ABSTRACT
The logistics function encompasses activities such as transportation, warehousing, planning, and facilities location (Kasilingman 1998). The demand for logistics services arises from the need to move materials, parts, and products in space and in time—through a supply chain of intermediate facilities and players, to final consumers, as well as returns and responsible discarding. This process has to be accomplished in a time-efficient, high-quality (Groothedde et al. 2005; Stank and Goldsby 2000), and cost-effective manner (Xu and Hancock 2004), which is what logistics management is focused on. Logistics management is a fundamental supporting role for any industrial sector associated with physical products. An efficient logistics sector promotes high level-of-service and low-cost delivery and thus is a key to industrial competitiveness. Interestingly, logistics facilities and operations tend to cluster in the same geographical locations.
