The concept of "logistics" originated in America. At first, logistics mainly refers to the distribution of materials, which was introduced to Japan in the 1970s. At that time, the first understanding of "logistics" was "an information function that connects production and consumption to perform the functions of material storage, transportation, loading and unloading, packaging and processing, and serves as a backup to control such functions and plays a bridge role in material sales".
China first came into contact with the concept of "logistics" in 1980s. At this time, "logistics" has been called logistics. Logistics was translated as "logistics" mainly because it was a term used by the army to transport weapons, ammunition and food during World War II. It is the logistics support system needed to maintain the war. Later, the word logistics was used for material circulation. At this point, logistics is no longer just distributing goods from producers to consumers. Instead, we should consider the procurement of raw materials from suppliers to producers, as well as the transportation, storage and information of producers themselves in the process of product manufacturing, so as to comprehensively improve economic benefits and efficiency. It should have a complete system. Therefore, after decades of development and evolution, logistics has risen to the concept of "modern logistics", which is a strategic measure to meet the needs of consumers and consider the market conditions such as manufacturing, transportation and sales in a unified way. Compared with traditional logistics, which only regards it as "logistics support system" and "bridge in sales activities", its connotation has been further expanded and developed.
The concept of modern logistics is developed on the basis of traditional cargo transportation, but it is obviously different from traditional cargo transportation. Logistics has the following important differences:
First, punctuality. The transportation, storage, distribution, processing, sorting and packaging of logistics are based on the production and sales plan of production enterprises. The lean organization of production requires the logistics to be accurate in time, so it is unreasonable that the physical circulation of products is fast and slow, and the delivery is early and late. The biggest difference between logistics management and traditional transportation lies in whether to control and organize the whole process with precise time, and punctuality is the first requirement of logistics service.
Second, the flexibility of planning. Logistics service should be highly planned, but this planning must fully consider all possible and uncertain factors, and its essential requirement is that it must obey the rhythm of production and sales. Once the rhythm changes, no matter how reasonable the plan is, it should be adjusted and remedied. Logistics plan is a well-designed systematic logistics service scheme.
Third, the extensiveness of service scope. Logistics should pursue high quality in customer service, with standards but no restrictions. In the process of service, users should improve if they are dissatisfied, and do whatever they need. These improvements and extra work will often form new service items or service products, which will bring more business opportunities and higher returns to logistics enterprises.
Fourth, the creativity of marketing. Logistics should strengthen marketing to win users, but this marketing is not a simple quotation and contract signing, but provides users with an optimized and most economical product logistics solution. Therefore, the success or failure of marketing often depends on whether there is a talent team that knows both transportation and production, sales and financial management, and depends on their creative adaptability and design ability. For logistics services, don't expect to get orders by publicizing to users how good warehouses and vehicles are.
Fifth, the long-term nature of cooperation. The obvious difference between logistics service and transportation is that it attaches great importance to and carefully selects those partners who can cooperate for a long time, which reflects the strength and risk avoidance ability of a logistics enterprise. At the same time, this strength is also reflected in whether the partnership with various modes of transportation is consolidated and whether the technical support for networking is strong. Therefore, having multimodal transport function is a necessary condition for logistics enterprises.