Foreword by Prof. Dr. Raimund Klinkner, President, German Logistics Association (BVL), Bremen

摘要

Dear Reader, Logistics is an integral part of practically all economic processes. In the globally networked competitive arena, logistics expertise and performance capability are key success drivers: ever shorter innovation cycles result in a constant stream of new processes. Customers want more specific products and expect these products to be more rapidly available. Modern lifestyles are highly individualistic, and people are ever quicker to change their communication, consumption and working habits. The world is our market; consumers buy and sell online, and we think in terms of working lifetimes and time accounts. Technology continues to advance, and research continues to reveal new interrelationships. Lifelong learning is needed in order to keep up to speed with new developments; at the same time, the half-life of the knowledge acquired by us is decreasing. The global knowledge base doubles in size approximately every 5 years. This means innovation capability and knowledge are two of the key factors in the competitive market.