Logistics

 

Been watching some of those newsreel D-Day movies. You know the ones. Some actual on the spot scenes inter-spliced with training film footage and after-the-fact re-enactment staged footage.

Certainly understand the reaction from the audience if the camera had just rolled with no editing. No one would sit watching that carnage wondering if that was his or her brother? Son? Father?

With that said, all the films I saw followed the troops after they hit the beaches and moved inland. The action scenes of battles, explosions, people running about and shooting. A quick blip might show a wounded being bandaged but then it quickly returned to tanks and jeeps and rifles and more people running or walking and then running or digging holes or doing what soldiers do in a war. Since these films were made to re-enforce the viewer to root for the home team, they never show the other side.

Imagine the planning to get all those people into one place, get them on boats, get them to climb down a rope to other boats then float them to land and unload them while being shot at.

Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation.

In a general business sense, logistics is the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. The resources managed in logistics may include tangible goods such as materials, equipment, and supplies, as well as food and other consumable items. The logistics of physical items usually involves the integration of information flow, materials handling, production, packaging, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and often security.

In military science, logistics is concerned with maintaining army supply lines while disrupting those of the enemy, since an armed force without resources and transportation is defenseless. Military logistics was already practiced in the ancient world and as the modern military has a significant need for logistics solutions, advanced implementations have been developed. In military logistics, logistics officers manage how and when to move resources to the places they are needed.

Logistics management is the part of supply chain management and supply chain engineering that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward, and reverse flow and storage of goods, services, and related information between the point of origin and point of consumption to meet customer's requirements. The complexity of logistics can be modeled, analyzed, visualized, and optimized by dedicated simulation software. The minimization of the use of resources is a common motivation in all logistics fields. A professional working in the field of logistics management is called a logistician.

On D-Day after dumping off a bunch of soldiers to shoot or be shot by the ‘enemy’, the next wave is the stuff they need to continue the fight. Bullets and bombs and tanks and trucks and all the stuff that makes an army keep going and not have to stop and wait to be refurbished.

At the same time the wounded had to be carted back to the boats for there isn’t a hospital anywhere nearby. The dead had to be grouped, identified, cataloged and buried for sanitary and psychological reasons.

All the stuff had to keep flowing, so parts for planes needed to keep being manufactured, ships had to be built, uniforms needed to be sewn in various sizes, left and right boots needed to be cobbled and of course, lots and lots of bullets needed to be packed. Then all the piles of stuff needs to be boxed and moved so there is room for more stuff to be manufactured. Some place needs to be constructed to put all this stuff until it is needed and when it is needed it must be moved by train, airplane or truck.

The logistics of D-Day must have been overwhelming. Think about the Civil War. Though the opposing armies didn’t have to cross the ocean, they also didn’t have telecommunications. The roads were few and unpaved.  Passability was at the whim of the weather. Wooden wagons pulled by horses had to haul all the tents and guns and bullets and food and bandages for there was no stores to shop at on the way.  Everyone else just walked.

Think about your last vacation.

First decide where you want to go. Make reservations and map a path. Check for pit stops along the way. Grab all the clothing you think you might need for sunny hot days or rain or chilly nights and shove them into a bag or suitcase or trunk. Do the same for the kids so you don’t have to buy another bathing suit when you get there. Get the car checked, the dog boarded and let the neighbors know why the lights will be out. Gather all your electronics (and chargers), stuff everyone in the car and you are off. Without traffic jams or a flat tire, you may arrive at your destination on time.

Then you reverse the procedure and prepare for a ‘relaxing get-a-way’.

Time to find a place to eat overpriced food then deal with upset stomach. Sunburns, mosquitoes, no towels, cold showers, tips for room service, shopping for souvenirs, theme parks, organized tours with no time to read the book you brought with you.

Logistics.

Now everyone in the United States is waiting for a little vial and a needle to be delivered to a location near you so you can roll up your sleeve and take off your mask.

Logistics.