New Oxford American Dictionary defines logistics as "the detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many people, facilities, or supplies".

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 requirements of customers or corporations.

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 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.

According to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (previously the Council of Logistics Management),logistics is the process of planning, implementing and controlling procedures for the efficient and effective transportation and storage of goods including services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements and includes inbound, outbound, internal and external movements.