Logistics Manage­ ment. But, despite talk of how logistics could be used to integrate internal and external business functions and even be considered a source of com­ petitive advantage on its own, most of the focus remained on how companies could utilize operations management techniques to optimize the traditional day-to- day shipping and receiving functions in order to achieve cost contain­ ment and customer fulfillment objectives. In the end, distribution manage­ ment was, for the most part, still considered a dreary science, concerned with oftransportation rates and cost trade-offs. expediting and the tedious calculus Today, the science of distribution has become perhaps one of the most im­ portant and exciting disciplines in the management of business.