Logistics across the Functional Areas and Logistics Considerations in System Life Cycle

Abstract

The manufacturing sector/industry, faced with the challenges of producing quality products and distributing the same to customers in rapid response to their needs, has to bear additional responsibilities in the current scenario that extend to continuously and effectively provide maintenance and support to the product after the transfer of ownership. Logistics, in such a delicate situation, has gained importance as a support function providing effective and economical support for the manufacturing system in all phases of its life cycle. The objective of this paper is to manifest and elucidate the role and activities of logistics in proper perspective i.e. as a support function having interfaces with other functional areas as well as the environment. A generalized approach to incorporate logistic considerations right from the concept exploration phase to the system retirement with the objective of minimizing the life cycle cost of the system is discussed.