Logistics engineering is a field of engineering dedicated to the scientific organization of the

purchase Purchasing is the process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between ...

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

, storage,

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

, and

warehousing A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, tow ...

of materials and finished goods. Logistics engineering is a complex science that considers trade-offs in component/system design, repair capability, training, spares inventory, demand history, storage and distribution points, transportation methods, etc., to ensure the "thing" is where it's needed, when it's needed, and operating the way it's needed all at an acceptable cost.

Overview

Logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

is generally concerned with cost centre service activities, but provides

value Value or values may refer to: Ethics and social * Value (ethics) wherein said concept may be construed as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, associating value to them ** Values (Western philosophy) expands the notion of value beyo ...

via improved

efficiency Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...

and customer satisfaction. It can quickly lose that value if the customer becomes dissatisfied. The end customer can include another process or work center inside of the manufacturing facility, a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

where items are stocked or the final customer who will use the product. Another approach which has appeared in recent years is the

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services including all processes that transform raw materials into final products between businesses and locations. This can include the movement and stor ...

. The supply chain also looks at an efficient chaining of the supply / purchase and distribution sides of an

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

. While logistics looks at single echelons with the immediate supply and distribution linked up, supply chain looks at multiple echelons/stages, right from

procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, Service (economics), services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agenc ...

of the

raw material A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feedst ...

s to the final distribution of finished goods up to the customer. It is based on the basic premise that the supply and distribution activities if integrated with the manufacturing / logistic activities, can result in better profitability for the organization. The

local minimum In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given ran ...

of total cost of the manufacturing operation is getting replaced by the

global minimum In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given ran ...

of total cost of the whole chain, resulting in better profitability for the chain members and hence lower costs for the products. Logistics engineering as a discipline is a very important aspect of

systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering util ...

that also includes

reliability engineering Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes the ability of equipment to function without failure. Reliability describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specifie ...

. It is the science and process whereby

reliability Reliability, reliable, or unreliable may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Computing * Data reliability (disambiguation), a property of some disk arrays in computer storage * High availability * Reliability (computer networking), a ...

maintainability In engineering, maintainability is the ease with which a product can be maintained to: * correct defects or their cause, * Repair or replace faulty or worn-out components without having to replace still working parts, * prevent unexpected working ...

, and

availability In reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings: * The degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at a ...

are designed into products or systems. It includes the supply and physical distribution considerations above as well as more fundamental engineering considerations. Logistics engineers work with complex mathematical models that consider elements such as

mean time between failures Mean time between failures (MTBF) is the predicted elapsed time between inherent failures of a mechanical or electronic system during normal system operation. MTBF can be calculated as the arithmetic mean (average) time between failures of a system ...

(MTBF), mean time to failure (MTTF),

mean time to repair Mean time to repair (MTTR) is a basic measure of the maintainability of repairable items. It represents the average time required to repair a failed component or device. Expressed mathematically, it is the total corrective maintenance time for ...

(MTTR),

failure mode and effects analysis Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA; often written with "failure modes" in plural) is the process of reviewing as many components, assemblies, and subsystems as possible to identify potential failure modes in a system and their causes and effe ...

(FMEA), statistical distributions,

queueing theory Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the ...

, and a host of other considerations. For example, if we want to produce a system that is 95% reliable (or improve a system to achieve 95% reliability), a logistics engineer understands that total system reliability can be no greater than the least reliable subsystem or component. Therefore, our logistics engineer must consider the reliability of all subcomponents or subsystems and modify system design accordingly. If a subsystem is only 50% reliable, one can concentrate on improving the reliability of that subsystem, design in multiple subsystems in parallel (5 in this case would achieve approximately 97% reliability of that subsystem), purchase and store spare subsystems for rapid change out, establish repair capability that would get a failed subsystem back in operation in the required amount of time, and/or choose any combination of those approaches to achieve the optimal cost vs. reliability solution. Then the engineer moves onto the next subsystem.

Terminology

There are few differences between the terms

business logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

and logistics engineering. Logistics engineering is more focused on the mathematical or scientific application of logistics.

Fields and topics

The various fields and topics that logistics engineers are involved with include: *

Customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...

: provision of services to customers before, during and after a purchase *

Purchasing Purchasing is the process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly betwee ...

: acquiring goods or services to accomplish its goals * Sourcing: procurement practices, aimed at finding, evaluating and engaging suppliers for acquiring goods and services *

Demand forecasting Demand forecasting is known as the process of making future estimations in relation to customer demand over a specific period. Generally, demand forecasting will consider historical data and other analytical information to produce the most accurat ...

: the art and science of forecasting customer demand to drive holistic execution of such demand by corporate supply chain and business management *

Facility location Facility location is a name given to several different problems in computer science and in game theory: * Facility location problem, the optimal placement of facilities as a function of transportation costs and other factors * Facility location (co ...

: the optimal placement of facilities to minimize transportation costs while considering factors like avoiding placing hazardous materials near housing, and competitors' facilities *Layout Design *

Inventory control Inventory control or stock control can be broadly defined as "the activity of checking a shop's stock". It is the process of ensuring that the right amount of supply is available within a business. However, a more focused definition takes into acco ...

: the activity of checking a shop's stock *

Material handling Material handling involves short-distance movement within the confines of a building or between a building and a transportation vehicle. It uses a wide range of manual, semi-automated, and automated equipment and includes consideration of the pro ...

: short-distance movement within the confines of a building or between a building and a transportation vehicle *

Warehousing A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, tow ...

*Distribution system design *

Reliability engineering Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes the ability of equipment to function without failure. Reliability describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specifie ...

: sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes dependability in the lifecycle management of a product *

Reverse logistics Reverse logistics encompasses all operations related to the upstream movement of products and materials. It is "the process of moving goods from their typical final destination for the purpose of capturing value, or proper disposal. Remanufacturin ...

: the process of moving goods from their typical final destination for the purpose of capturing value, or proper disposal *

Green logistics Green logistics describes all attempts to measure and minimize the ecological impact of logistics activities. This includes all activities of the forward and reverse flows of products, information and services between the point of origin and the p ...

: attempts to measure and minimize the ecological impact of logistics activities *

Intermodal transport Intermodal transport (or intermodal transportation) involves the use of more than one mode of transport for a journey. It may refer to: * Intermodal passenger transport * Intermodal freight transport See also * Intermodal transportation center ...

*Supportability analysis

Performance metrics

Different

performance metric A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity (such as projects, programs, products and other initiatives) in which it en ...

s (measures of performance) are used to examine the efficiency of an organization's logistics. The most popular and widely used performance metric is the landed cost. The landed cost is the total cost of purchasing, transporting, warehousing and distributing raw materials, semi-finished and finished goods. Another performance metric equally important is the end customer fill rate. It is the percentage of customer demand which is satisfied immediately off-the-shelf (from on-site inventory). An alternative to fill rate, is system

. In recent years, the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

(DoD) has advocated the use of

performance-based logistics Performance-based logistics (PBL), also known as performance-based life-cycle product support,Ilias Solutions, N.V.Performance Based Logistics accessed 24 December 2022 is a defense acquisition strategy for cost-effective weapon system support whi ...

(PBL) contracts to manage costs for support of weapon systems.

Education

Many top universities offer Logistics engineering programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. These programs generally combine strategy, operations, facility design, technology and management. The following institutions provide Logistics engineering programs around the world: *

Budapest University of Technology and Economics The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( hu, Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is the most significant university of technology in Hungary and is considered the world's olde ...

- Bachelor,Master and Ph.D. Programs in Logistics Engineering *

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

- Master of Science in Logistics Engineering *

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...

– BSc Logistics with Supply Chain Management *

Breda University of Applied Sciences Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas), formerly NHTV, is a Dutch vocational university in Breda, Netherlands. BUas caters for more than 7,000 Dutch and international students from over 80 countries. The institute offers professional and ac ...

– Bachelor of Science in International Logistics Engineering *

Beijing Jiaotong University Beijing Jiaotong University ( Chinese: 北京交通大学), formerly Northern Jiaotong University, is one of the oldest public universities in mainland China. The main campus is located in the Haidian District in central Beijing. Its coordinates ...

– Bachelor of Engineering in Logistic Engineering *

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

– Master of Business Logistics Engineering *

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

– Bachelor of Engineering in Logistics Engineering and Supply Chain Management *

Hong Kong Polytechnic University The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is a public research university located in Hung Hom, Hong Kong near Hung Hom station. The University is one of the eight government-funded degree-granting tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. Founded ...

– Bachelor of Science in Logistics Engineering and Management *

University of Science and Technology Beijing The University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB; ), formerly known as Beijing Steel and Iron Institute () before 1988, is a national key university in Haidian District, Beijing, China. USTB's metallurgy and materials science programmes are ...

– Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. Programs in Logistics Engineering *

Dalian Maritime University Dalian Maritime University () is a university located in Dalian, Liaoning, China. It is a key maritime institution under the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China, and is a Chinese state Double First Class University Plan univ ...

– Masters Program in Logistics Engineering & Management *

Shanghai Maritime University Shanghai Maritime University (SMU; ) is a public university in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Shanghai Maritime University is multidisciplinary with six fields of study: Engineering, Management, Economics, Literature, Science and Law. It ...

– Bachelors & Doctoral Programs in Logistics Engineering *

South China University of Technology The South China University of Technology (SCUT; ) is a public university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. The university is co-sponsored by the China Ministry of Education and the Guangdong Provincial People's Government. The university is a mul ...

– Masters and Ph.D. Programs in Logistics Engineering and Management *

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a public research university in Clear Water Bay Peninsula, New Territories, Hong Kong. Founded in 1991 by the British Hong Kong Government, it was the territory's third institution ...

– Bachelor of Engineering in Logistics Management and Engineering *

Korea Aerospace University Korea Aerospace University (한국항공대학교 (Traditional Chinese: 韓國航空大學校) an'guk Hang-gong Dae-hak-gyo is a private university located in Goyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea. History Beginnings (1950s–1960s) Korea Aeros ...

- Bachelor of Science, Masters & Ph.D. programs in Logistics * Széchenyi István University – Masters and Ph.D. Programs in Logistics Engineering and Management *

JAMK University of Applied Sciences JAMK University of Applied Sciences ( fi, Jyväskylän ammattikorkeakoulu) is a university of applied sciences (a polytechnic) in Finland, in the region of Central Finland. There are several bachelor's degree programs offered in English: * Int ...

– Bachelor of Engineering in Logistics EngineeringLogistics Engineering – JAMK
/ref> * Taiyuan University of Science and Technology – Bachelor of Engineering in Logistics Engineering *

University of East Sarajevo The University of East Sarajevo ( sr, Универзитет у Источном Сарајеву, Univerzitet u Istočnom Sarajevu, abbr. UES) is a public university located in Lukavica, East Sarajevo, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A ...

– Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering

Doboj Doboj ( sr-cyrl, Добој, ) is a city located in Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of Bosna river, in the northern region of the Republika Srpska. As of 2013, it has a population of 71,441 ...

- Bachelor of Engineering in Transport and Traffic - 240 ECTS -

Columbus State Community College Columbus State Community College (CSCC) is a public community college in Columbus, Ohio. Founded as Columbus Area Technician's School in 1963, it was renamed Columbus Technical Institute in 1965 and was renamed again to its current name in 19 ...

– Associates in Logistics Engineering Technology * Universitas Internasional Semen Indonesia - Bachelor of Logistics Engineering *

Universidad de las Américas Puebla Universidad de las Américas Puebla, commonly known as UDLAP ( en, University of the Americas), is a Mexican private university located in San Andrés Cholula, near Puebla. The university is known for its programs in Finance, Arts and Humaniti ...

– Offers Logistics Engineering * Pertamina University – Faculty of Industrial Technology - Logistics Engineering *

University of Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen (german: link=no, Universität Duisburg-Essen) is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded ...

– Master of Science in Logistics Engineering * University of Belgrade-Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering-Logistics Engineering *

Telkom University Telkom University ( Indonesian: ''Universitas Telkom'', abbreviated as Tel-U) is a private university located in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Tel-U has several times ranked as the top private university in Indonesia and has been ranked to be o ...

– Faculty of Industrial and Systems Engineering - Logistics Engineering

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Council of Logistics Engineering ProfessionalsSOLE
– The International Society of Logistics
Definition of Landed Cost by 3CE
Engineering disciplines Logistics