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Authors
Abstract(s)
The furniture sector in Portugal is predominantly composed of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (SME'S). Its internationalisation process has been continuous and growing. However, to be viable, SMEs need to compete with international and large companies which benefit from economies of scale. Thus, SME's must create a competitive advantage in quality, differentiated furniture design, and customised services. In this context, the management of value chain activities gains extreme importance.
This research work focuses on the logistics activities in the furniture sector. It aims to analyse the management practices of Portuguese SMEs regarding customer service in logistics and propose a framework for to cost calculation of customer service activities in logistics.
Using an approach based on the Delphi methodology, we consulted a panel of experts in the furniture sector to develop a questionnaire to identify logistics activities in the furniture business. Then the questionnaire was applied to SMEs operating in the furniture sector. Despite the small number of participants, the results indicate that firms are aware of the importance of cost management of logistics for their competitiveness, they have the necessary data to calculate their costs, and Time Drive Activity Based Costing can be a suitable solution for costs calculation, once it can perform an accurate cost division per each stage of the transport workflow and determine the total cost of the operation with high precision, based on the type of transportation and selected incoterm negotiated with clients.
Description
Keywords
Internationalisation Transport workflow TDABC Furniture industry Logistic