Joachim Reese - Böcker

The world of logistics has considerably changed in the last years. There has been a steady evolution due to globalization, modern information technology, and es- cially increasing ecological awareness. Many firms have meanwhile implemented large Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems - sometimes already developed to global logistic networks. This book reflects major trends of the recent decade in SCM and, additionally, presents ideas and visions for logistic networks of the 21st century from a strictly scientific point of view. Though the book deals with quite a lot of different perspectives on the same pr- lem, namely how to efficiently and effectively establish elements of a supply chain, it stresses one essential figure of SCM: closing the loop of a supply chain by integrating waste materials into logistic management decisions. Reverse log- tics has gained central importance caused by sustainable developments in society and legislation in the past. The book is based on the premise that economic and political decision makers can no longer afford to ignore the ecological issues of logistics. Many excellent researchers from several fields of logistics have contributed to this book. Most of them have been involved in the major developments of SCM me- ods and concepts during recent years. Therefore, we are very glad and grateful to have them gathered here together in this volume.

Leserkreis aus Hochschule und Praxis präsentiert wird. Dabei können die Interessenschwerpunkte durchaus unterschiedlich gesetzt sein. Erstens sind die Elemente eines geschlossenen Ansatzes einer dyna­ mischen Produktionstheorie bislang nur recht schwach entwickelt. Es fehlt zwar nicht an vereinzelten methodischen Versuchen aus unterschiedlichen Richtungen, doch hat sich damit leider noch keine gemeinsame Untersu­ chungsbasis der wissenschaftlichen Forschung auf diesem Gebiet herausge­ bildet, wie sie beispielsweise aus einer Erweiterung der statischen zu einer dynamischen Aktivitätsanalyse heraus möglicherweise gewonnen werden könnte. Eine solche Vorgehensweise setzt formal-analytisch fundamental an Begriffen wie Input-Output-Beziehungen (Aktivitäten) und Technolo­ gien bzw. Produktionsverfahren an, mit deren Hilfe die Gesetzmäßigkeiten einer dynamischen Produktion studiert und ermittelt werden müßten. Da­ für aus den erhobenen empirischen Befunden Anhaltspunkte zu erhalten, die unter Umständen geeignet sind, die weitere Forschung auf dem Gebiet der dynamischen Produktionstheorie auch tatsächlich in dieser Richtung wieder anzuregen, war ein Aspekt unseres Anliegens, die vorliegenden Untersuchungsergebnisse zu einem Buch zusammenzutragen. Daher orientiert sich die Gliederung der einzelnen Kapitel für jeweils einen Industriezweig strikt an den Mustern einer solchen Sichtweise, indem neben den allgemeinen Rahmenbedingungen der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung insbesondere Veränderungen in den Produktionsprogrammen, Ressourcen­ strukturen und Fertigungsprozeduren sowie dabei sich offenbarende Inter­ dependenzen beschrieben werden. Über eine so gestaltete eingehendere Spezifizierung derartiger aktivitätsanalytischer Elemente einer dynami­ schenProduktions theorie könnte man sich an eine formale Begründung ei­ ner einheitlichen Analysemethode für diese Zwecke heranwagen. Die Au­ toren halten es für nützlich, diese Forschungsperspektive weiter zu verfol­ gen.

The world of logistics has considerably changed in the last years. There has been a steady evolution due to globalization, modern information technology, and es- cially increasing ecological awareness. Many firms have meanwhile implemented large Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems - sometimes already developed to global logistic networks. This book reflects major trends of the recent decade in SCM and, additionally, presents ideas and visions for logistic networks of the 21st century from a strictly scientific point of view. Though the book deals with quite a lot of different perspectives on the same pr- lem, namely how to efficiently and effectively establish elements of a supply chain, it stresses one essential figure of SCM: closing the loop of a supply chain by integrating waste materials into logistic management decisions. Reverse log- tics has gained central importance caused by sustainable developments in society and legislation in the past. The book is based on the premise that economic and political decision makers can no longer afford to ignore the ecological issues of logistics. Many excellent researchers from several fields of logistics have contributed to this book. Most of them have been involved in the major developments of SCM me- ods and concepts during recent years. Therefore, we are very glad and grateful to have them gathered here together in this volume.

The thirteen essays of this book deal with various aspects of production manage­ ment which have shown a growing importance in research, teaching and practice within the last years and are partly neglected in the literature. The contents range from theoretical issues to case studies. Significant relations among different essays (chapters) give rise to group them into four major parts dealing with separate themes of production management: - fundamental organizational aspects of the production process, - general problems and modern concepts of materials management, - joint production with surplus, waste and hazardous byproducts, - production aspects of cutting stock and trim loss problems. Moreover, there is a strong material connection between the contributions to this volume because they all are based on a common conceptual framework emphasizing the production theoretic foundation. The collection of papers in this book is also designed to provide a fairly comprehensive picture of scientific work in the field of production management done during the last years at the Institute of Production Economics of the Fern­ universiUit in Hagen, partly in cooperation with other scientists. Since all but two articles have not been published in English before, the reader gets quite a new view on the results of this recent research.