The logistics is the business function more young person, or better, the management of the inherent activities to it of recent has only been recognized like discipline and, consequently, dealt like such.
Of fact, before that this happened, the enterprises were restie to invest just the time and money in the search of more effective strategies of supplying, or than better political for the management of warehouse or the supplyes: the activities that today are contemplated in the logistic function, in fact, came considered secondary, since not directly connected neither to the production, than then it was synonymous of fabrication, neither to the field trades them. In effects, the enterprises were concentrated mainly on producing and selling: the margins were good, the products little and ration to you and the customers attended patients.
The Society of Logistic (SUN), international organization to which they belong beyond 10.000 persons who take care themselves of logistic problems, defines this the following discipline from the multiple aspects in way:
'' Logistic is the art and science of management, engineering and technical activities concerned with requirements, design and supplying and maintaining resources to support objectives, plans and operations '' (Cfr. Appendix To pag. 154).
This cross-sectional aspect of the business management, than just thanks to its characteristics has allowed to evidence the interfunzionali ties, projecting the enterprise in a total optical, finds its roots in military atmospheres: in this field, in fact, one says that the logistics, with to the strategy and the tactics, is one of the three basic disciplines; concise Oxford Dictionary even defines it like:

''….that branch of the military art that embraces the details of the transport, lodging and refueling of the troops ''.
The army camp, then, the logistics concept is migrato in the industrial field where it is defined like:

• '' The manageriale function that manages the flow total of the materials, beginning from the purchase of the raw materials until the delivery of the finished product to utilizzatore '' ¹.
• '' The process of management of the movements of crude materials, you leave, finished product between vendors, branches of sale and customers '' ².
• '' The management of all the activities that according to facilitate the movimentazione of the products and the coordination of the refueling question '' ³.

• Notes 1: Magee, Industrial Logistic.
• Notes 2: Bowersox, Logistic Management.
• Notes 3: Glaskowsky, the Hudson, Ivie, Business Logistics.