Logistics systems that involve truncated timelines, where failure to meet such a timeline results in a substantial loss to business, have been coined ‘mission critical logistics’ systems, and their management is quite different from their ‘traditional’ counterparts. Yet, much of the research in this space has operated under the assumption that the methods, approaches, and tactics are equally applicable to both mission critical, and traditional logistics systems. Is this necessarily so? Most literature addresses functional issues such as inventory or process management but does not provide an understanding of the drivers of fulfillment performance in mission critical systems. This is a critical gap in the literature. Partnering with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the United States Navy, we studied a mission critical logistics system in order to understand the drivers of these logistics systems and their performance. We utilize a unique dataset consisting of inventory fulfillment and ordering, as well as part criticality and location. Overall the results indicate that inventory management is a much more dynamic process in mission critical logistics systems, whereby flexibility is crucial, and designation of part categories and essentiality can be the determining factor for whether or not the mission fails.

涉及时间截断的物流系统被称为“任务关键型物流”系统，在这些系统中，不遵守时间线会导致大量业务损失，它们的管理方式与“传统”物流系统截然不同。但是，该领域的许多研究都是在以下假设下进行的：方法，方法和策略均适用于关键任务系统和传统物流系统。这一定是这样吗？大多数文献都针对诸如库存或流程管理之类的功能性问题，但并未提供对关键任务系统中履约绩效驱动因素的理解。这是文献中的关键差距。与美国国防后勤局（DLA）和美国海军合作，为了了解这些物流系统的驱动因素及其性能，我们研究了关键任务物流系统。我们利用独特的数据集，其中包括库存履行和订购以及零件的​​关键程度和位置。总体而言，结果表明库存管理在关键任务后勤系统中是一个更具动态性的过程，因此灵活性至关重要，而零件类别和必要性的指定可能是确定任务是否失败的决定因素。