Shipping & Freight Definitions — cargo, logistics and transport terms from Apparel Search
Logistics is the art and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information and other resources. The term evolved from the military need for spare part supply, but is now widely accepted to include activities such as purchasing, transport, warehousing, and organizing and planning those activities. In business, logistics may have either an internal focus or an external focus covering the flow from originating supplier to end user, which is the area of supply chain management. There are two fundamentally different forms. One optimizes a steady flow of material through a network of transport links and storage nodes, with goals such as avoiding shortages, minimizing transportation cost, minimizing time to obtain an object, or minimizing total storage. The other, project logistics, coordinates a sequence of resources to carry out a project, with experts arranging for resources to arrive when needed. Logistic flow is particularly important in just in time manufacturing, in which great emphasis is placed on minimizing inventory, and in large distribution chains goals are increasingly assigned to individual stock items.
The term logistics have evolved from military's need of spare part supply, but is now widely accepted to include activities like purchasing, transport, warehousing, organizing and planning of these activities.
In business, logistics may have either internal focus, or external focus covering the flow from originating supplier to end-user, see supply chain management.
In military, logistics experts manage how and when to move resources to the places they are needed. In military science, maintaining one's supply lines while disrupting those of the enemy is a crucial, and some would say the most crucial element, of military strategy (since an armed force without food/fuel and ammunition is rather useless).
There are two fundamentally different forms of logistics. One optimizes a steady flow of material through a network of transport links and storage nodes. The other coordinates a sequence of resources to carry out some project.
Steady-state flow systems are usually optimized for one of several goals: avoid shortages of the object (in military systems, especially for fuel and ammunition), minimize transportation cost, minimum time to obtain an object, or minimum total storage (time and amount) of objects (to minimize the interest losses of in-storage inventory). Logistic flow is particularly important in just in time manufacturing in which great emphasis is placed on minimizing inventory.
A recent trend in large distribution chains is to assign these goals to individual stock items, rather than optimizing the entire system for one goal. This is possible because the plans usually describe stock amounts to be stored at particular locations, and these vary depending on the strategy.
The basic method of optimizing a steady-state distribution system is to use a minimum spanning tree to characterize the transport network, and then place storage locations at the nodes, sized to handle the minimum, average, or maximum demand of items.
Quite often, the demand is limited by the transportation capacity out of the node's storage location. When the transportation out of a storage node exceeds its storage or incoming capacity, the storage is useful only to even out the amount of transportation per unit of time, to reduce peak loads on the transportation system.
Project logistics experts discover the sequence in which a project will use particular resources. They then arrange to send the resources so that they will arrive when needed. Generally, these plans use critical path analysis.
Many haulage organisations in Europe include the word "logistics" in their company name. The largest privately owned British haulage company is Eddie Stobart Ltd, who has a large fan base of 'Eddie Spotters'.
3PL : Third-party logistics, a concept in logistics the Three parameter logistic model in item response theory a glossing abbreviation meaning "third person, plural number"
commercial vehicle operations
containerization
intelligent transportation system
information logistic
logistics automation
supply chain management / Supply Chain
trade route
traffic - Broadly, the term covers many kinds of traffic including network traffic, air traffic, marine traffic and rail traffic, but it is often used narrowly to mean only road traffic.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/logistics). 6/4/05 Modified by Apparel Search. |
| Warehouse & Logistics Associations |
| Clothing Industry |
Logistics in a Clothing Supply ChainFor an apparel company, logistics connects decisions that are often discussed separately. Purchasing sets what fabric and finished garments will exist, transport decides how they move between factory, warehouse and store, and warehousing decides where they wait and in what condition. Planning ties those stages to a selling calendar: fabric that arrives late delays cutting and sewing, finished garments that arrive late miss their selling window, and garments that arrive too early incur storage cost and may need to be moved again before they can be sold. Good logistics work is therefore visible in ordinary results, such as a store receiving a complete size range together rather than scattered cartons across several weeks. Information flow is part of the same system. Orders, shipping notices, stock counts and sales data tell each stage what the next stage needs, and errors create physical problems, such as the wrong color shipped to a warehouse. Assigning goals to individual stock items lets a fast-selling style be replenished quickly while a slow line is held back. Steady Flow Versus Project Logistics in PracticeA retailer replenishing stores each week uses steady flow logistics: a repeating network tuned to balance shortage risk against transport and storage cost. Opening a new distribution center is project logistics: a sequence of resources, each needed at a specific point, planned with methods such as critical path analysis. Most fashion businesses need both at once, keeping replenishment steady while handling seasonal launches and factory changes as projects with fixed dates. Common QuestionsWhat activities does logistics include in business?Logistics includes purchasing, transport, warehousing, and organizing and planning those activities, as part of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information and other resources. In business it may focus internally, or externally on the flow from originating supplier to end user. What are the two fundamentally different forms of logistics?One form optimizes a steady flow of material through a network of transport links and storage nodes. The other coordinates a sequence of resources to carry out some project, which is project logistics, where experts discover the sequence in which a project will use resources and arrange for them to arrive when needed. Why does logistic flow matter for just in time manufacturing?Logistic flow is particularly important in just in time manufacturing, in which great emphasis is placed on minimizing inventory. A steady-state system is optimized to avoid shortages, minimize transportation cost and time, or minimize total storage, so material arrives and moves without building up large stocks. More to Explore
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