Factors That Have Led to An Increase in The Importance of Logistics as Research Paper

Factors That Have Led to An Increase in The Importance of Logistics as A Field of Study - Research Paper Example Strong links to the market (the customer) is the basis of corporate power. Since customer service drives the supply chain, professionals in logistics are best placed to implement value chain integration that yields customer satisfaction. The industries create future advantages based on the integration of logistics and international supply chains. Key words: Global economy, customer satisfaction, value, supply chain, diversity, technology, professionals. Factors that have led to an increase in the importance of logistics as a field of study Logistics refers to the process of scheduling, applying and controlling the effective, efficient storage and flow of services, goods and relevant information from origin to consumption. The management of the logistics process aims at meeting the users’ requirements. In a business sense, logistics is a critical aspect because it must support procurement, warehousing, inventory, distribution, human resources, financial, customer support and di stribution operations (Rodrigue, Comtois & Slack, 2006). Such operations are covered in the perspective of outbound, inbound, external and internal movements of materials and personnel. For materials, there is the additional aspect of return for environmental purposes. Apart from the physical items and personnel, logistics management also involves abstract items like information, time and energy, where the minimized use of capital is a universal concern (World Bank, 2010). This paper will discuss factors that have led to an increase in the importance of logistics as a field of study. The role played by logistics and supply chain management in a country’s economy makes the study of logistics critical towards increasing the country’s competitiveness in business. Because of the business objective of ensuring the correct items are available at the right time, place and quantity, logistics is inextricably linked to supply chains (Kahn & Kobayashi, 2007). It has become incre asingly important to study logistics and supply chain management because of the direct link to an economy’s revenues and cost structure as well as the competitiveness of producers in terms of quality of products and delivery times. Further, logistics affect the producers’ responsiveness to the requirements of consumers, which makes it important to understand how the growth in freight flow affects the current changes in local, regional and global economic systems (Waters, 2003). An understanding of logistics enables supply chain logisticians to associate optimum logistics performance with export diversification, trade expansion, economic growth and the capacity to draw direct foreign investments. This is because the competitiveness of an economy depends on how the logistics and supply chain perform (Hossein, 2010). When these factors are balanced, the value added to an economy by logistics exceeds the total costs. The growing complexity of supplying materials to busines ses as well as distributing products in a globalized supply chain also gives importance to the study of logistics (Christopher, 2010).