Logistics is the management of a complex set of tasks that encompasses the physical flow of materials and products from source to final destination. This can include processes such as inbound and outbound transport management, warehousing, fulfillment, value-added services and the management of international cross-border logistics — for example, import, export and customs.

The supply chain of a business encompasses the businesses and manufacturers involved in developing and delivering its product to its retail or business dispatch facility. A key part of managing this process — often through multiple international or nationwide transportation steps — is logistics management. 

Supply chain logistics management is more than just the management of the supply chain. It aligns the intricate functionality of transportation, shipping and receiving, import and export operations, warehousing, inventory management, product purchasing, production planning and customer service.

Managing the supply chain is imperative to ensuring that your business operations run smoothly, from manufacturing all the way through to delivery at your retail outlet/business operations facility.

Gartner defines a third-party logistics (3PL) provider as a commercial firm that provides one or more logistics functions on behalf of its customers on an outsourced basis for a fee. To be a 3PL, the logistics service provider (LSP) must predominantly operate a business that moves, stores or manages products or materials on behalf of its customer, in some manner, without taking ownership of such products or materials. A 3PL offers many traditional services, such as: transportation management and brokerage; warehousing, consolidation, distribution and fulfillment (contract logistics); and international logistics management (such as air and ocean freight forwarding and customs brokerage).

Outsourcing is the transfer of services that would otherwise be performed internally to a third-party service provider to drive cost optimization and efficiencies.

Having a world-class supply chain management system is rapidly becoming the key differentiator factor between the success or failure of businesses. With so many variables at any given phase of the supply chain, logistics management must ensure the smooth and successful completion of each phase. 

Besides the challenge of managing multiple moving parts, logistics management leaders have the challenge of making their processes more customer-centric to ensure the viability of their products. 

Instability in global trade, trends toward localizing and personalizing logistics, the ongoing challenge of attracting and retaining the best logistics talent, and businesses not committing adequate budgets for expanding supply chain logistics are all contributing factors to the growing challenges being placed on the shoulders of logistics leaders.

Organizations can optimize their logistics strategy in a number of ways: 

• Focus on long-term business strategy: This includes campaigning or influencing investment decisions from the organization’s decision makers. 
• Focus on value: How is your function delivering value to the organization? Communicate this clearly to C-suite executives and deliver demonstrable evidence where possible. 
• Maintain and drive agility: Ensure your processes are adaptable to changing landscapes at all phases of the supply chain. Have priority lists of projects that need immediate attention and ensure that all functions of the supply chain are able to pivot when necessary. 
• Hire disruptors: Talent is integral in supply chain management. Hiring out-of-the-box thinkers and those who are constantly looking for a better way of doing things is imperative to success.

Logistics network planning (LNP) refers to the class of tools required to analyze the trade-offs among inventory quantities, number and location of warehouses, and transportation costs to most profitably support a desired level of customer service. LNP is a proven scientific method for analyzing the required cost and service levels that warehouses need to meet specified customer service objectives.

The market for in-store logistics systems is emerging and growing. Increasingly, retailers are using store inventory to support online order fulfillment. The key benefits of in-store logistics systems are to manage the fulfillment (picking, packing and dispatch) of online orders at scale within a store environment so that consumers experience an optimal level of on-time and complete fulfillment of their orders, whether being collected in-store or shipped to them from the store. Gartner defines the scope of in-store logistics processes as consisting of seven key functional capabilities which are product receipt, product put-away, inventory management, sales floor replenishment, picking optimization, packing optimization and dispatch process.