By Philip T. Frohne, CPL
Logistics is concerned with:
. . . Requirements
Logistics activities are involved with analysis, synthesis and definition of the resources needed to reach an objective or perform an operation under stated conditions. The total task of determining requirements is a planning function involving both strategic and logistical considerations. Allocation of the principal resources available, if less than those required, and evaluation of the impact of shortages upon major objectives, are primarily strategic responsibilities, not logistics functions.
. . . Design
This function includes conceptual through detailed design of products, systems and services, including development, testing and evaluation of the design. Logistics engineering is concerned with design for cost-effective supply and maintenance (supportability) in contrast to design for ease of manufacture or for effective operations.
. . . Supply
This area involves physical supply and distribution of all available resources, i.e., procurement, provisioning, recruiting and training of personnel, production support, protective packaging, inventory management, traffic and transportation, order processing, warehousing, disposal, etc. These are functions that create time and place utility in contrast to production operations that create form utility and marketing operations that create ownership utility.
. . . Maintenance
Maintenance is broadly conceived as the conservation of facilities, products, manpower, systems and services of producers and users, including the protection, preservation and recovery of all resources employed.
. . . Resources
Logistics activities complement and support strategy and tactics. They support production operations and field operations. Logistics activities support the goals, plans and operations of system. The systems supported may be organizations, aggregates of organizations, or even individuals.
SOLE defines logistics as follows:
“Logistics is the art and science of management, engineering, and technical activities concerned with requirements, design, and supplying and maintaining resources to support objectives, plans, and operations.”
This definition of logistics is conceptual, not functional. It is not intended to describe what a logistics manager, logistics engineer or logistics technician does, or what he has to know, but only what logistics is. It does not specifically define business logistics, military logistics medical logistics personnel logistics integrated logistics support or any other specialized application of logistics. It presents a widely applicable description of all elements of macro- or micro-logistics. The SOLE definition therefore can be applied to the world or to the kitchen depending upon whether the terms used to describe the elements of logistics are interpreted broadly or narrowly.
This definition does not state that logistics is the determination of requirement, or that it is engineering design, or that it is management. It states only that when certain management, engineering and technical activities are involved with particular support functions, this combination of elements constitutes logistics.
Moreover, this definition does not introduce criteria for effective logistics performance. For example, it does not state that logistics is the integration of all the elements involved, because even though the elements are related in important ways, the degree to which these relationships are recognize in their management is not a determinant of the nature of logistics itself. The wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time is an equally valid description of one kind of logistics as the right thing is the right place at the right time is of another.
Finally, the modularity of the definition should be noted. The answer to each of the questions posed in the analysis of the definition presented above constitutes an independent module, namely:
Logistics is an art and a science;
Logistics consists of management, engineering, and related technical activities;
Logistics activities are concerned with requirements, with design, and with supplying and maintaining recourses;
Logistics activities support objectives, plans, and operations.
The SOLE Board members believe all of the above elements are needed to define logistics. However, if you don’t like SOLE’s official definition, the Board has tried to make it easy for you to build your own.
This isn’t to say that logistics is nothing more than moving stuff and supporting stuff. Ever since we started walking upright to hunt and gather food we became loggies. While most of us are involved with enterprise logistics, you won’t see any of us singing “I ♥ logistics” in the streets of Chicago or New York. And yet, support of our products now accounts for the largest chunk of our employers gross profit margins (so I’ve heard). So how does our brand of logistics compare to the average civilian package delivery companies who claim they love to do logistics?
Business/enterprise logistics providers can be categorized as:
First Party Logistics (1PL): Someone who needs to have something transported. People like us.
Second Party Logistics (2PL): An asset-based carrier who actually owns the means of transportation. Someone who owns the vehicle or vessel we need.
Third Party Logistics (3PL): Provides a service to customers of outsourced logistics services. A company who can take our stuff and move it to where we want it without us worrying about the details. [And they ♥ logistics! – ed.]
Fourth Party Logistics (4PL): A non-asset based consulting firm specialized in logistics. These people find the most economical 3PL to move our stuff.
Fifth Party Logistics (5PL): They implements logistics solutions on behalf of a contracting party (mainly information systems) by exploiting the appropriate technologies. Similar to a 4PL only they find optimal solutions to information problems.
Most of us working defense acquisition projects know we are not talking the same species of logistics. In examining the roots of the various concepts of what logistics is, the common seed is the Greek word “Logos”. The tree of logistics has many branches. Some of those bifurcated twigs are the package delivery providers who go out on a limb to implement some of our own mission needs and objectives. And I’ll just leaf it there.