Logistics control enabled by IT, a window in the future

When we look at historic developments in logistics organization and control concepts, we can conclude that the past shows an ongoing trend towards a more integral approach to achieve logistical coordination. The decentralized reorder point techniques used in the fifties gradually changed from MRP-I (sixties, seventies) to MRP-II (eighties, nineties). This trend is now extending beyond the walls of an individual factory. Companies feel a need to cooperate in the areas of logistics structures, forecasting, master scheduling and ordering. When we look to this integration challenge we can conclude that a different approach than used in the past is necessary. Since implementing a centralized control concept across companies is not possible, new developments are required in the area of decentralized control. We foresee that future control systems are able to communicate with supplier and customer control systems. Furthermore, we expect that these developments will also influence the setup of decentralized control systems within the company. Instead of having one control system with a scope that covers the entire production chain within the company, we will see a more modular approach where each sub control system covers only a part of the production system, e.g., a department. The expected benefits of this approach is that such an architecture provides departments with better opportunities to incorporate their specific planning requirements in the control system.