Before the 1950s, logistics was thought of in military terms. It had to do with procurement, maintenance, and transportation of military facilities, material, and personnel. The study and practice of physical distribution and logistics emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Logistics cost in the U.S. accounted for 15% of the gross national product and on an individual firm level, they could be as high as 32%. In the 1990s, a new name emerges: “supply chain management”. This name took the logistics area by storm since so many in various business fields seemed to embrace it and saw activities of their areas imbedded in it.

Researchers and practitioners defined supply chain management as “supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers,intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. Whereas, some supply chain 

management practitioners defines logistics to be that part of supply chain management that plans, implements, and controls the efficient forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services, and related information between the point of origin and point of consumption in order to meet customer requirements. Therefore, supply chain management is viewed as managing product flows across multiple enterprises whereas logistics is seen as managing the product flow activities just within the firm