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Background
“Most products in today’s marketplace are a result of global effort. Raw materials for a product may be produced in one country, assembled in another and finally marketed to consumers in dozens of different nations at once.”
“Globalization is a commonly used term to reflect the growing economic, social and cultural interrelations between regions of the world.”
“Movements of people, goods and information have always been fundamental components of human societies. Contemporary economic processes have been accompanied by a significant increase in mobility and higher levels of accessibility. Although this trend can be traced back to the industrial revolution, it significantly accelerated in the second half of the 20th century as trade was liberalized, economic blocs emerged and the comparative advantages of global labor and resources were used more efficiently. However, these conditions are interdependent with the capacity to manage, support and expand movements of passengers and freight as well as their underlying information flows.”
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Background
Globalization can mean many different things to many different people. For the Global Institute of Logistics it represents the lengthening of both trade routes and supply chains, and in particular the key role that logistics plays in supporting this process.
Increased information technology has greatly accelerated the flow of data. However, global trade still rises and falls by how successfully physical goods and raw materials can be transported. One can think of globalization as the removal of barriers to trade. Such barriers can include technical barriers, health barriers, legal barriers, financial barriers, customs barriers, etc. – as well as transportation and transit barriers.
Logistics is entirely concerned with overcoming these transportation barriers. To borrow a phrase from Cant’s “Introduction to Retailing”, logistics is about ensuring the right product is delivered to the right place, in the right quantity, with the right quality, at the right price and in the right time.
Accomplishing this facilitates the free movement of goods that fuels globalisation.
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