COST DEVELOPMENT IN LOGISTICS DUE TO INDUSTRY 4.0

Background: This paper is focused on the development of costs and their structure in logistics companies. Industry 4.0 should trigger significant changes in technologies, business or society where logistics as an area of entrepreneur activity is no exception. Some areas of logistics as storage and warehousing should be even pioneers. It is supposed that human labor has been/will be substituted by other production factors. This substitution should influence economic variables of companies and their overall performance. Challenges of Industry 4.0 will not only be exposed to companies but also to government. It is necessary to monitor the environment and describe changes.

Methods: Using published corporate financial statements the analysis is based on ratio analysis which describes cost structure and time series which show cost development on the level of individual companies operating in logistics. There are analyzed especially analytical indicators of selected cost items in terms of ratios, indicators of total costs and profitability.

Results: The computed cost structure and development were summarized and evaluated by descriptive statistics.

Conclusions: The obtained results show if and how significant there have been any changes in the level and structure of costs and profitability of logistics companies. Coming Industry 4.0 will have serious impact on business, government and individuals. This paper proves if the initiative Industry 4.0 can be already visible on the corporate data and results.