Logistics serves the human civilization in an indivisible way on a daily basis. Key services and operations of any business are generally reliant on the logistics system.

Have you ever wondered in the absence of logistics where will we get fresh fruits from, will newspapers be delivered early morning at our doorsteps, where will we get our daily supplies from and what about the other commodities and services required to sustain a better life?

Similarly, logistics plays a very crucial role when it comes to relief operations in disaster management. With the disruption of the supply chains in the place and ravaging of the local stocks due to the disaster or calamity, there is a need for speedy restoration of daily supplies to sustain the basic needs of the affected people. And this is where logistics management plays its part.

The major domains of logistics management are:

1. 1. procurement logistics
      2. production logistics
      3. distribution logistics
      4. disposal logistics

The relief commodities are first procured from different parts of the cities, moved to inventories, packaged in warehouses and then transported to the calamity-affected place through various suitable and feasible modes of transport.

Lets us take the example of Kerala, an Indian state that has recently suffered the violence of nature. The torrential rainfall in Kerala resulted in the worst flood in nearly a century, causing an initial loss of Rs 19,512 crore and claimed as much as 200 human lives.

In addition to the humungous monetary donations received from different states, countries and business houses, the state also received enormous relief materials including clothes, food materials, utensils, medicines among other basic commodities to support the survivors of the disaster.

Had there been no logistics in the city, would a packet of biscuit, or a piece of clothing donated in the name of disaster relief possibly have reached the aggrieved state, and from there distributed to the people concerned?

Let’s talk about the domain of logistics in this scenario, step by step:

1.Procurement logistics deals in procuring food grains and other non-perishable daily-use, commodities from the fields, stores, educational institutions, etc.

2.Production logistics deals with streamlining and controlling the flow of goods in the supply chain

3.Distribution logistics is a broad term comprising the processing, packaging, warehousing, transportation and delivery of goods and commodities to the aggrieved people.

3.1 Packaging

3.2 Transportation

3.3 Distribution

So clearly, logistics has an important role to play in every sphere of life. In the absence of logistics, most of the businesses will collapse; factories may close as there end products will never reach the end-consumer, heavy transportation industry will suffer a major setback, the prices for fuel may soar to the highest level and the service industry will definitely collapse.