Fierce competition has necessitated that the
efficiency of manufacturing processes should be
considered. Much attention has been devoted to
logistics because logistic costs form a major part
of the total product costs. As a result there have
been many developments designed to reduce the
logistic costs. The technological improvements in
information technology, telecommunication,
telematics (the combination of information technology
and telecommunication), new technologies
in production, warehousing, distribution, transport
and the management of these processes provide
many technological opportunities to increase
the efficiency of the total logistic process and to
become more competitive. These developments
and the associated technological opportunities are
described in Section 3.2.