The development of a successful enterprise is unthinkable without logistics specialists. Logistics is designed to track and control the process of managing the movement of material assets, raw materials, equipment. Without this control, the work of the enterprise will turn into chaos.
The main tasks of logistics
Logistics performs a huge number of tasks related to the activities of an enterprise, and these tasks can be of very different scales and complexity. One of the functions of logistics involves forecasting demand and, based on such a forecast, production planning, including the regulation of working hours and determining the traffic load.
The tasks of logistics also include determining where to sell the finished product, and establishing a scheme for its distribution by points. The immediate and one of the most important tasks of logistics is control over loading and unloading processes, transport operations and warehouse operations. Moreover, the management of these processes is required not only at our own production facilities, but also at consumers. Together with this, it is necessary to solve a number of more specific tasks, coordinating the activities of each enterprise and transport structure in the course of deliveries.
How logistics solves business problems
The main focus of logistics as a business is the so-called end-to-end material flow. It represents the flow of material assets (equipment, raw materials, components or finished products) passing through an established logistics chain. This chain includes several stages, the first of which is the primary source of the appearance of material value in the ownership of the enterprise, and the last is the final consumer.
In practice, the movement of the material flow occurs as follows: raw materials begin their journey at the point of purchase, then they are brought to the enterprise and already there they pass a number of points that may be of a production or warehouse nature. It is important for logistics to organize the rationality of this movement in order to save time and financial resources.
As the material flow approaches the final goal of its path, its qualitative composition may change. The same cargo moves between the point of purchase of raw materials and the first processing production department. Further, blanks and various parts are already moving between the shops. In the last few stages, the material flow takes place in the form of a ready-to-use product. Logistics allows one to abstract from the mass of factors, which makes it possible to focus on the through movement of goods from the source of raw materials to delivery to the end consumer.
