A Short Historical Overview of Logistics
?mer Faruk G?ZEL
Guiding People and Businesses to Achieve Sustainable Growth through Trust and Innovation
We can not imagine Logistics and Supply Chain separately. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals defines logistics as “part of the supply chain process that plans, implements and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customer’s requirements.”? The role of logistics has changed and in that it now plays a major role in the success of many different operations and organizations.?
Logistic systems before 1850
In ancient history the combination of local supply for food and forage and self-containment in hardware and services appears often as the logistic basis for operations by forces of moderate size. One of the most efficient logistic systems ever known was that of the Mongol cavalry armies of the 13th century. Its basis was austerity, discipline, careful planning, and organization
1950-1960
In this period, distribution systems were unplanned and unformulated. Manufacturers manufactured, retailers retailed and in some way or other goods reached the shops.
1970s?
This is the era that companies started to realize the need? to include distribution? in the functional management structure of an organization. Larger retail chains developed their own distribution structures, based initially on the concept of regional distribution depots to their supply stores.
1980s
The 1980s saw supply chain stakeholders, transportation manufacturers and more building on their successes. In 1983, the term “Supply Chain Management” was coined, and personal computing further revolutionized the supply chain. New software like flexible spreadsheets, mapping and route planning made it easier to track costs and maximize profits. This was coupled with other advancements including air freight optimization, supply chain distribution networks and the introduction of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
1990s
Logistics in the 1990s saw tremendous developments in electronics and communications technology and the growth of third-party logistics organizations. The early years of the 21st century have been marked by evolution from logistics to supply chain management in academic and business circles. The supply chain concept gave credence to the fact that there may be several different organizations involved in getting a product to the marketplace. Thus for example manufacturers and retailers should act together in partnership to help create a logistics pipeline that enables efficient and effective flow of the right products through to the final customer.?
领英推荐
2000s
This process, which is still ongoing, brought up the gathering of the activities given in the fragmentation and merger section under one roof. Globalization in the world economy, liberalization and, in parallel with this, efforts to adapt companies have increased the importance of logistics activities and revealed the concept of integrated logistics today. However it is important to consider the Pandemic era. With covid pandemic history of logistics will be changed completely. We were already talking about logistics 4.0 and technological developments in logistics. With the pandemic we started to see very fast implementation than we expected.?
In 2020, the logistics industry suddenly faced a host of never-before-seen challenges. All at once, supply chains and flows of goods as we had known them ground to a halt. One reason for this was that plants in China had closed and production had come to a standstill. Many industries had trouble procuring goods and supplier parts as they usually would. The automotive industry, which relies on just-in-time deliveries, was hit especially badly by supply chain disruption, forcing it to reign in production. In most European countries, border controls led to traffic back-ups and delays.? Coronavirus caused revenues to plummet for many logistics specialists
The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates that one out of every four companies in Germany have suffered a decline in revenues of more than 50% due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 90% of German companies have experienced a significant negative and ongoing impact. The audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) initially forecast that gross value creation in European freight transport and in logistics would fall precipitously by 8.6%.
It's no wonder that logisticians had few reserves of optimism as 2021 rolled around. According to Statista, just under 70% of those surveyed in January 2021 believed that the impact of the coronavirus on their logistics company would be strong or very strong over the next three months. Yet, in the face of the pandemic, the industry is in surprisingly good shape. Today, there's no question that supply chains have outsmarted the coronavirus. Logistics experts have found clever solutions to ensure goods keep flowing.
Impact of Covid-19 on road transport
Road haulage was hit particularly hard by pandemic-related restrictions. Border controls caused traffic to back up, which led to delays – lorries were forced to wait up to 15 hours at the border between Poland and Germany. Many lorry drivers also had to quarantine for 14 days when they returned home to Poland, meaning German companies had to look elsewhere for personnel. In many cases, lorry drivers were not permitted to drive onto factory premises and had to improvise to unload their cargo. In the second half of 2020, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) estimated the losses at EUR 550 billion. Now, however, all signs are pointing to growth. One important issue which freight forwarders and road logistics experts still need to address is the shortage of drivers.? In the future we will write in more detail about today's logistics and post pandemic era.?
Sources: