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Keywords
Supply chain management, Logistics management, Performance measurement (quality), Service quality assurance, Customer service management
Abstract
Many companies measure their logistic performances using several methods. As a consequence, various sets of indicators can be found in practice and in the literature. In particular, the same event can be measured in different ways, so that the relative performance is sometimes totally different. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a hierarchy in logistic performance measurements. A referring model for evaluating the logistic performances is also proposed in this paper, together with the definition of a reference framework for the selection of supply chain performance measurements.
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Introduction
Over the last half century, the role of logistics in business has increased in both scope and strategic importance. Logistic strategies have influenced customer selection, product design, partnership/alliance building, vendor selection and many other core business processes (Caplice and Sheffi, 1995). Moreover, logistics has given a strong impulse in the organised systems developed by the supply chain in which logistics is one of the fundamental elements. According to the definition of logistics declared by the Council of Logistics Management in 1998, logistics is:
... a part of the supply chain process that plans, implements, and controls efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption in order to meet customers' requirements (CLM, 1998).
Then, logistics is part of the larger integrated process, called supply chain, in which a number of various business entities (i.e. suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers) work together for acquiring raw materials, converting them into specified final products, which in turn have to be delivered to retailers (Beamon, 1996).
Unfortunately, the performance measurement systems have neither kept up with the changing role and scope of the supply chain nor systematically examined and evaluated this global process. Nowadays, the organisations are competing in complex environments, and an accurate understanding of their goals and of the methods for attaining them is therefore essential (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). Performance measurement systems should evaluate both the individual metric and system-wide...