Logistics Processes Overview

Principles

Definition

Logistics processes is an academic concept and research area focused on the systematic planning, implementation, and control of the efficient and effective flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from point of origin to point of consumption. It investigates the design, management, and optimization of activities such as transportation, warehousing, and inventory within supply networks to achieve strategic objectives like cost reduction, service improvement, and sustainability.

Ontological type

Process Optimization

Digitalization and Automation

Performance Measurement

Key developments

Key Figures

Standardized Sustainable Supply Chains era

Jayashankar M. Swaminathan [1] emerged as a leading scholar in the Standardized Sustainable Supply Chains era, with research affiliations connecting the University of California, Berkeley [2] and Carnegie Mellon University [3]. His key contribution in this era is the Modeling Supply Chain Dynamics: A Multiagent Approach* [4], a 1998 paper that frames supply chains as networks of autonomous agents to analyze design trade-offs and environmental performance across diverse scenarios. Swaminathan [1]'s work during this period also fostered standard terminology and benchmarking approaches that enabled cross-firm comparisons, drawing on perspectives from the University of California, Berkeley [2] and Carnegie Mellon University [3]. Together these elements, exemplified by the 1998 paper Modeling Supply Chain Dynamics: A Multiagent Approach* [4], advanced a methodological toolkit for evaluating sustainability under variability and supported the era's shift toward cross-industry process standardization.

Visibility-Driven Agility and Resilience era

Andreas Norrman [1], linked with Lund University [2], operated within the Visibility-Driven Agility and Resilience era (2004–2010). His key contribution, Ericsson's proactive supply chain risk management approach after a serious sub-supplier accident [3], underscored proactive governance and real-time visibility as foundations for resilience and rapid disruption response in this era. By showing how sensing and proactive risk management translate into organizational decision rules, the work [3] helped standardize agility and robustness in telecom supply networks. Overall, this 2004 case illustrates how real-time visibility and governance-driven risk management shaped adaptive network behaviors essential to resilience [3].

Digital Orchestration and Traceability era

Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas [1] is associated with Sichuan University [3] and the University of Tehran [4] in this era. His key contribution includes the EDAS method for multi-criteria inventory classification [7], as described in the paper Multi-Criteria Inventory Classification Using a New Method of Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) [7]. Mehdi Keshavarz-Ghorabaee [2] is associated with Vilnius Gediminas Technical University [5] and Gonbad Kavous University [6] in this era. As a co-author on the EDAS paper [7], Mehdi Keshavarz-Ghorabaee [2] contributed to developing the distance-from-average framework that supports analytics-driven, cross-border decision-making in digital logistics.