What is logistics and what are its objectives?

The mysterious word "logistics" can now be heard everywhere. A typical stevedore delivering a refrigerator to your home can rightfully say that he works in the logistics field. You can also say about the director of the company for the transportation of goods. Today, logistics is a kind of human activity, through which we get fresh products in stores, new TVs, video cameras and many other joys of life.

Earlier in the Russian language, the word "logistics" was used only when the conversation was about the mathematical sphere, or rather about the sector of mathematical logic, about what it represents. Nevertheless, modern requirements have made their changes. For today, logistics is an area of activity that provides basic human needs. In 1991 in the United States this term denoted physical activity, distribution of something or the general distribution of any goods, things, etc. Later this term began to be applied in the US Army. According to Webster's dictionary, logistics is a branch of military science (no more and less), which includes operations related to the maintenance of supplies and auxiliary equipment for the movement, evacuation and hospitalization of personnel through the provision of services and facilities. Thus, the term took root in the US armed forces.

In fact, we were familiar with the business part of logistics at all times. Not quite the way we perceive it today, but we had an excellent idea of what kind of benefits are necessary to sustain life, where to take them and how best to deliver to the destination. Over time, the idea of logistics has changed and in the early 21st century it has firmly entered our life.

Now the question is: "What is the main task of logistics?"

This task is to meet the needs of consumers. The main goal of logistics, as an industry, is to provide us with fresh newspapers, fresh bread in the store, fresh strawberries on the market. A secondary issue is to provide the necessary stock of raw materials, for example, flour, fertilizers and other, used for further production.

Let's talk about the main features of transportation of goods, speed and reliability of supply, as well as the flexibility of the process.

Now there is such a thing as the integration of total transportation costs. This allows you to create a so-called supply chain, which ensures the delivery of goods to the consumer for the necessary time at minimal cost. These chains represent an interweaving of the transport influence of various companies, ensuring the speed and reliability of transportation. If they were not there, the transportation costs and its duration increased.

Here are a couple of important components of any company involved in logistics:

• Logistic infrastructure is a set of objects included in the supply chain, with a certain geographical location and other characteristics. For example, an object can be located near sources of raw materials, production of goods, a warehouse of finished products.
• Transport - provides a link between the infrastructures. Naturally, the term itself is familiar to each of us from the very childhood. To date, the most mass transportations are carried out by road and rail. Along with this, water and air transport are also used . Recently, for foreign policy needs, oil and gas are transported through a pipeline (and this is also a logistics task).
• Storage and processing of materials - are the main functional elements of the logistics system. It means the creation of optimal conditions for the safety of goods in the process of transportation. After all, while the company is transporting the cargo, it is simultaneously its custodian.
• Inventory management - is to calculate the required number of stocks for all points of the infrastructure based on the needs of the entire chain.
• Information support is probably the most important part of the entire logistics system. The emergence of information technologies has influenced the transformation of individual functional areas into one integrated system, which allows to minimize the aggregate cost of the entire supply chain. Timely informing allows you to plan the delivery based on a changing traffic situation, weather, etc.

All this is still a young branch of business - logistics.