Globalization and the subsequent increasing amount of production processes that are organized in a decentralized manner have significantly increased the importance of providers, which offer special and emergency logistics solutions. Furthermore, the number of sectors in which production is being diversified is continuously increasing. The 
logistical challenges that accompany decentralized production are obvious: all parts produced at different manufacturing facilities, perhaps even on different continents, have to be assembled at one particular place at a certain time to form the final product – this requires precisely coordinated, seamless and interlocking logistical processes.
Against the backdrop of more tightly connected manufacturing processes and widespread just-in-time methods of production, in which costly storage is dispensed with in favor of the punctual availability of externally-produced parts, manufacturing processes are in many ways “more sensitive,” meaning increasingly accident prone. Thus globalized production leads, together with the constantly increasing importance of the time factor and the increasing risk of costly production losses, to an increased demand for extremely quick, flexible, customized and reliable transport solutions.
The same increasing trend applies to spare parts supply processes that companies organize for their customers: Necessary cost reductions are causing local or decentralized means of storage to be abandoned 
in favor of centralized storage. In addition, there is an attempt to maintain existing customers and win over new customers by constantly improving the after-sales service. Competitive products are after all becoming more similar to one another and increasingly shorter product life cycles are causing spare parts to change even more quickly and the number of them to increase.
Therefore, customer service and particularly the service quality of the spare parts supply – is becoming a significant competitive factor. The challenge that many companies see themselves confronted with is thus: reducing storage while at the same time maintaining both a short-term and reliable spare parts supply. Only through the use of “high-speed logistics solutions” are companies in the position to meet this challenge.
