First, the origin of modern logistics
In the field of enterprise management, the first person who raised the logistics problem alone was Archie Shaw, an American scholar. In 19 15 "Some Problems in Market Circulation", he clearly divided the circulation activities of enterprises into "demand creation activities" and "logistics activities", and pointed out that the balance and coordination between them played a very important role in economic development. Archie Shaw's "logistics" refers to physical distribution.
As early as 1905, American major Johnsy Baker pointed out in his book "Transportation of Army and Munitions" that "a branch of combat art-the work of dispatching and ensuring the supply of troops becomes logistics". Logistics here refers to logistics. During World War II, the US military adopted a series of techniques and methods in military logistics activities, such as personnel transfer, equipment manufacturing, transportation, replenishment, pre-war configuration and transportation, wartime replenishment and maintenance, so that these logistics activities can not only ensure timely replenishment to meet the needs of war, but also save money, time and cost, and safely and skillfully avoid enemy attacks. All this played a decisive role in the victory of the war. After the war, these safety theories were applied to all activities related to the acquisition, transportation, storage and distribution of commodities in the circulation field and the whole process of production and operation, and achieved good results. 1962, Drucker, a famous American economist, published the article "The Dark Continent of Economy", calling the logistics field "The Dark Continent of Economy" for the first time, which provided theoretical preparation for the rapid development of American logistics. The world oil crisis in the early 1970s made enterprises more interested in developing logistics. By the 1980s, people had a comprehensive and profound understanding of the concept of "logistics". They think that the original concept of "logistics" is not accurate, but "logistics" is more accurate. At this point, the concept of logistics has been established and matured.
Second, the third source of profit.
Professor Nishizawa Hideyoshi of Waseda University in Japan said in the book "Logistics-the Key to Reducing Costs" that the profit source of enterprises changes with the development of the times and the shift of business focus. 1950, Japan received economic assistance and technical support from the United States because of the Korean War, and soon realized the mechanization and automatic production of enterprises. At that time, Japan was in the period of industrial mass production, and the focus of enterprise management was to reduce manufacturing costs, which was the first profit source of Japanese enterprise management after World War II. However, a large number of products manufactured by automated production methods have caused market flooding and created the demand for large-scale sales. Thus, 1955 marketing technology was introduced from the United States, and Japan ushered in the marketing era. During this period, enterprises complied with the Japanese government's high-speed economic growth policy and took increasing sales as their business focus. This is the second largest profit source of Japanese enterprises after World War II. From 1965, the Japanese government began to attach importance to logistics, and from 1970, the industry marched into logistics on a large scale, and Japan entered the era of logistics development. During this period, the reduction of manufacturing cost has been limited, and the promotion of sales volume has come to an end, and we are eager to seek new sources of profit. The reduction of logistics cost made the formulation of "the third profit source" just meet the needs of enterprise operation at that time, so the formulation of "the third profit source" attracted much attention and spread widely.
These three profit sources pay attention to different elements of productivity: the first profit source digs the labor object in productivity, the second profit source digs the workers in productivity, and the third profit source mainly digs the potential of labor tools in productivity elements, and at the same time digs the potential of labor objects and workers, so it is more comprehensive.
Third, the composition of logistics activities
Logistics activities are the whole process of facts and management of logistics functions. Mainly includes:
1. packaging: this is the starting point of logistics, which can protect commodities, facilitate transportation and promote commodity sales. Is one of the links to realize value-added.
2. Transportation: This is the main link to realize the spatial movement of the place where the goods occur. It is one of the two core functions of logistics. It is also one of the links to reduce logistics costs.
3. Warehousing: it has the functions of time adjustment and price adjustment. By adjusting the time interval between supply and demand, we can ensure the smooth progress of economic activities. This is also one of the two core functions of logistics.
4. Loading and unloading: this link is carried out across transportation institutions and facilities, and it occurs in the logistics activities of vertically moving goods before and after transportation, storage and packaging, including operations such as loading and unloading, segmentation and assembly of goods.
5. Distribution: The goods are selected, processed, packaged, repackaged and assembled in an economical and reasonable area according to the requirements of customers, and delivered to the designated place on time.
6. Distribution and processing: the general term for simple operations such as packaging, segmentation, measurement, sorting, assembly, pricing, labeling and commodity inspection. From the place of production to the place of use. Is one of the links to realize value-added.
7. Information processing: This part of the activity is one of the important activities of modern logistics. It mainly collects, sorts out and transmits logistics information related to commodity quantity, quality and function management, as well as business process and capital information related to ordering, delivery and payment for goods, so that logistics activities can be carried out effectively.
Fourth, the development trend of modern logistics
1, the rise of electronic logistics. E-commerce, online shopping, online tracking of delivered goods, online planning of delivery routes, online logistics scheduling, online freight inspection, etc. Will become the trend of logistics development in 2 1 century.
2. The scale of logistics and the scope of logistics activities will be further expanded, and logistics enterprises will develop in the direction of intensification and synergy. 2 1 century is the century of economic globalization. As a logistics enterprise in the service industry, it should also meet the requirements of globalization and regionalization of logistics services, mainly in the construction of logistics parks and the merger and cooperation of logistics enterprises. Establishing strategic alliance is the development trend of logistics industry.
3. The quality of logistics service and the rapid development of third-party logistics. With the development of diversification of consumption, flexibility of production and high efficiency of circulation, the requirements of society and customers for logistics services are getting higher and higher, and the quality of logistics activities is one of the trends of logistics development. Third-party logistics has developed rapidly. According to the data, at present, the proportion of using third-party logistics in Europe is 76%, and that in the United States is 58%, and the demand is still growing.
4. Green logistics continues to develop. Green logistics includes two aspects: one is to control the pollution of logistics system; The second is to establish a logistics system for industrial and domestic waste treatment.
5. Constantly adopt new technologies and new logistics equipment to continuously improve the management level. At present, a modern logistics equipment technical pattern with information, automation, intelligence and integration has been formed with system technology as the core and professional technologies such as information technology, transportation technology, distribution technology, loading and unloading technology, automatic warehousing technology, inventory control technology and packaging technology as the support, and the level of logistics management has been continuously improved.