Emerging Economic and Technological Futures: Implications for Design and Management of Logistics Systems in the 1990s

Based on a wide range of published sources and an extensive survey of logistics professionals, major trends in the economic and technological environments that are likely to face logistics managers of the 1990s are discussed. The implications of these patterns for logistics concepts and strategy over the next 10 years are examined. There are 7 major logistics precepts that are central to meeting customer needs at minimum overall cost in the environment of 2000. They are: 1. asset productivity, 2. horizontal management, 3. selective risk, 4. postponement, 5. information substitution, 6. integrated planning, and 7. system flexibility. For logistics managers, the need for increased flexibility and responsiveness in the logistics system means that they must begin now to reexamine their current logistics concepts, policies, and procedures in order to be prepared for the support challenges of the future.