Logistics is the word used now and then; in this post let us discuss how the word and the whole process of logistics have evolved. The word logistics is the combination of two Latin words ‘logic’ and ‘static’. During the earlier periods, logistics was a military application. However, it became more popular at the time of World War II and after that logistics was viewed and applied as a scientific subject. Once the enterprise businesses understood the importance of logistics, they started to take advantage of logistics services. From the beginning of the 1960s until the present year the logistics have kept on evolving.
Logistics can be easily defined as “efficient planning and implementation of products, services, and information flow from the starting point (origin) to the endpoint (customers) including transport, storage, and control”. The globalization has increased by the 1990s and companies have to import and export a lot. Thereby transportation has become an important factor for business. Every business considered transportation as a key factor to maintain them in the competitive market and they controlled and integrated transport systems. When transportation was viewed strategically important, the businesses started losing their market shares.
To overcome the above-mentioned situation and to maintain market competitiveness the field of ‘logistics management’ was emerged. Logistics management includes every stage of transportation from the beginning to the end. Once the globalization has taken a turn, every company is either a buyer or a seller. The goal for every business is to find the shortest, fastest and most cost-effective way to sell their products all around the world.
To buy and sell products between countries they must rely more on logistics. The reason is that every country needs logistics because every country has become a potential market by then. So since the evolution, logistics has a growth rate of up to 20% every year. Later the supply chain department was created within the logistics to provide complete services beginning from the planning to the end of the product cycle. This is how the complete logistics and supply chain management industry emerged. It is booming and will keep booming for many years to come.