I recently came across the video which I think is supposed to talk about the huge benefits logistics plays in our economy. And, by this the video defines logistics as transportation (it is a lot more than that but for the most part, this video deals with transportation).
It is a good description of how things get from point A to point B however I could not for the life of me think of a worse example to use: Shipping bottles of water!! Unless you are shipping water from a location of plenty to a drought stricken area, this is the worst example I can think of (except for maybe shipping concrete over long distances).
Bottled water is a perfect example of something which should be created extremely close to the point of consumption ( I even think this video shows a route from Chicago to the West Coast). Whenever a supply person sees that type of route they should be asking why are we shipping this in the first place.
Get the water locally, filter it, and bottle it locally and get it to local stores! It is as simple as that! It is cost effective, it is "green" and it is simple.
As I have always said, don't just reduce costs, eliminate them!