Financial Assets and Investing
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LOGISTIC CONTROLLING AS A POSSIBLE WAY
TO PROSPERITY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Liběna Kantnerová
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice,
Faculty of Economics, Department of Accountancy and Finance,
Studentská 13, 370 05 České Budějovice
kantner@ef.jcu.cz
Abstract: The paper shows problems in the logistics and logistic controlling in the conditions
of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic. It includes results of the first
phase of research within this area made in 2008 – 2009. The set includes answers of 104
enterprises in total of 132 possible answers (in a questionnaire research). We can find the main
trends in relationships among the answers, i.e.size of enterprises and the function of the
controlling department.
Keywords: Logistics, controlling, questionnaire research, method, enterprise, economic trends
JEL Classification: D220, D390, L920
Introduction
Enterprises try to raise their financial and economic efficiency, adapt to constantly changing
trends and remain in the market. Ensuring the competitiveness of an enterprise is more
demanding than ever. Rising costs, relatively saturated markets and disappointing economic
trends, problems with legislation and tougher competition in the domestic and foreign markets
have increased the pressure for productivity and efficiency.
Due to the emerging problems and the current global recession, current procedures are not
sufficient for successful management. Therefore, entrepreneurs and managers need to extend
the existing methods with new ones, which will lead to better management. This can be
achieved by introducing new concepts and technologies that may help to achieve the main
objectives, mainly to ensure profitability and liquidity of the company. According to Ndapwa
Alweendo (2009), small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the most disadvantaged by the
current economic climate, and the NLA (the Namibia Logistics Association) aims to help keep
small businesses afloat by creating opportunities for interaction with larger national and
international clients, and securing supplier discounts for all members. An SME support
programme (currently in the planning stages) that offers entrepreneurship training and access
to finance is another benefit being offered to small businesses.
In addition to these key objectives, it is now necessary to focus the management efforts on
maintaining a market position, customer satisfaction, the continued existence of the company
and its growth potential. An important factor is the involvement of workers themselves in
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33
meeting corporate objectives, which can be achieved by building an appropriate corporate
culture and promoting their professional and personal development.
Unlike developed countries like the U.S. and the majority of Western European states, logistic
controlling and logistics are often neglected in the Czech Republic. Only some companies,
generally the larger ones or branch offices abroad, pay more attention to these issues.
Therefore, this investigation follows a sample of enterprises with no previous selection by size
or focus of the companies in order to compare the interests in the logistical problems in all
sectors.
As the author has worked for more than 20 years in practice, she is concerned about tasks,
which are necessary to be solved in many enterprises. But a lot of such problems have not
been solved yet. This is why she has decided to work on that and try to discover a possible
way to deal with these problems.
The same is stated in the paper of Haan, Kisperska-Morun, Placzek (2007). They believe that
managerial techniques in SMEs change together with their growth and the logistics
management constantly gets better support, adequate to requirements of smaller companies if
financial and material assets are at their disposal. Naturally, single SMEs have smaller
capacities than large corporations but it does not mean that they do not require professional
logistic management. On the contrary, very often a single top manager has to acquire a portion
of knowledge significantly larger than managers in big companies, being assisted by their
deputies and employed experts. Or – as said in Poggel, Schoenwetter (2009) – most SMEs see
the logistic manager responsible for the physical storage and distribution, but do not employ
their logistic manager for any other purpose, while large companies show mainly an intradivisional
logistic concept as a key-function between the other departments.
Aims
The aims of the paper are:
1. to analyse the situation related to logistics in the sample of enterprises;
2. to analyse a relation of the size of enterprises (rate of turnover and a number of employees)
to the use of logistic criteria;
3. to discover how often – if so – enterprises deal with an improvement of relations between
suppliers and consumers; and
4. to discover the most usual way of assessment of the above mentioned relations.
Methodology
The first step was to assess the current situation in the sample of 104 enterprises in 2008–
2009. A questionnaire aimed at key issues of logistics and logistic controlling was prepared.
The investigation was applied mostly to enterprises in the region of South Bohemia (68%);
mostly aimed at production (45%), followed by services (33%), trade (10%) or combined.
There were 5% of enterprises focused on production and trade; 2% of enterprises focused on
production and services and 2% of enterprises focused on all three sectors (production, trade
and services).
Financial Assets and Investing
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All data were processed by correspondence analysis (CA) - a unimodal ordination method.
The main aim of this method is an overall review of such a huge data set (132 possible
answers to the questions in the questionnaire). We can find the main trends in relationships
among the answers.
The result of this analysis is an ordination diagram showing points in an ordination space. The
distance of the points corresponds to their dissimilarity. The points represent answers to the
questions in the questionnaire. Any qualitative answer is shown as a point; any quantitative
one is shown as a point for the maximum.
The ordination diagram is interpreted in the following way: The A point in the diagram close
to the B point then in the case of choosing answer “a” by the company (in the questionnaire)
means that probably answer “B” was chosen simultaneously. The A point placed on the
opposite side of the diagram in comparison with localisation of the B point suggests that the
company chose answer “a”, but not “b” in the questionnaire. If there is a point representing
some quantitative answer (such as turnover, number of employees or products, suppliers, etc.)
on one side of the diagram it means that all points on this side of the diagram are supposed to
be related to enterprises with a great value of this variable; points on the opposite side are
related to enterprises with low values of the appropriate variable. Points in the middle of the
diagram suggest that all enterprises answered the question in a way that was without any
relation to the main trends.
Weights of answers to qualitative questions were set lower so that the sum of weights of all
possible answers to one question was always equal to one. Quantitative answers were
logarithmically transformed.
The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used for two data subsets. This method
allows, moreover, for testing the effect of explanatory variables. These were selected by a
stepwise forward selection from a set of variables that express the size of a company and its
logistics (questions No. 1, 3, 4, 8 and 14; see appendix No. 1).
The monitored logistic criteria (question No. 24) were used as the first data set processed by
CCA. Significant variables (α = 0.05) were used as active; others were used as passive. The
later data set was made up of questions related to mutual supplier-consumer relations
(questions No. 15, 18–20, 26–28, 30–33). Significant variables (α = 0.01) were used as active;
others were used as passive.
The ordination diagram CCA is read in a way very similar to the CA one. Explanatory
variables can be expressed as points for centroids (qualitative variables) or arrows for direction
of increase (quantitative ones). Above all, active variables affect the position of the response
points (if there is only one active variable, it affects the position only on the first axis). Passive
variables are plotted in the diagram but they do not affect the position of other points.
Canoco for Windows was used to process CA and CCA (TER BRAAK & ŠMILAUER 2002).
Finally, the author calculated a percentage of firms that check individual criteria (question No.
24), those that assess the co-operation with suppliers in specific intervals (question No. 19)
and those that inform the suppliers about the results of the assessment (question No. 20).
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The author summarizes the methodology here: (1) a CA ordination diagram was created for an
overview of the data; (2) an effect of the size of a company and its logistics on monitoring of
logistic criteria and mutual supplier-consumer relations was tested by CCA; (3) percentages of
selected answers were calculated.
Results
104 enterprises in the sample revealed that 31.7% had a logistic department and 11.5% had a
department of logistic controlling. The following tables present what kinds of activities are
performed (table 1) and departments that adopted common logistic activities (table 2).
Tab. 1 Activities performed at departments of logistics
Logistic activity %
Ordering 72.1
Operational management of production 30.8
Stock regulation 47.1
Warehousing 48.1
Packaging and expedition 46.1
Quality screening 31.7
Transport 62.5
IT 12.5
Logistic controlling 15.4
Reverse logistics 18.3
Other activities 4.8
Source: Author’s own calculation
Transferring of logistic activities to trade departments seems to be an appropriate solution. The
trade department is concerned in high levels of economic indicators (inventories; transport)
and monitors their cost as well as operational features compared to economic department.
Problems with missing logistic department will rather influence logistic controlling and
reverse logistics.
Tab. 2 Departments that adopted common logistic activities
Department %
Business 46.1
Economic 23.1
Production 10.6
Transport 12.5
Other 7.7
Source: Author’s own calculation
In the following part of the paper, numbers referring to the number of a question in the
questionnaire are enclosed in brackets.
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The following CA ordination diagram (figure 1) revealed that enterprises with separated
logistic department concentrated on the left side (10) and enterprises without such department
on the right side (9) of the diagram. Enterprises with a logistic department usually also have a
department of controlling (21b); logistic activities are observed regularly (14a) and suppliers
are informed about both positive and negative results (20). Logistic methods quoted in
question 13 (EDI – 13a; Quick Response – 13b; KANBAN – 13e; ABC – 13g; benchmarking
– 13k; looking for narrow spaces - 13m) and competition analysis are usually used.
In contrast, smaller enterprises without a separate logistic department do not inform their
suppliers about the results of their screening in the negotiation (20), they do not deal with
logistic activities continuously (14b), they do not have any certificate of quality (7N), a
number of products is modified every year (32) and orders are received mainly by phone or
personal contact (30a, 30d). Logistic department functions are transferred to another
department - trade (9), transportation (9d) or another (9e). They are engaged in logistic
activities such as taking orders from customers (11), operative management of production
(11b), the problems of packaging and shipping (11f) or other activities (11k).
The first group of enterprises is generally larger in terms of the number of products (1), the
number of employees (3), annual turnover (4) and the number of suppliers (15).
Furthermore, you can allocate a group of enterprises mostly modifying their production (32),
receiving orders via the Internet portal (30e) and observing logistic activities in the whole
chain (23a). This may not be dependent on the trends described in the preceding paragraph.
Fig. 1 Ordination diagram of correspondence analysis
Source: Author´s own calculation
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The first two axes represent 21.3% of variability (horizontal axes represent 12.8% of
variability). Sixty answers that best fit to the first two axes are pictured as points (explanatory
notes see Appendix).
The majority of enterprises monitored the maturity of invoices. This is a result of the fact that
this is one of the key items of accountancy (table 3). A separate logistic department is the only
factor that had a significant influence in mutual relations of the investigated criteria (variable
8; F = 1.944; p = 0.012); other variables are of a positive correlation with the above mentioned
factor. Bigger enterprises with a logistic department observed usually average costs per
storage place (24c); working capital in logistics (24b); costs due to a decrease in the inventory
value (24h) and an inventory turnover per year (24i).
On the other hand, smaller enterprises without a logistic department paid more attention to
monitoring the maturity of invoices (24u), the number of dispatched items per worker per a
unit of time (24k) and an average inventory (24m) (figure 2).
However, there is a significant variability that is not possible to explain by the size of a
company or its logistics. One cluster of criteria consists of costs per a unit of purchased
dispatched goods (24t), the number of errors in deliveries in the overall volume (23q), usage of
the transport capacity (24p) and costs due capital acquisition/credit interests for logistic
activities (24g). Opposite cluster consists of capital bound in inventories (24a), share of costs
due to storage in overall costs (24l) and inventories turnover (24j).
Tab. 3 Percentage of each criterion (100% = 96)
% Criterion
91% Monitoring the maturity of invoices
76% Capital bound in inventories
68% Average inventories
67% Following the time of dispatch
67% Share of sales returns
66% Cost due to purchase of inventories
58% Transport capacity use
53% Storage costs
52% Costs per unit of purchased/dispatched goods
49% Number of turnovers per year
48% Number of errors in deliveries in overall volume
45% Inventories turnover time
45% Storage capacity use
44% Average transport costs per 1 t of goods
40% Costs due to capital acquisition for logistic activities
40% Share of storage costs in total costs
35% Working capital in logistic activities
35% Revenue from saved costs due to a change of transporter
33% Average costs per storage unit
32% Costs due to a decrease of the inventories value
26% Number of dispatched items/day (or other time unit)
Source: Author’s own calculation
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In figure 2, we can see criterions screened by smaller companies without a logistic department
on the left side and criterions screened by bigger companies which have logistic departments
on the right side. The first two axes represent 5.5% of variability (horizontal axes represent
3.8% of variability). Active variables are expressed as full circles (Explanatory notes see
Appendix).
Fig. 2 CCA ordination diagram
Source: Author´s own calculation
Concerning business relations, 56% of respondents answered that the cooperation with
suppliers is assessed once a year (100% = 103 enterprises); 23% meets them once per quarter
and only 20% of respondents meet their suppliers more often.
84% of enterprises inform their suppliers about the results of the assessment (100% = 104
enterprises). All these enterprises inform them about negative results, positive information is
given only by a part of them (Table 4).
Tab. 4 Answers of 104 enterprises to the question concerning information provided to
their suppliers about the results of their investigation
PA+NA inform in 100% cases 69%
PA+NN only positive information 0%
PN+NA only negative information 14%
PN+NN no information 16%
Source: Author’s own calculation
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The mutual relation of explanatory variables may be described in the following way (figure 3):
variables related to the size of an enterprise and its logistics (questions 3, 4, 8 and 14) are of a
mutual positive correlation with the exception of the number of types of goods/services (1)
which is not dependent on the above mentioned tendency or even of slight negative
correlation.
Enterprises engaged in services are of various sizes with a smaller number of types of services.
Commercial firms are smaller but just as manufacturing companies offer more types of goods.
Large enterprises with higher turnovers and separate logistic departments, regardless of the
number of types of products, normally receive orders otherwise; they often order by fax or
otherwise (fig. 3).
Small enterprises often change the maturity of invoices and the quality of products supplied in
the framework of agreements with their customers. They order by telephone and use only road
transport (fig. 3).
Companies supplying a much broad portfolio of products usually supply to the retailer and
accept orders via the web portal (fig. 3).
On the other hand, enterprises with a small number of products supply to the wholesalers, endusers
or other customers (fig. 3).
Small enterprises that offer a small number of products take orders and make them mostly by
personal contact, which is somewhat surprising in view of the higher costs. Moreover, they do
not inform their suppliers of either the positive or negative impacts on their relationships (fig.
3).
Fig. 3 CCA ordination diagram
Source: Author’s own calculation
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First two ordination axes represent 5.5% of data variability. The first (horizontal) axes
represent 3.8% of variability. The significance test of two first axes: P = 0.002; F = 2.96.
Active variables are expressed as full arrows (explanatory notes see in Appendix).
Discussion
Small and long-neglected problems always rise to prominence in times of recession.
Enterprises have to seek new strategies to remain in the market trying new methods which
could help save the company's existence and prosperity and jobs.
Paying more attention to logistics and logistic activities may mean potential cost savings or a
source of increased performance, as Jusoh, Kamis (2010) mention. They revealed that two out
of three independent variables were positively associated with business performance
significantly.
Changes in logistics-related activities especially with orders and shipping can increase
customer satisfaction and hence loyalty. Outsourcing of logistic operations can yield the same
effect. It corresponds with the results of the Hungarian research (Szegedi, Z., 2008). They say
the path to SME competitiveness – even when fixing and streamlining their logistics processes
and installing their logistics information systems – begins with flexibility and adaptability:
they must meet the unique needs of their large customers. On the contrary, Bagchi, Virum
(2000) noted that only a few of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) have adequate
administrative resources to participate in such development of competences.
Controlling and its introduction into the business processes is also an important part. Creative
use of accounting, financial, marketing and product information may be a way of timely
recognition of emerging problems and preparing appropriate instruments, including
adjustments to the plan or strategy for their elimination. As said in Huang, Zhon, Yongkiaoxun
(2009), by carrying out the common logistics, the small retail enterprises can get two kinds of
benefits: direct benefits and indirect benefits. The direct benefits include the logistics
operation cost saving, the sale enlarging. The indirect benefits include the supply priority, the
information communication, the promptly distribution, the stability of supply chain
relationship. To implement the common logistics, the rational distribution of corporation
benefits is the key point of success to carry out the implementation of common logistics.
Figure 4 shows the specific influence of controlling and its indicators on all spheres in any
company.
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Fig. 4 Controlling and its indicators having an influence
to all spheres in the enterprise
Source: Author’s own
Conclusion
This paper deals with the logistics and logistics controlling as a potential source of savings and
finding new possibilities for better organization and functions. A questionnaire research
consisting of two phases was chosen as a method of investigation. Results published in this
paper were revealed by the first phase of this research. The sample consisted of 104 enterprises
from various sectors.
In the Czech Republic, SMEs are defined as companies with up to 250 employees and the
turnover up to 43 million CZK per year. There are about 1 million of such companies, which
represent 99.8 % of the total. SMEs represent 61 % of the total number of employees
(Stejskalová, Rolínek, 2008).
The study revealed that bigger enterprises paid more attention to the investigated issues –
creating information sources and setting specialized departments. Such enterprises also paid
more attention to keeping and improving relations with their suppliers. Such relations are
dealing with logistic activities as a source of additional advantages and profit. They are more
oriented to two logistic areas – production logistics and outbound logistics.
Several differences in the understanding of the term “logistics” were found between the
participating companies ranging from “logistics means transport and warehousing” to
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
AUDIT
INPUTS PLAN
PRODUCTION - SALES
CONTROLLING - INDICATORS
TRANSFORMATION, OUTPUTS
TACTICAL MANAGEMENT
Financial Assets and Investing
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“logistics is nearly everything”. The first idea is typical for SMEs, the second one for the
corporations, mostly foreign branches.
We hoped that this study could investigate the theoretical linkages between characteristics
relating to generic capability, management practices, challenges and business performance by
answering the research questions. The research has been a pioneering piece of work in many
ways, at least in the Czech Republic. The results indicate that increased efficiency and speed
in logistic processes improve a company’s profitability. We can see it as signal that this area is
good for continuing efforts and would give good returns. One may get a profit from the
investment in the logistic controlling in a period of months, or a few years at maximum.
Logistics and logistic controlling may also use common methods of management focused on
the above mentioned categories.
The research revealed the following results:
1. If there is no logistic department, its function is usually adopted by trade or economic
departments (69.2%).
2. These departments primarily deal with executing orders, transport and storage.
3. Transport is the most common outsourced activity.
4. The EDI and barcodes are the most frequently used logistic methods spread after 2000 in
the Czech Republic.
5. In the sample, 36.5% of enterprises had their own internal audit; 25% had their own
controlling department and 11.5% used logistic controlling.
The aims of the paper may be stated as achieved.
The paper was supported by the GAJU 073/08/H (Grant Agency of the University of South
Bohemia).
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DOI: 10.5817/FAI2012-2-3
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Appendix
Explanatory notes to diagrams (used Nos. only)
1 Number of products
3 How many employees does your company have?
4 Your turnover in 2007
8 a There is a logistic department
8b There is not any logistic department
9a Business department
9b Economic department
9c Production department
9d Transport department
9e Other department
11a Ordering
11b Operational management of production
11c Stock management
11d Warehousing
11e Packaging, expedition
11f Quality control
11g Transport
11h IT
11i Controlling
11j Reverse logistics
11k Other activities
12a Outsourcing of transport
12b Outsourcing of storing
12c Outsourcing of packaging
12d Other
12e No
13a EDI
13b Quick Response
13c Efficient Consumer Response
13d Hub and Spoke
13e KANBAN
13f MRP
13g ABC
13h Benchmarking
13i Balanced scorecard
13j Searching of bottleneck
13k SWOT analyse
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13l Analyse of competition
13m SAP
13o Bar codes
13p RFID
14a Logistic activities implem. into strategy
14b Logistic activities solved only in problems
18a Orders by phone
18b Orders by fax
18c Orders by email
18d Orders personally
18e Orders by EDI
18f Orders by other way
19a Re-evaluation of relation 1/year
19b Quarterly
19c Monthly
20a Info. for suppliers neg., yes
20b Info. for suppliers neg., no
20c Info. for suppliers pos., yes
20d Info. for suppliers pos., no
21a Monitoring of logistics – internal audit
21b Monitoring of logistics – dept. of controlling
21c Monitoring of logistics – logistic controlling
21d Results of external firms
21e Results are used on meetings
21f Results change plan, strategy
24a Capital in stock
24b Value of working capital in logistic activities
24c Average costs for 1 one stock place
24d Average transport costs / 1 t of goods
24e Warehousing costs
24f Costs of buying stock
24g Costs of capital of logistic activities (interest of credit)
24h Costs due to a decrease of stock value
24i Number of turnover per year (costs of sale/average value of
stock
24j Inventory turnover (average stock/ costs of sale *number of
days in the period
24k Number of dispatched items per worker and day (other period)
24l Share of stocking cost in total costs
24m Average level of stock
Financial Assets and Investing
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24n Profit from saved costs due to a change of a carrier
24o Storage capacity use
24p Transport capacity use
24q Number of mistakes in deliveries in overall volume (%)
24r Following the time of dispatch
24s Share of sales returns
24t Costs per unit of purchased/dispatched goods
24u Monitoring the maturity of invoices
24v Other
25b Satisfactory
25c Unsatisfactory
25d We do not perform it
25e A change is necessary
25f A problem in monitoring has
ever been found
26 Average number of buyers
27a Supply to production enterprises
27b Supply for whole sellers
27c Supply for retailers
27d Supply to end-consumers
27e Supply to other buyers
30a Buyer’s orders by phone
30b Buyer’s orders by fax
30c Buyer’s orders by mail
30d Buyer’s orders personally
30e Buyer’s orders by Internet
30f Buyer’s orders other
31a Transport of supply on roads
31b Transport of supply on railway
31c Combination of transport
31d Other transport of goods
32 % of change in offer
33a Changes of quantity in the agreements with buyers
33b Changes of price in agreements with buyers
33c Changes of quality in agreements
33d Changes of payment conditions