**1. Introduction**

The advent of globalization promotes organizations with the persistent pursuit of competitiveness, forcing businesses moving competitive advantages. Still, organizations that are in the forefront of their sectors and considered successful are

those that actually trying to develop its core competencies to offer a standard of excellence in goods and services and are concerned with its strategy and with the workforce. The market organizations have demanded a set of features that include efficiency, effectiveness, dynamism, creativity, agility, flexibility and having holistic vision, to be competitive and having defined their strategies, seeking business sustainability.

**2. Literature review**

entire value chain [19].

could be of great benefit concluded by [22].

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**2.1 Internal logistics concepts**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94718*

used increases the efficiency of an organization [12, 13].

Several authors state that an internal logistics system well designed and correctly

*Conceptualization, Definition and Assessment of Internal Logistics through Different…*

To summarize, several aspects of logistics performance are very important for a company, and among others refer to delivery, quality, robustness, information, and cost and customer service. However, it is also important to consider which is the combination of high efficiency, performance, and effectiveness [14]. For [15] the performance efficient logistics activities alone are not enough. To create competitiveness for the company, it is essential that the right kind of logistics activities to be prioritized and through the right performance variables. However, as discussed by [16], there is a lack of standardized ways of dealing with the internal logistics requirements influencing the overall logistics performance. In general, logistics managers are trying to use measurements to help design and manage more effective and efficient logistic systems for the client. Identifying the value of internal logistics and its critical performance criteria can be a way to help this development [17]. Design and improve the internal logistics system involves decision making at different levels, such as strategic, tactical and operational issues. As such, it involves long-term planning (strategic) and aspects of planning and control (management) of short and medium term [18]. An internal logistics system that works well requires involvement and understanding of the system at all levels. Logistics professionals should be empowered with the necessary experience in essential and critical functions for their own company and fully understand how they affect the

Internal Logistics handles all the management of the internal supply process, storage, transportation and distribution of goods within the organization, that is, to meet its domestic demands as support for manufacturing [20]. According to [6], the cycle of support to manufacturing activities is directly related to internal logistics, i.e., planning and production control. Thus, the logistical support to the production aims mainly to establish and maintain an economic and orderly flow of materials and stocks in process in order to meet the schedules of the production sector. The logistics support production has the operational responsibility for the following activities: handling and storage of products, materials, components and semi-finished parts. With the changes in the business environment, logistics service concepts have evolved and various issues were added in operational logistics tasks such as packaging, outsourced inventory management, bar code, and information systems. These operational logistics tasks were considered, and called as "internal logistics," and these activities should "interact with other functional areas" [21]. Internal logistics thus involves logistics activities within the walls of an organization, e.g. internal transport, materials handling, storage and packaging [15]. Other more recent studies indicate that the internal logistics has been the attempt to organize and optimize the internal activities with the cost reduction objective for organizations in different segments. However, organizational issues such as the lack of a strategic vision that become in difficulties need to be addressed. The transfer of knowledge and technology used in the manufacturing industry

According to [23], the end consumer determines the success or failure of supply

chains. Thus, an important part of logistics performance is linked to customer service and to be able to respond to their needs and requirements. When it comes to internal logistics as a system, both the client and the service provider are the same at

In [1] are highlighted the indicators that assess the efficiency of internal activities and processes, and logistics performance indicators are suggested. They are classified into the following categories: stock management, cost, productivity, quality and customer service. However, it is necessary to develop a performance evaluation form for the supply chain, using external and internal indicators together to evaluate the performance of the entire chain, not only internal indicators of logistics, so that, working together, companies manage to achieve the best return business of supply chain.

In [2], it is considered the designation of logistics as "logistics management." Also it is cited that this concept can be included into customer service, traffic and transportation means, storage, selection of local to manufacture and store, inventory control, order processing, acquiring, transportation of materials, distribution, supply of parts, packaging, returning goods and order volume forecast and that an organization must provide products and services to customers according to their needs and requirements as efficiently as possible.

Sometimes logistics is related to the marketing, as the strategic process to managing the acquisition, transfer, storage, parts, and finished products, together with the flow of information and its marketing channels to maximize profit with costcutting. There is no single definition for conceptualizing logistics, which be accepted by all researchers in the field. The important thing is that companies know that it is present in the business world and that professionals must understand their target that "is to make available products and services where they are needed, when they are desired" [3].

The traditional logistics refers to activities such as packaging, transportation, loading, unloading and storage, etc. The modern logistics reaffirms the concept of integrated logistics management and its implementation. It is important to outstanding that modern logistics must be understood as the medium during the acquisition, production, and operation of the whole process to delivery to the final consumer [4].

In contemporary organizational environment, logistics appears as a strategic concept, because of not only materials management and physical distribution, but also for providing values of time and place for customers, for becoming an element that stands for organizations, with agility, flexibility and integration of internal and external channels. Several authors describe that the concept of logistics can be separated into three basic items: food (suppliers), plants (internal) and distribution (customers). This represents a group that is often defined as highly empirical, resulting in negative effects that directly influence the outcome of the final performance of organizations [5, 6].

Despite the importance of internal logistics, it has not been fully understood, particularly in manufacturing industry [7–9]. However, it constitutes a large part of the total cost for businesses [10]; average logistics costs represent between 10% and 30% of total sales volume in a typical production company [11]. This chapter is composed by eight parts: An introduction, a Literature Review, a section of materials and methods where it is explained all the procedure developed, a section of results analysis and finally the conclusions, the acknowledgments, the conflict of interest and the references.

*Conceptualization, Definition and Assessment of Internal Logistics through Different… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94718*
