Material: The concept of material in logistics refers to all material data that can be physically moved. An important feature of an object in logistics is that it must have physical displacement, and the reference frame of this displacement is the earth. Therefore, fixed facilities, etc. , are not the object of logistics research.

Materials: China refers exclusively to the means of production, sometimes to all material means, and more to industrial means of production. It is different from the material in logistics, because the material contains a considerable number of production materials that cannot be physically displaced, and it does not belong to the scope of logistics research, such as building facilities, land and so on. In addition, all kinds of living materials belonging to logistics objects cannot be included in the concept of materials as means of production.

Material: It is a special concept in the field of production in China. Production enterprises customarily refer to all materials (whether from means of production or means of subsistence), fuels, spare parts, semi-finished products, purchased parts, edges, corners, scraps, wastes and various wastes that are inevitably produced in the production process as materials.

Goods: It is a special concept in the field of transportation in China. In the field of transportation, its business objects are divided into two categories, one is people, the other is things, and these things are collectively referred to as things other than people.

Commodity: The concepts of commodity and logistics are mutually inclusive. All physical entities in commodities that can be physically displaced, that is, all commodities with movable elements and physical entities, are the objects of logistics research, and some commodities do not belong to this. So things in logistics may be commodities or non-commodities. Commodity entity is only a part of things in logistics.

Commodity: a common concept in the fields of production, office and life. In the field of production, it generally refers to material entities related to production or sometimes completely unrelated to production, which are only used in management, administration, logistics, education and other fields. In the field of office production, it refers to all objects related to office and daily consumption. In these fields, what is recognized in logistics is what is usually called goods.

2. The concept of mobility

Flow: In logistics, flow refers to physical movement.

Circulation: the flow and management of logistics are misunderstood as circulation. The essence of flow and the concept of circulation are both related and different. The connection is that in the process of circulation, the physical displacement of things often occurs with exchange, which is the transfer process of things that are indispensable to the final realization of circulation. One of the key areas of logistics is circulation, and many people even only study circulation, so they simply confuse logistics with circulation. There are two main differences between flow and circulation: first, the areas covered are different. Flow includes not only the field of circulation, but also the field of production and life. All the fields where things happen physically are the fields of flow. The flow in circulation, in terms of category, is only a part of the whole flow; Another difference is that circulation is not a part of the whole flow, but a part of the flow and its physical movement. The so-called business flow activities such as transaction, negotiation, contract, distribution, settlement and the information flow running through them can not be brought into physical movement.

Process: The flow in logistics can be understood as the process of production. The materials on the production site move according to the requirements of the technological process, and the level and rationality of this process have great influence on the cost and benefit of production and the scale of production, so the problem of the production site process is very important.

Logistics: refers to the physical movement of material from suppliers to demanders, which mainly creates time value and location value, and sometimes creates certain processing value.

3. Logistics Department

Macro logistics refers to the overall logistics activities of social reproduction, which is understood and studied from the overall perspective of social reproduction. Participants in this kind of logistics activities are big industries and groups that constitute the whole society. Macro-logistics is to study the overall logistics of social reproduction and the logistics activities and behaviors of industries or groups.

Micro-logistics: the actual and specific logistics activities that consumers and producers engage in belong to micro-logistics. In the whole logistics activities, a part and a link of specific logistics activities also belong to micro-logistics. Specific logistics activities in a small geographical space also belong to micro logistics.