Introduction to Logistics Systems Planning and Control: (14 Wiley Interscience Series in Systems and Optimization)

Logistics is defined as a business planning framework for the management of material, service, information and capital flows. Logistic systems have received considerable attention in the last 10 years, as they constitute one of the cornerstones in the design and control of production systems and the modeling of supply chains. This renewed interest is partly due to the recognition that well-known planning and control systems such as 'Manufacturing Resources Planning' and 'Just in Time' systems fail to establish a sound integration of lead time management, capacity planning and quality considerations.

This book uniquely: Presents a balanced treatment of quantitative methods for logistics systems planning, organization and control.Each topic is illustrated with real examples.Each chapter features an annotated bibliography of key references.Features a number of case studies that show how the methods can be applied to complex logistics problems.Assumes only a basic knowledge of operations research.Supported by a Website (http: //wileylogisticsbook.dii.unile.it) featuring exercises and teaching material.

A unique, leading edge title for researchers, practitioners, and students of logistics and supply chain management, in both academia; engineering, computer science, management science, undergraduate, graduate students and industry professionals.

Gilbert Laporte obtained his PhD in Operations Research at the London School of Economics in 1975. He is Professor of Operations Research at HEC Montreal, Director of the Canada Research Chair in Distribution Management, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta. He is also a member of GERAD, of the Centre for Research on Transportation (serving as director from 1987 to 1991), and Fellow of the Center for Management of Operations and Logistics, University of Texas at Austin. He has authored or coauthored several books, as well as more then 225 scientific articles in combinatorial optimization, mostly in the areas of vehicle routing, location, districting and timetabling. He is the current editor of "Computers and Operations Research" and served as editor of "Transportation Science" from 1995 to 2002. He has received many scientific awards including the Pergamon Prize (United Kingdom), the Merit Award of the Canadian Operational Research Society, the CORS Practice Prize on two occasions, the Jacques-Rousseau Prize for Interdisciplinary, as well as the President's medal of the Operational Research Society (United Kingdom). In 1998 he became a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

Roberto Musmanno is Professor of Operations Research at the University of Calabria, Italy. His major research interests lie in logistics, network optimization and parallel computing. He has published n a variety of journals, including "Operations Research, Transportation Science, Computational Optimization and Applications, Optimization Methods & Software, Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Optimization and Parallel Computing." He is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Center of Excellence of High Performance Computing, and an editorial board member of "Computers & Operations Research."

."..an introduction to logistics through mathematical modelling with all the consequential simplifications and idealizations." (Short Book Reviews, Vol.25, No.1, April 2005)

."..[I] highly recommend this well-written book to all..." (Journal of The Operational Society, Vol 56, October 2005)