What is logistics?

What is Logistics?

When “logistics” is pronounced in Turkey, people generally think of semi-trailer trucks or lorries. That is normal because even the door to door moving companies also call themselves logistic companies. And you also see hundreds of trucks “x logistic, y logistics” written on their trailers in the daily life. The people who are more interested in Logistics, counts well-known international logistic companies, the more interested ones contains the air cargo, sea cargo companies on their lists. I’ll also add warehousing, bonded warehousing, value addes services, liquid logistics and other logistic areas.  Let’s give some examples from real life; for example we are a fabric which produces and sells car spare parts. 

Logistics Areas

The goods are produced,

- The raw material should be stored in an area in which they are protected from external effects such as temperature, humidity, and the stocking must be proper for FIFO (first in first out) or LIFO (last in first out) rule. (Raw material storage)

-The finished products must be stocked in a proper place. (finished product storage)

-The stored goods must be properly arranged (packed, palletized) to stack in the container or in the trailer. (finished product packaging, value added services)

-The loaded goods must be sent to the customer via the best logistics model. The optimal route should be chosen. (air, sea, land, intermodal cargo, route planning)

-The custom clearance must be arranged. (custom clearance)

The area which fulfills all this requirements is logistics. We can classify logistics many ways, (such as Supply Logistics, Production Logistics, distribution logistics, reverse logistics), or according to work area (such as FMCG logistics, retail logistics etc.) or according to transport modal (air, sea, land, pipeline, multimodal)… we can increase the classifications.