Logistics is a key part of supply chain management, but not the whole thing. This is because logistics refers to the distribution element of a supply chain, including both transportation and storage.
Managing the full supply chain includes a lot more steps: Planning, sourcing, manufacturing, and returns can all be included within a supply chain, in addition to logistics.
Since logistics is a key part of supply chain management, you might hear people who work in logistics say that they work in supply chain management. They’re right – but that doesn’t mean that the two concepts are the same.
In This Guide:
Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Defined
Within the US business world, “logistics” typically refers to the process of managing resources as they are acquired, stored, and transported to their destination.
In contrast, “supply chain management” refers to the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a resource, from acquiring the raw materials needed to create the resource until it is fully complete and arrives at its destination. The supply chain includes five key elements: Planning, sourcing, production, distribution, and returns. Of these, just one element falls within the definition of logistics: Distribution.
Supply chain management includes logistics, but it also involves sourcing the materials and creating the product.
How Logistics and Supply Chains Overlap
Supply chain management encompasses logistics. So, the overlap between the two concepts includes all of logistics, since supply chain management tactics are included in (but not limited to) logistics.
Companies that focus on logistics
A logistics company’s tasks tend to center on two core components: Transportation (long-haul trucks, last-mile vans, cargo planes, or cargo ships) and warehousing. A logistics company might own a fleet of trucks and work with suppliers to move individual shipments from a port to a warehouse.
A different company might simply own warehouses across a region that it uses to store shipping containers that are trucked in and out. Still, other companies might own a fleet of trucks and warehouses.
Some logistics companies even transport goods that can’t be moved in trucks at all. Renewable energy logistics providers might maintain the power lines and hookups that keep your lights on with wind, solar, water, geothermal, or nuclear energy.
In all cases, these companies are operating within the overlap between logistics and the supply chain, and they might accurately call themselves either term.
Companies that manage entire supply chains
As a business grows, it may eventually incorporate further elements of supply chain management than just logistics. Most retailers work within logistics: They purchase products that have already been created and then transport them to locations in order to sell them at physical storefronts or online businesses.
However, a larger retailer will take over even more of the supply chain, creating what we call store-brand or “private label” lines. Famous examples might include Costco’s Kirkland Signature line, but massive companies like Walmart or Amazon will have dozens of private labels.
How Logistics and Supply Chains Differ
Logistics operations are more specific (and often smaller) than supply chain management operations. A trucking operation is in logistics since it moves entire loads of products from one location to another, but it does not create those products.
In contrast, any company that operates within a supply chain but doesn’t transport or warehouse goods will not be in logistics.
Other elements of the same supply chain
Many businesses operate within the same supply chain as a logistics company but are not technically a logistics company.
Manufacturers that create various product parts or supplies are at the start of a supply chain. They might require a logistics company to deliver those parts to another manufacturer who completes the product: A phone chassis may go to an iPhone factory, or chicken feed might go to an industrial farm.
The logistics service would then deliver the product to a retailer or wholesaler who sells it to customers. These sellers are part of the supply chain but are not logistics companies.
Manufacturer/logistics partnerships
Often, a manufacturer will have a close partnership with a logistics company in order to maintain a complete supply chain between the two of them. For example, B2B delivery and logistics company Gaitak has a standing deal with Tyson Foods to operate automated self-driving refrigerated box trucks across Tyson routes in Northwest Arkansas.
Why Are Logistics and Supply Chains Important?
It’s no exaggeration to say the global supply chain is crucial for sustaining humanity. These chains deliver food, water, medicine, and energy for heat, refrigeration, and air conditioning. Any one of those products can make the difference between life and death.
Supply chains are built to handle minor disruptions just fine, but a major disruption is catastrophic. When Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005, locals couldn’t get fresh water or food. They needed a massive disaster relief campaign that delivered 1.9 million meals and 6.7 million liters of water during just the first weekend.
Supply chains and logistics companies are facing plenty of headwinds in 2025. The biggest are all the rapid changes to US import and export tariffs. On one hand, tax impacts for suppliers are increasing, which has led to fewer cargo shipments into the US. On the other hand, domestic suppliers may begin sourcing products from within the US, leading to the creation of new supply chains.
Other disruptions that US supply chains are facing today include the driver shortage that is pressuring the shipping industry, as well as the impact of new technology like AI or warehouse robotics.
Logistics and Supply Chains in Action
Real-world examples of logistics companies that you may know include UPS, FedEx, and Amazon Logistics vans that you’ve seen on your local highways or neighborhoods. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is a logistics company, too, and will deliver inexpensive packages anywhere in the US.
Broaden your scope to include any element of a supply chain, and you’ll be able to see even more examples with a quick trip outside: Recycling plants, garbage dumps, nuclear power plants, gas stations, grocery stores, water towers, and retailers are all elements of the supply chain.
A lot of supply-chain infrastructure is borderline invisible, like internet cables buried underground for protection or sewage pipes that no one really wants to think very hard about.
Every city sanitation association is a crucial part of what you could call the “returns” element of a supply chain, since they collect the immense amounts of trash generated by inhabitants. When NYC sanitation workers went on strike in February 1968, garbage quickly piled up in the streets. It was being burned nightly before the nine-day strike ended.
Logistics and Supply Chains in Summary
In short, you can barely walk down your street without running into evidence of a supply chain. You’ll benefit from the supply chain in a dozen ways without leaving your house: You’ll use running water, get a mail delivery, eat food that you’ve been keeping refrigerated, and generate garbage that will need to be picked up.
Millions of people keep countless supply chains operating every day around the globe, and logistics plays a crucial role in their efforts.