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 in order to meet requirements of customers or corporations. The resources managed in logistics may include tangible goods such as materials, equipment, and supplies, as well as food and other consumable items. The logistics of physical items usually involves the integration of information flow, materials handling, production, packaging, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and often security.

In military science, logistics is concerned with maintaining army supply lines while disrupting those of the enemy, since an armed force without resources and transportation is defenseless. Military logistics was already practiced in the ancient world and as modern military have a significant need for logistics solutions, advanced implementations have been developed. In military logistics, logistics officers manage how and when to move resources to the places they are needed.

Logistics management is the part of supply chain management that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward, and reverse flow and storage of goods, services, and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customer's requirements. The complexity of logistics can be modeled, analyzed, visualized, and optimized by dedicated simulation software. The minimization of the use of resources is a common motivation in all logistics fields. A professional working in the field of logistics management is called a logistician.

The term logistics is attested in English from 1846, and is from French: logistique, where it was either coined or popularized by military officer and writer Antoine-Henri Jomini, who defined it in his Summary of the Art of War (Précis de l'Art de la Guerre). The term appears in the 1830 edition, then titled Analytic Table (Tableau Analytique), and Jomini explains that it is derived from French: logis, lit. 'lodgings' (cognate to English lodge), in the terms French: maréchal des logis, lit. 'marshall of lodgings' and French: major-général des logis, lit. 'major-general of lodging':

Autrefois les officiers de l’état-major se nommaient: maréchal des logis, major-général des logis; de là est venu le terme de logistique, qu’on emploie pour désigner ce qui se rapporte aux marches d’une armée.
Formerly the officers of the general staff were named: marshall of lodgings, major-general of lodgings; from there came the term of logistics [logistique], which we employ to designate those who are in charge of the functionings of an army.
The term is credited to Jomini, and the term and its etymology criticized by Georges de Chambray in 1832, writing:
Logistic: This word appears to me to be completely new, as I have not yet see it anywhere in military literature. … he appears to derive it from the word lodgings [logis], a peculiar etymology …
Chambray also notes that the term logistique was present in the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française as a synonym for algebra.
The French word: logistique is a homonym of the existing mathematical term, from Ancient Greek: λογῐστῐκός, romanized: logistikós, a traditional division of Greek mathematics; the mathematical term is presumably the origin of the term logistic in logistic growth and related terms. Some sources give this instead as the source of logistics, either ignorant of Jomini's statement that it was derived from logis, or dubious and instead believing it was in fact of Greek origin, or influenced by the existing term of Greek origin.