Matthew J. Liberatore – författare

In today’s competitive global economy, a firm’s market position and bottom-line financial performance is closely linked to its supply chain performance. All too often considerable managerial resources are directed toward planning activities and processes with little in the way of tangible results and outcomes. What supply chain executives require is the know-how to efficiently and effectively direct their planning activities so that the results lead to better business decisions from the long-term down to day-to-day operations. In this book, the authors present proven, practical management frameworks and techniques to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. These frameworks describe supply chain strategic planning and project selection techniques, integrated manufacturing–distribution planning and scheduling approaches, performance measurement and balanced scorecard methodologies, customer logistics and inventory deployment decision support systems, and other well-tested management frameworks.

Logistics professionals must utilize a broad array of analytic techniques and approaches for decision-making. Effective use of analytics requires an understanding of both fundamental and advanced logistics decision-making techniques and methodologies. Further, logistics professionals must organize and view these analytics-based decision support tools through well-structured planning frameworks.In this book, we illustrate and explain a wide range of practical logistics strategies and analytic techniques to facilitate decision-making across functions such as manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and inventory management. We also describe how to organize these analytics-based tools and strategies through logistics frameworks that span strategic, tactical and operational planning and scheduling decisions.This book is intended for logistics professionals to use as a reference document that offers ideas and guidance for addressing specific logistics management decisions and challenges, and it will also serve as a valuable resource or secondary text for graduate and advanced undergraduate students.

This book illustrates and explains a wide range of practical logistics strategies and analytic techniques to facilitate decision-making across functions such as manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, and inventory management.

Logistics professionals must utilize a broad array of analytic techniques and approaches for decision-making. Effective use of analytics requires an understanding of both fundamental and advanced logistics decision-making techniques and methodologies. Further, logistics professionals must organize and view these analytics-based decision support tools through well-structured planning frameworks.

In this book, we illustrate and explain a wide range of practical logistics strategies and analytic techniques to facilitate decision-making across functions such as manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and inventory management. We also describe how to organize these analytics-based tools and strategies through logistics frameworks that span strategic, tactical and operational planning and scheduling decisions.

This book is intended for logistics professionals to use as a reference document that offers ideas and guidance for addressing specific logistics management decisions and challenges, and it will also serve as a valuable resource or secondary text for graduate and advanced undergraduate students.

Matthew J. Liberatore Department of Management Villanova University Villanova, PA 19085 1. BACKGROUND The weakening competitive position of many segments of u.s. manufacturing has been analyzed, debated and discussed in corporate boardrooms, academic journals and the popular literature. One result has been a renewed commitment toward improving productivity and quality in the workplace. The drive to reduce manufacturing­ related costs, while meeting ever-changing customer needs, has led many firms to consider more automated and flexible manufacturing systems. The extent to which these new technologies can support business goals in productivity, quality and flexibility is an especially important issue for manufacturing firms in the u.s. and other Western nations. Problems have arisen in developing performance measures and evaluation criteria which reflect the full range of costs and benefits associated with these technologies. Some would argue that managerial policies and attitudes, and not the shortcomings of the equipment or manufacturing processes, are the major impediments to implementation (Kaplan 1984).