Logistics is a business process that ensures consistency in the supply chain. This involves the planning of how to acquire, store and transport inventory and goods to ensure that they are delivered to the right place at the right time and in the right condition. Logistics have become increasingly important in today’s business world because customer loyalty no longer depends upon excellent product quality. Rather, it is more important to deliver the product to the customer’s desired destination at a reasonable price. Inventory Inventory management involves managers coming up with a trade-off with handling the costs of maintaining inventory and the cost of losing a customer or the halt of the production process. Firms prefer to keep the inventory levels low but this requires that the other parts of the logistic system are very swift as to meet any unexpected demand. However, it is important to maintain a certain level of inventory to meet customer needs in different markets. Managers in globalize logistics need to ensure that inventory and finished goods should be ample enough to maintain the supply chain and the production process (Frazzle, 2001).In the local logistics system, low inventory levels are maintained and around 2 weeks of inventory is kept at the warehouse as the lead time is small. This reduces the cost of maintaining inventory so lower inventory levels eventually translate into cost savings. In a local system, managers have to worry about their area of concern only. However, in a global setting, it has to be ensured that every location of sale or production has ample inventory, this involves managing multiple locations. In a global logistics system, buffer inventory has to be maintained because the transit time and the lead times are longer. This increased inventory level at the warehouse increases the cost of maintaining inventory. Also, in a global setting, the element of uncertainty in terms of unexpected demand or unexpected supply delay must be accounted for so it is necessary that backup inventory has to be maintained at nearby locations. Transportation Many companies opt for global operations to take advantage of cheap labor and materials. However, they are losing out on this advantage due to the rising costs of shipping- an essential transport medium in global transportation. Transportation is the critical element in supply chain management. This is because of two main reasons ( Gourdin 2001) Globalization has increased the mediums of transport so now managers have more choice and it is up to them to decide the most economical yet efficient mean. Secondly, there is now a changing trend to maintain Just in Time inventory to save inventory costs so transportation has to be swift to overcome any potential shortages. Many companies lack the required skills and infrastructure to plan transportation in such a way that the rising shipping costs are offset by the savings from maintaining JIT inventory and operating in low labor and material cost countries. The transportation schedule planning for global operations is much more complicated than that of local operations. In the case of global logistics, the transportation cost rises sharply if there is air transport involved and air transport becomes necessary if urgent delivery is required. Then, there is a danger of the goods being damaged especially if they are being transported by the sea so there