STUDENTS' CORNER - 215
Fundamentals of Logistics
Means of Movement
Having seen rather
in detail the question of Customer Retention let us ‘move ‘on to logistics.
We know logistics
is an integral part of supply chain. Let us spend some time on the fundamentals
of logistics; nothing will be new here ; yet, let us recall them so that there
will be some continuity of study.
We know the term
‘logistics’ has military association in the sense it originally meant movement
of defense personnel and defense-related equipments to the place where they are
required and moving them in right time, right quantity. Actually, it is a
strategy that aims winning a battle against enemies. In short, it means just
movement, the process of taking things from one place to another. That is, it
implied directly transport. Perhaps you are aware of the meaning of ‘trans’; it
suggests again movement between two things or two places. Translation is
between two languages; transcription is between two scripts of languages;
transmission is between two places; transgender is between two genders; and
transport is between two places especially of commercial significance.
By extension, we
can say even blood circulation is also a form of transport, of movement.
Perhaps you might have heard that only in the early 17th Century,
blood circulation, that is, blood flow—flow also suggests movement—was
established by an English man called William Harvey. Before he proved to the world that blood
moves from and to heart from the other parts of the body, it was believed blood
was produced and digested in the stomach; people refused to believe and accept
blood flows. This only proves that even our physical existence depends on,
among other things, movement of blood; the logistics part of the physique. Just
to heavily underscore the importance of movement both for an individual
existence and for the entire world, this example is recalled.
Logistics,
therefore, means in simple terms movement of things between two places; and it
becomes an essential component of supply chain because supply chain involves
both horizontal and vertical integration of various factors which we will
discuss in proper place. For the time
being, let us understand that logistics implies a continuous process of
movement and movement in turn implies taking people and things from one place
to another.
We will go into
the fundamental requirements of ‘Logistics’ in our next session.
