Information flow in logistics
Logistics is more than just transport from one place to another. It is a collective term for everything involved in organizing, planning, controlling and executing a flow of goods from the first to the last phase. The most current and emerging form in logistics is outsourcing through Fourth Party Logistics (4PL). Third parties and partners are called in to carry out transport, storage, VAL (Value Added Logistics), but often also planning and stock management.
Clearly there are many data flows. Many systems need to communicate with each other and need each other’s data. All these systems also supply the data in various formats.