Most modern specialists tend to consider logistics (and the basic principles of logistics) as a science of the basic principles of managing material and information flows in order to minimize costs, designed to ensure the greatest possible satisfaction of consumer needs. It is an integrative function — a view of production as a process of identifying and satisfying the material needs of consumers through the production of goods and services — that makes up the logistic basis for managing various processes in an enterprise.
From the point of view of a constructive methodology, which has a theoretical and applied character, the principles of logistics can be represented in the form of two models:
- conceptual (explanatory) model;
- instrumental (transforming) model.
The first of them includes a meaningful description of certain concepts, arranged accordingly in the problem field.
Instrumental, on the other hand, is a combination of means that contribute to the achievement of an ultimate goal. The relationship between the conceptual and instrumental model is complementary, synthesizing such phenomena as the concept and principles of logistics, theory and practice of logistics.
From the point of view of the conceptual model, logistics includes such concepts as material flow, associated flow, logistic function, logistic operation, logistic system, logistic link, logistic chain. Hence the conclusion that the principles of logistics are a very effective tool through which the optimization of material flow management is carried out . In this sense, logistics can be seen as an instrumental model that allows you to transform objective, present reality, the existing state of affairs (existing) into the desired state, which allows you to achieve your desired goal (due).
Logistic actions with a material resource are defined as elementary (operations) or complex (functions). The principles of logistics in this case suggest that both of them should be aimed at transforming these flows at the stage of procurement, production, marketing, warehousing, transportation, service and information support in the application of a certain logistic concept expressed by common slogans, such as, for example “Just in time”, “response to demand”, “orderly production”, or micro-logical systems based on these concepts.
The principles of logistics in modern economic conditions require structural restructuring of the enterprise, since the logistic approach is to some extent the opposite of the functional one, in which the goals of the company are diversified depending on the functions, and the overall goal becomes blurred and pursued by each participant in the business process to a different degree. With the structural-functional approach, horizontal production processes are penetrated by vertical control structures operating semi-autonomously. The logistics methodology is based on principles that are opposite to the structural and functional way of organizing production, and is based on process-oriented horizontal structures that are created at enterprises in addition to the current vertical structural and functional scheme. The essence of this methodology is to turn the processes necessary for the implementation of production tasks into completed business processes. Only with this approach is it possible to subordinate all processes to the goals of business processes. Logistics contributes to a holistic vision of the production process.