THE LOGISTICS REVOLUTION AND TRANSPORTATION

A third of a century ago, management guru Peter Drucker called logisti cs the last great unexplored continent of business. This is no longer true. While transportation is the largest component of logistics, orde ring costs, carrying costs, warehousing costs, and administrative cost s are nontrivial. Corporations and academics now have departments to h andle the logistics functions. Transportation has been subsumed, in ma ny cases, by these broader departments. Managing the supply chain-from raw material assembly, to work in progress, to the physical distribut ion of the final product or service-is the essence of business logisti cs. The field has its quantitative side, with many models that minimiz e costs and maximize profits. A growing area is the qualitative side, which emphasizes management awareness of the logistics chain.