Logistics and Supply Chain Management - Fifth Edition

 

Logistics and supply chain management are not new ideas. From the building of the pyramids to the relief of hunger in Africa there has been little change to the principles underpinning the effective flow of materials and information to meet the requirements of customers.

Throughout the history of mankind, wars have been won and lost through logistics‘ strengths and capabilities – or the lack of them. It has been argued that the defeat of the British in the American War of Independence can largely be attributed to logistics failures. The British Army in America depended almost entirely upon Britain for supplies; at the height of the war there were 12,000 troops overseas and for the most part they had not only to be equipped, but fed from Britain. For the first six years of the war the administration of these vital supplies was totally inadequate, affecting the course of operations and the morale of the troops. An organisation capable of supplying the army was not developed until 1781 and by then it was too late. In the Second World War logistics also played a major role. The Allied Forces’ invasion of Europe was a highly skilled exercise in logistics, as was the defeat of Rommel in the desert. Rommel himself once said that “Before the fighting proper, the battle is won or lost by quartermasters”.