Sekundarni povzetek: |
In the master thesis, we seek answers to the question of the importance of logistics in general, and especially in the supply of foreign markets. With the development and opening up of economies, logistics plays an increasing role, however, it is still not accepted as an equivalent business function despite being an activity that is involved in all aspects of the company and the national economy. As logistics is responsible for the efficient flow of goods from source to end-users, in the thesis we analysed this flow, gave our critical views on the course of the logistics chain and made suggestions for improvement. The basic objectives of logistics are cost reduction and improving service quality. Also because of this, we wanted to know what kind of impact does outsourcing logistics services have on the quality and cost performance.
External operations pose an increasing challenge that is difficult to avoid. The Slovenian market is small, therefore doing business abroad is often inevitable. However, it is associated with increased risk in comparison to doing business at home, thus the risk should be recognized and managed. Questions to which we needed to find answers are self-evident: why to do international business, what to sell to which market, how to get there, and how to act. Logistics also play a big role in the successfulness of performing in foreign markets, especially in all export formats in which the optimization of high transport costs is essential.
When making the empirical part of the master thesis we visited the company Reflex from Podgrad in Gornja Radgona. There we examined how the theoretical foundations match with the situation in practice, particularly in the case of the company Reflex. We were interested in the effectiveness of internal and external logistics. We tried to obtain as much information on foreign operations as possible, though set our focus on the logistical aspects of business with the German market. With the help of competent partners in Reflex, we confirmed or rejected the hypothesis, based on their statements. However, despite the high awareness of the importance of logistics in practice, there are still many inconsistencies in this regard.
The results of testing the hypotheses show that with efficient logistics, many expenses are actually slightly lower than described in theory. In exports companies, also Reflex, still prefer traditionalism, because the main markets for them are still countries of the former Yugoslavia, Austria, and Germany. We found also that the implementation of external logistics results in lower transport costs than otherwise. Although, the findings that the investment forms of entry into foreign markets for small, medium and even some large companies may simply remain only a wish, are not surprising. In practice, they have to settle with export forms of internationalization, which are much cheaper and easier. |