Comparative analysis of military and commercial logistics: present and future possibilities for the transfer of principles and practices

Abstract

Throughout time, comparisons have always been made between the management ms V the public and private sectors (nowadays the voluntary sector too, is included in these comparisons). However, the management of the defence element within the public sector, has generally been considered so diverse from private enterprise, that it escaped rigorous academic attention until about the beginning of this century. Considered even less attractive to academic research, has been the comparison of defence logistics to commercial logistics, the latter being very young, when compared to the former. Defence/military logistics has been developing, in its practical sense, ever since one tribe/community had a fracas with a neighbouring tribe/community, through continental conflicts between states/nations, to intercontinental wars. Although serious academic attention has been paid to commercial logistics for about the last 40 years, the theory of it is very much in its infancy and is still being developed. The time has come for the logistics in these two sectors to share their knowledge/‘know how’, so that the learning of each sector is not lost, but transferred, if applicable, to the mutual benefit of each. From an inquiring exploratory comparison of the logistics in both the defence and business sectors, this thesis builds a foundation that branches out to a secondary research, which is the historical evolution of the two, and it discovers that they both followed the same evolutionary stages/patterns in their developments, but at different times, and, in general, they have a pattern of convergence. In 1970, Rider developed a tabulated comparative model of the two logistics from his research question “What is logistics?” Whilst Rider found some differences between military and business logistics, this thesis revisits and re-examines his table in the light of modem day data, and finds that the two logistics have converged further since his research. For the core research of this thesis, two hypotheses were generated: (i) a research null hypothesis of “there is no fundamental difference between military and commercial logistics”; and (ii) from the literature searches/surveys and the historical evolution work, a constructed quadramorphic ‘types of logistics’ model formed the platform for a predictive hypothesis that “the logistics in the two sectors use all the four types contained in the model”. The methodology chosen for the primary research was the analysis of qualitative data collected mainly via case studies (a focus group and a Delphi approach were used too); 17 case studies in all were conducted. The outcome is that the two hypotheses are accepted, the first one with the proviso/caveat of “excluding rules of priority, mobile nodes, lack of electronic connectivity, and some designed-in inefficiencies”, as these were found to be prevalent only within the military. Another finding that proved noteworthy is the fact that both logistics, naturally, have the same variables, but the importance attached to the variables differs for each sector and for within different time periods. Here again, evidence of convergence, significantly in the latter years, was discovered, particularly in association with: reducing costs; time compression; tracking and traceability; availability; relationships; and the provision of service(s). One aspect that distinguished the two sectors was the fact that business uses much more computerisation and electronic data capture/collection and transmission, it functions via its connectivity', whereas the military - having more of a vertical integrated structure working through soldiers and their teamwork - functions via its contactivity. Two principal methodologies were employed in this research: the primary research used mainly live qualitative data collected chiefly by case studies; and the secondary research again used mainly qualitative data gathered from secondary sources via historiography. The outcome of the analyses of the two research types tended to confirm each other with a good degree of compatibility and agreement