The effect of outsourcing in logistics activities of manufacturing enterprises on logistics costs

As of the 20th century, the radical changes that took place in the world markets with the effect of globalization caused the acceleration of production and the factors of cost reduction to come to the fore. In order to adapt to the results of globalization, businesses can resort to outsourcing in order to provide competitive advantage and reduce costs by focusing on their main fields of activity. As it is known, the logistics activities in the enterprises are one of the biggest factors that cause the increase in operating costs, and businesses tend to use outsourcing in logistics activities to reduce these costs. In addition, one of the factors that increase the costs of the enterprises is the increase in transportation and freight prices due to the effect of the pandemic that has affected the whole world in recent years. As a result of the increase in this area, the fact that companies have turned to outsourcing to reduce costs has laid the groundwork for the creation of the problem statement of this research. In this thesis, it is aimed to investigate whether the use of outsourcing in logistics activities of production enterprises has an effect on logistics costs. For this purpose, Solakivi et al. (2013) data was collected with a questionnaire form consisting of questions developed by the researcher. Research data were obtained from 68 production enterprises operating in Ankara 1st Organized Industrial Zone. The collected data were carried out using the SPSS 24.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) package program and related analyzes were carried out. Research findings have shown that outsourcing of logistics activities of enterprises causes an increase in logistics costs. The reason for this increase is thought to be due to the costs incurred during the pandemic process. This thesis consists of five chapters. In the first part, the problem situation, hypotheses, the purpose, importance, limitations of the research, conceptual model and organizational chart are mentioned. In the second part, information on the concepts of logistics activities, logistics costs, outsourcing in the literature, the pandemic process and the results of previous studies are given under the title of conceptual framework. In the third part, the research, the universe sample, the questionnaires used, the analysis and methods of the data are mentioned. In the fourth chapter, the findings obtained within the scope of the research are given. In the fifth chapter, conclusion, evaluation and suggestions are mentioned.