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 17^th 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.