English

Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and often security. Today the complexity of production logistics can be modeled, analyzed,visualized and optimized by plant simulation software, but is constantly changing. This can involve anything from consumer goods such as food, to IT materials, to aerospace and defense equipment.
Origins and definition
The term logistics comes from the Greek logos (λόγος), meaning "speech, reason, ratio, rationality, language, phrase", and more specifically from the Greek word logistiki (λογιστική),meaning accounting and financial organization.
Logistics is considered to have originated in the military's need to supply themselves with arms, ammunition and rations as they moved from their base to a forward position. In ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires, military officers with the title Logistikas were responsible for financial and supply distribution matters.
The Oxford EnglishDictionary defines logistics as "the branch of military science relating to procuring, maintaining and transporting material, personnel and facilities." However, the New Oxford American Dictionary defines logistics as "the detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many people, facilities, or supplies" and the Oxford Dictionary online defines it as, "the detailed organization andimplementation of a complex operation:"Another dictionary definition is "the time-related positioning of resources." As such, logistics is commonly seen as a branch of engineering that creates "people systems" rather than "machine systems". When talking in terms of human resources management, logistics means giving inputs, i.e. "recruiting manpowers", which ultimately work for the final consumer or todelivery.
According to the Council of Logistics Management, logistics contains the integrated planning, control, realization and monitoring of all internal and network-wide material-, part- and product flow including the necessary information flow in industrial and trading companies along the complete value-added chain (and product life cycle) for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements.Main logistics targets
Logistics is one of the main functions within a company. The main targets of logistics can be divided into performance related and cost related. They are high due date reliability, short delivery times, low inventory level and high capacity utilization. But when decisions need to be made, there is always a trade off between these targets. This is what makes being a logisticianchallenging and interesting.
Logistics viewpoints
Inbound logistics is one of the primary processes and it concentrates on purchasing and arranging inbound movement of materials, parts and/or finished inventory from suppliers to manufacturing or assembly plants, warehouses or retail stores.
Outbound logistics is the process related to the storage and movement of the final product and the relatedinformation flows from the end of the production line to the end user.
Logistics fields
Given the services performed by logistics, one can distinguish the main fields of it as it follows:
* Procurement Logistics
* Production Logistics
* Distribution Logistics
* After sales Logistics
* Disposal Logistics
Procurement Logistics consists of activities such as market research,requirements planning, make or buy decisions, supplier management, ordering, and order controlling. The targets in procurement logistics might be contradictory - maximize the efficiency by concentrating on core competences, outsourcing while maintaining the autonomy of the company, and minimization of procurement costs while maximizing the security within the supply process.
Production Logistics connects...