1、 毕业论文外文翻译（一） 外文题目： Logistics &the National Economy 出 处： International Journal of Physical Distribution & LogisticsManagement 作 者： MCB UP Ltd 原 文： Logistics &the National Economy Introduce Logistics has always been a central and essential feature of all economic activity and yet paradoxically it is o
2、nly in recent years that it has come to receive serious attention from either the business or academic world. One very obvious reason for this neglect is that, whilst the functions that comprise the logistics task are individually recognised, the concept of logistics as an integrative activity in bu
3、siness has only really developed within the last 20 years. What is logistics? It can be variously defined, but expressed at its simplest it is: The process of strategically managing the movement and storage of materials, parts, and finished inventory from suppliers, through the firm on to customers.
4、 Logistics is thus concerned with the management of the physical flow which begins with sources of supply and ends at the point of consumption. It is therefore clearly much wider in its reach than simply a concern with the movement of finished goods a commonly held view of physical distribution. In
5、the logistics scheme of things we are just as much concerned with plant and depot location, inventory levels, materials management and information systems as we are with transport. One of the features of the logistics concept which is its greatest attraction whilst simultaneously being the greatest
6、drawback to its widespread adoption in industry so far is that it places the emphasis on integrating activities that traditionally have been located in different functions of the business. Thus in many companies responsibility for, say, inventory on the one hand and transport on the other may be ves
7、ted in the production function and the distribution function respectively, and decisions on one will often be made without regard for the other. The logistics viewpoint however forces the decision-taker to recognise the connections between the component elements of the materials flow system indeed i
8、t encourages comprehensive systems thinking rather than functional tunnel vision. It is interesting to trace the evolution of thought in the logistics activity and then to assess its importance for business today. As early as 1915, writing from that other place Harvard Business School Arch Shaw took
9、 a view of the logistics activity which was radically far-sighted. He said: The relations between the activities of demand creation and physical supply . . .illustrate the existence of the two principles of interdependence and balance. Failure to co-ordinate any one of these activities with its grou
10、p-fellows and also with those in the other group, or undue emphasis or outlay put upon any one of these activities, is certain to upset the equilibrium of forces which means efficient distribution. . . . The physical distribution of the goods is a problem distinct from the creation of demand . . . N
11、ot a few worthy failures in distribution campaigns have been due to such a lack of co-ordination between demand creation and physical supply . . . Instead of being a subsequent problem, this question of supply must be met and answered before the work of distribution begins. This view of logistics as
12、 a bridge between demand creation and physical supply is still as valid today as it was when first expressed 65 years ago. However no matter how basic and fundamental this idea was, very little attention seems to have been paid to it and indeed in 1962 one of the gurus of Management, Peter Drucker,
13、writing in Fortune magazine said: Physical distribution is todays frontier in business. It is the one area where managerial results of great magnitude can be achieved. And it is still largely unexplored territory. There are signs however that management consciousness of the importance of logistics i
14、s growing. The last ten years have seen a major upsurge in interest in this area in the UK and the rest of Western Europe. We are still some way behind the United States in our acceptance of the logistics concept, a situation that is reflected perhaps in the fact that there is only one Chair in Mark
15、eting Logistics in Western Europe and that is here at Cranfield, compared with more than 50 in the United States. A number of factors have contributed to the growth of interest in logistics in management. One of these is that inevitably as companies seek out areas for productivity improvement they a
16、re forced to confront the major source of corporate costs represented by distribution. Production and marketing have both been subjected to scrutiny by academic commentators and the more efficiency-conscious companies. Now it is the turn of the materials flow system that binds production and marketi
17、ng to receive similar examination. Giving increased urgency to this examination is the growth of costs of movement and storage. Energy crises have had a direct impact upon transport costs and soaring interest rates have made the costs of holding stocks into a major expense. Beyond this the vast prol
18、iferation in the size of most companies product ranges has meant that the total stock-holding investment of these companies has increased dramatically. When one considers that a company such as Birds Eye ten years ago offered a range of 213 items whereas now it has a total range of 531 items then it
19、 can be appreciated just how important a factor in the corporate balance sheet inventory now is. Changes in the channels of distribution have themselves forced many manufacturers and distributors to take a fresh look at their distribution systems. Grocery retailing in this country is a prominent exa
20、mple of how power in the marketing channel has dramatically changed hands. Twenty-three years ago there were 150,000 retail grocery outlets, today there are only 68,000. Clearly the size of these outlets in physical and turnover terms has increased considerably and so too has the centralization of r
21、etail buying power. For example Tesco and Sainsbury together account for 25 per cent of the UK sales of groceries. The impact that this has had on manufacturers and in particular on their distribution systems has been far reaching. Similar changes in channel relationships have occurred in many other
22、 industries too. The combination of all these factors has brought the distribution problem into sharp focus. In particular, awareness is growing both of the impact of logistics upon corporate profitability and, underlying this, its impact upon the national economy. Logistics and the National Economy
23、 Logistics pervades almost every facet of economic activity. It provides the basic network whereby our everyday life is supported. This was demonstrated by the crisis brought to the nation by the transport strike of 1979 when all too clearly we saw the effects of a disturbance to the logistics syste
24、m. Until then few people outside distribution probably ever thought of the central importance to the working of the economy of an efficient distribution system. It is easy to underestimate the scope of the logistics activity in the UK economy.Taking a broad definition of logistics-related functions within the economy and including all the distributive
