critical literature review was employed as the research method, supplemented with references to the situation in the Polish fuel market. Adding the Polish context allows for an extension of the analysis to include conditions and practices specific to Poland, which are less frequently represented in international scientific publications. The review revealed that challenges for fuel logistics fall into various categories of contemporary world problems such as environmental protection (CO2 emissions, ecosystem contamination), social responsibility, and transport efficiency and safety (route planning, operational transparency). Digital technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain, offer solutions to many of these problems. They enable monitoring, information exchange, security assurance, and improvement of efficiency in supply chains. Several remedial measures relate to legislation and changes in management practices, such as the decentralization of logistics, the Lean Supply Chain Management (SCM) strategy, and decision support systems. Challenges for fuel logistics extend their impact beyond the operational and functional zones of enterprises, often relating to extended supply chains and the entire macro-environment.