the background to the development of logistics

The Oxford English dictionary defines logistics as “The branch of military science having to do with procuring, maintaining and transporting material, personnel and facilities.” It should be safe to say that Logistics has moved far beyond a branch of Military science.

Another dictionary definition is "The time related positioning of resources." As such, logistics is commonly seen as a branch of engineering, which creates "people systems" rather than "machine systems". Logistics has indeed also moved far beyond engineering.

Logistics is primarily concerned with the availability of goods, products and services to the market; integrating all concepts and processes towards achieving availability at agreed service levels. The market concept in this context could imply a market in the commercial sense, an event, operations environments or even a battlefield. Within these processes, resources are applied and therefore it would be appropriate to state that:

“Logistics is concerned with the time related, integrated positioning of resources to provide the availability of goods services and products for customers"

Whether this statement constitutes a Generic Definition of Logistics, is for the reader to determine.

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Last updated Monday May 21st, 2007 by Pieter Nagel