EVOLUTION OF LOGISTICS IN COMPANIES (Part I)

Logistics today is a fundamental tool for the development of organizations of any nature; prepare and train for their understanding and management is essential for the economic growth of any society, to facilitate better and higher levels of technology, to rationalize costs and optimize the human effort implicit in its development.

Modernity requires us to inform ourselves, to train and value ourselves, to produce economically but at the same time socially, in a planet with more limitations of resources and more people, every day, and as a social group we allow ourselves to know the techniques and innovate them to conserve, protect, defend , attend and accompany the humanitarian advance. And from this same modernity we must require an attitude of change, of favoring distinctive qualities of those same logistic techniques that confer a new philosophy; and if perhaps also a renewed way of approaching to guard more man-centered objectives and less in the accumulation of capital.

To elaborate a project of country and to impel it demands conditions of its citizens, the logistics offer integral solutions to very particular needs for a productive sector in constant reform. In a country in conflict due to the struggle of economic and political factors, reality forces us to emphasize the methods of exchange to alleviate the anguish of consumers. Training citizens in Logistics is an educational institutional goal, learning logistics is a fundamental academic task for companies, understanding their management a social commitment and socializing their benefits a citizen's duty.

Logistics development in companies.

The administration of companies and other organizations have been changing due to a process of globalization that has been generated worldwide. The factors that have contributed to this phenomenon, to consideration of Tinoco Cabrera (2004) are: "Changes in the environment, the accumulated experience of managers and employees, the introduction of new technologies, development of new methods, techniques and administration tools and new organizational approaches "(pp. 3-7). For Tinoco Cabrera (Ob.Cit) the evolution of the approaches and concepts used in the administration of the productive area of ​​the companies over the last half century is closely related to the evolution of logistics, on which it delimits:

Logistics is a discipline that has been developed in the military context, dealing with the study of the problems related to the supply in time, place and form required, of all those goods and services necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the army's activities (p. 10).

The business world begins to realize the importance of logistics when, during the expansive period after World War II, environmental conditions change dramatically and, as a consequence, traditional administrative approaches are relatively ineffective . Parallel to the evolution of the concept of Logistics, companies also evolved in their objectives, in their techniques and approaches. In the 50s the desire of the companies was to produce, grow and reduce costs.

The first application of logistics in business administration takes place in the physical distribution area. In an article quoted by Tinoco Cabrera (2004) published in Fortune in 1962, Peter Drucker points out that "in the extensive US market deficiencies are occurring in the delivery of products to customers" (p.12). In the 60's, companies would rush to sell and produce what was going to be sold, keep growing and maximize profits.

In 1967, says Drucker, a logistic approach is proposed that consists of considering the management of material handling as the integral administration of a whole, of a "logistics system", formed by closely related elements. This approach implies that "... traditional functions purchases, production, sales, etc. they can not continue to administer their respective areas, ignoring what happens in the others "(p.15). Tinoco Cabrera (2004) states that:

"In the decade of the 70 there are important changes that force companies to optimize their processes. The restructuring of distribution activities is notable, especially in consumer goods companies; change in marketing channels; reduction in the number of decentralized warehouses, inventories; contracting transport services, etc. "(p.16).

The objectives of the company in the 1980s was to sell; that is, reach the market before the competition with what the client wants, as the client wants, where the client wants and at the price the client wants; and maximize profitability, meaning the maximization of the remuneration of contributed capital. In the decade of the 80s, the rationalization of inventories, the dynamism of demand and the functional organization approach triggered what is now called integral logistics.

In the nineties and the beginning of the 21st century, the global economic-financial area started the decade of corporate mergers with great force; on the one hand, as a way to increase the competitiveness of manufacturing, financial and commercial companies; the so-called portals companies (the administrators of networks of commercial connection between consumers and producers) are strongly promoted due to the boom in connectivity; the largest national banking crises in the world, including in Venezuela, each bank was positioned as the financial area of ​​economic groups, in each crisis was dragged to many companies that were part of national corporations and to cover losses these companies were offered to transnational; telecommunications are intensified and means of transport are improved; inaugurating a new global globalization process that triggers the conversion of national companies as part of global conglomerates.

With the start of the 21st century, this process of globalization has deepened and forced large and medium-sized companies to articulate themselves in all phases. As a result, the concept of logistics evolves towards the theory of integral logistics and then the supply chain.