| What is logistics? It means slightly different things in | | | | warehouse in Chicago to cataloging the quantity and |
| different contexts, such as management, production, | | | | condition of the product, providing any needed |
| and business. First then, logistics management is the | | | | security, and actually distributing the product to |
| part of the supply chain that manages the transfer | | | | retailers. |
| of resources (e.g. goods, people, energy, information, | | | | On the other hand, production logistics deals not with |
| etc.) from their origin to their consumption. This | | | | the transportation of goods but with an earlier |
| management includes the integration of packaging, | | | | process: their manufacturing. Production logistics |
| transportation, warehousing, inventory, handling, and | | | | controls the flow of production within an industry, |
| sometimes security. Originally, the logistics process | | | | adding and eliminating processes and machines based |
| referred only to the operations of military | | | | on their value output. The driving goal is capital |
| organizations; while often it still does, logistics now | | | | efficiency. As batch sizes are decreasing, production |
| more commonly refers to the flow of everyday | | | | logistics is becoming more important in order to |
| goods and products. | | | | efficiently fulfill the demand of customers. Modern |
| As businesses expand, they often bring in the | | | | plant simulation software is key to analyzing, |
| services of an external organization to execute the | | | | modeling, visualizing, and optimizing production logistics. |
| logistics for them. For example, third-party logistics | | | | Logistics can be applied to business as well as either |
| companies in Chicago that oversee the product | | | | an internal/ inbound focus or external/ outbound |
| shipment for manufacturing companies based in | | | | focus. The first optimizes the transfer of material |
| Minneapolis would plan the entire shipping | | | | through networks and storage nodes. The second |
| process--from loading the product onto trucks in | | | | organizes resources to complete a project (such as |
| Minneapolis and delivering it to the distribution | | | | transportation or consultation). |