Introduction To Logistics Engineering

Despite its importance, logistics engineering often lags industry requirements, especially in terms of engineering-based needs. Filling the gap between education and practice, this brief but comprehensive volume covers the most basic material in the field of logistics engineering, making is suitable for those who require an overview of the topic. The book discusses logistics from historical and economic perspectives, covers the basic tools required for the study and practice of logistics, and reviews the metrics that can be used to evaluate progress. It then delves into activities that commonly fill the workdays of logisticians. The book closes with an excellent chapter on logistics as an integrating systems function.

Introduction to logistics - Reliability, maintainability, and availability measures - The measures of logistics and system support - The system engineering process - Logistics and supportability analysis - Logistics in system design and development - Logistics in the production/construction phase - Logistics in the system utilization, sustaining support, and retirement phases - Logistics management.

Achieving state-of-the-art excellence and attaining the cost reductions associated with outstanding logistics efforts is an obvious gain in terms of competitive edge and profitability. As logistics tools evolve in comprehensiveness and complexity, and the use of these new tools becomes more pervasive, maintaining a position of leadership in logisti

This handbook begins with the history of Supply Chain (SC) Engineering, it goes on to explain how the SC is connected today, and rounds out with future trends. The overall merit of the book is that it introduces a framework similar to sundial that allows an organization to determine where their company may fall on the SC Technology Scale. The book will describe those who are using more historic technologies, companies that are using current collaboration tools for connecting their SC to other global SCs, and the SCs that are moving more towards cutting edge technologies. This book will be a handbook for practitioners, a teaching resource for academics, and a guide for military contractors. Some figures in the eBook will be in color. Presents a decision model for choosing the best Supply Chain Engineering (SCE) strategies for Service and Manufacturing Operations with respect to Industrial Engineering and Operations Research techniques Offers an economic comparison model for evaluating SCE strategies for manufacturing outsourcing as opposed to keeping operations in-house Demonstrates how to integrate automation techniques such as RFID into planning and distribution operations Provides case studies of SC inventory reductions using automation from AIT and RFID research Covers planning and scheduling, as well as transportation and SC theory and problems

Logistic systems constitute one of the cornerstones in the design and control of production systems and the modelling of supply chains. They are key to a number of industries, and courses teaching logistics systems planning and control are becoming more widespread. Introduction to Logistics Systems Planning and Control is the first book to present the quantitative methods necessary for logistics systems management at a level suitable for students of engineering, computer science and management science. It features introductory material on business logistics and covers sales forecasting, inventory management, warehouse design and management, and transport planning and control. Presents a balanced treatment of quantitative methods for logistics systems planning, organization and control. Each topic is illustrated with real examples. Features a number of case studies that show how the methods can be applied to complex logistics problems. Each chapter features an annotated bibliography of key references. Assumes only a basic knowledge of operations researc h. Supported by a Website featuring exercises and teaching material. Introduction to Logistics Systems Planning and Control provides an accessible self-contained introduction to the subject for researchers, practitioners, and students of logistics and supply chain management, in both academia and industry. The book has been developed from courses taught to engineering, computer science and management science undergraduate and graduate students.

Fierce competition in today's global market provides a powerful motivation for developing ever more sophisticated logistics systems. This book, written for the logistics manager and researcher, presents a survey of the modern theory and application of logistics. The goal of the book is to present the state-of-the-art in the science of logistics management. As a result, the authors have written a timely and authoritative survey of this field that many practitioners and researchers will find makes an invaluable companion to their work.

This book deals with complex problems in the fields of logistics and supply chain management and discusses advanced methods, especially from the field of computational intelligence (CI), for solving them. The first two chapters provide general introductions to logistics and supply chain management on the one hand, and to computational intelligence on the other hand. The subsequent chapters cover specific fields in logistics and supply chain management, work out the most relevant problems found in those fields, and discuss approaches for solving them. Chapter 3 discusses problems in the field of production and inventory management. Chapter 4 considers planning activities on a finer level of granularity which is usually denoted as scheduling. In chapter 5 problems in transportation planning such as different types of vehicle routing problems are considered. While chapters 3 to 5 rather discuss planning problems which appear on an operative level, chapter 6 discusses the strategic problem of designing a supply chain or network. The final chapter provides an overview of academic and commercial software and information systems for the discussed applications. There appears to be a gap between general textbooks on logistics and supply chain management and more specialized literature dealing with methods for computational intelligence, operations research, etc., for solving the complex operational problems in these fields. For readers, it is often difficult to proceed from introductory texts on logistics and supply chain management to the sophisticated literature which deals with the usage of advanced methods. This book fills this gap by providing state-of-the-art descriptions of the corresponding problems and suitable methods for solving them.

unique introduction to distribution logistics that focuses on both quantitative modeling and practical business issues Introduction to Distribution Logistics presents a complete and balanced treatment of distribution logistics by covering both applications and the required theoretical background, therefore extending its reach to practitioners and students in a range of disciplines such as management, engineering, mathematics, and statistics. The authors emphasize the variety and complexity of issues and sub-problems surrounding distribution logistics as well as the limitations and scope of applicability of the proposed quantitative tools. Throughout the book, readers are provided with the quantitative approaches needed to handle real-life management problems, and areas of study include: Supply chain management Network design and transportation Demand forecasting Inventory control in single- and multi-echelon systems Incentives in the supply chain Vehicle routing Complete with extensive appendices on probability and statistics as well as mathematical programming, Introduction to Distribution Logistics is a valuable text for distribution logistics courses at both the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate levels in a variety of disciplines, and prior knowledge of production planning is not assumed. The book also serves as a useful reference for practitioners in the fields of applied mathematics and statistics, manufacturing engineering, business management, and operations research. The book's related Web site includes additional sections and numerical illustrations.