Development and Location of Logistics Centres: A Systematic Review of Literature

Abstract

Logistics centre location is very important in the overall development of the total logistics chain. Nowadays, it is very important to find a right place for one’s business. It is more important to find the best place for warehouse, to decrease all possible costs, to think about possibility to grow. Many companies are choosing to rent a warehouse because they do not know, if they have considerable expenses at the beginning of business. Question that worries many managers is how to decide about the best place where to rent or build a warehouse. This question should be number one in the development of warehouse infrastructure. Many authors think that the best place is the one, where it is possible to decrease all costs – transportation, land / rent costs. Warehouse is one of the most important links between production and delivery of goods to the customer’s location. The aim of the present research is to identify factors using a systematic literature analysis method – literature overview, which is important for searching the best place for logistics centre. Literature overview is an easy tool for selecting, systematising and collecting data about the research subject, using different authors’ articles, which have already proven key information about the present article. More than 8000 scientific articles were used to define 20 full-text articles for a deeper analysis. As a result of the research, the authors consider that the most important activities are to set a warehouse near important transportation nodes, and it is very necessary to decrease environmental issues.