Logistic Core Operations with SAP” not only provides an overview of core logistics processes and functionality—it also shows how SAP’s Business Suite covers logistic core operations, what features are supported, and which systems can be used to implement end-to-end processes in the following logistic core disciplines: Procurement, Distribution, Transportation, Warehouse Logistics and Inve…
This paper aims to describe the storage constrained, inbound inventory routeing problem and presents bounds and heuristics for solutions to this problem. It also seeks to analyze various characteristics of this problem by comparing the solutions generated by the two proposed heuristics with each other and with the lower bound solutions.
Compares the bullwhip properties of a vendor managed inventory (VMI) supply chain with those of a traditional “serially-linked” supply chain. The emphasis of this investigation is the comparative impact the two structures have on the “bullwhip effect” generated. Particular attention is paid to the manufacturer’s production ordering activities as demonstrated using a simulation model b…
Logistics of transport systems is a key driver for the growth of whatever economy. Freight transport allows production systems or common citizens to receive or send materials or finished goods required by processes as well as by everyday life However, the overall transport sector accounts worldwide for more than half of global liquid fossil fuels consumptions which, in turn, is responsible for …
Item classification based on ABC-XYZ analysis is of high importance for strategic supply and inventory control. It is common to perform the analysis with past consumption data. In this context, the purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that an integration of demand forecasts can improve the performance of item classification, in particular the performance of ABC-XYZ analysis
This paper considers a scheduling problem motivated by transshipment terminals. Trucks delivering or picking up items at the terminal have to be sequenced. Here, inventory constraints must be considered, that is the current inventory level implied by initial inventory level, total pick up quantity up to this moment and total delivery quantity up to this moment must not be negative and must not …
A firm's logistics cost, including shipping and inventory-carrying, is a substantial percentage of its sales. Nevertheless, typical inventory-control methods ignore or insufficiently represent the shipping cost. This paper describes a recursive algorithm that determines the reorder cycle-time that minimizes total logistics cost. It allows for a realistic accounting of shipping cost, which is mo…
The impact of transportation on the supplier selection has received very scant attention in the literature. This is a great limitation because splitting orders across multiple suppliers will lead to smaller transportation quantities which will likely imply larger transportation cost. Moreover, transportation and inventory elements are highly interrelated and contribute most to the total logisti…
Industrial enterprises are having to meet changes in customers' requirements at ever shorter intervals. The life cycles of products are becoming shorter, the pay‐back time of development costs likewise. Various concepts, such as Just‐in‐Time (JIT) and Total Quality Control (TQC) have been developed to meet the ever stricter demands made on products, their production and distribution proce…
Describes the complementary standard mixed loads concept (the standard mix concept in short), which allows for assembling mixed loads at an upstream echelon. These standard mixed loads are assigned to customer orders at an echelon downstream of the chain. Describes two applications of the use of the standard mix concept in order to identify up‐front the logistic advantages, both in inventory …
This study aims to provide a model for designing logistics networks with multiple products. In such a design model, it is important to determine the operation-related parameters accurately.
Planning inventories for emergency supplies such as bottled water, non-perishable foods, batteries, and flashlights can be challenging for retailers situated within the projected path of a severe storm. The retailer’s inventory decisions are complicated by the inherent volatility of storm forecasts and the corresponding demand predictions. The purpose of this paper is to explore both proactiv…
Polarica is a company in northern Europe buying, refining and selling wild berries and other specialty foods. During the last couple of years the volume of wild berries, mostly blueberries, has increased a lot. This expansion forces Polarica to consider investments in freezing-in capacity and cold-storage capacity. A simple heuristic model was constructed, from which it was concluded that addit…
Polarica is a company in northern Europe buying, refining and selling wild berries and other specialty foods. During the last couple of years the volume of wild berries, mostly blueberries, has increased a lot. This expansion forces Polarica to consider investments in freezing-in capacity and cold-storage capacity. A simple heuristic model was constructed, from which it was concluded that addit…
Acknowledges that the effect of displayed inventory on retail sales is widely recognized in the logistics, marketing and operations management literature and has been empirically verified. However, neither the marketing literature (shelf‐space allocation models) nor the operations management literature (inventory control models) has appropriately modeled this effect. The displayed‐inventory…
The Law of Industrial Dynamics ensures that if a production control system can amplify then it will surely find a way of doing so despite the best efforts of production schedulers to take corrective action. In fact, practical studies show that such human intervention frequently aggravates the situation with both stock levels and order rates fluctuating alarmingly. The solution is to design an e…
The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenge of managing logistics at corporate level in construction industry; and to present and evaluate vendor-managed-inventory (VMI) as a potential solution for small item logistics.
To develop and test three different inventory management strategies as applied to the complex emergency in south Sudan.
Increasing uncertainty of supply networks, globalization of businesses, proliferation of product variety and shortening of product life cycles have forced Indian organizations to look beyond their four walls for collaboration with supply chain partners. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of over US$474.3 biilion, the Indian industry spends 14 percent of its GDP on logistics. Considering this s…
The purpose of this paper is to develop efficient heuristics for determining the route design and inventory management of inbound parts which are delivered for manufacturing, assembly, or distribution operations and for which there is limited storage space. The shipment frequencies and quantities are coordinated with the available storage space and the vehicle capacities.
The aim of this paper is to explore the role of inventory and warehousing within international supply chains and, from this, to develop an exploratory framework that assists understanding in the area.
The aim of this paper is to explore the role of inventory and warehousing within international supply chains and, from this, to develop an exploratory framework that assists understanding in the area.
A major focus of modern day logistics is on achieving a higher level of responsiveness to marketplace demand, but with less inventory. Achieving the dual targets of lower cost and higher service has implications for every stage in the supply chain and in particular for distribution center operations. What is the extent to which organizations are adjusting their distribution center operations to…
Based on a framework developed by Kova´cs and Spens, this paper seeks to assess the use of the three different research approaches in logistics research; discuss the use of different research methods within the three research approaches; find and discuss applications of the abductive research approach to logistics problems
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of inventory management articles published in major logistics outlets, identify themes from the literature and provide future direction for inventory management research to be published in logistics journals. Design/methodology/approach – Articles published in major logistics articles, beginning in 1976, which contribute to the …
Purpose – The ocean transportation of automobiles is carried out by specialized Roll-on/Roll-off ships, which are designed to carry a large number of automobiles at a time. Many of these shipping companies have vertically integrated or collaborated with other logistics services providers to offer integrated maritime logistics solution to car manufacturers. The purpose of this study is to d…
Purpose – The ocean transportation of automobiles is carried out by specialized Roll-on/Roll-off ships, which are designed to carry a large number of automobiles at a time. Many of these shipping companies have vertically integrated or collaborated with other logistics services providers to offer integrated maritime logistics solution to car manufacturers. The purpose of this study is to d…
The ocean transportation of automobiles is carried out by specialized Roll-on/Roll-off ships, which are designed to carry a large number of automobiles at a time. Many of these shipping companies have vertically integrated or collaborated with other logistics services providers to offer integrated maritime logistics solution to car manufacturers. The purpose of this study is to develop an optim…
Empty container repositioning is an important issue in the liner shipping industry. Generally stated, two groups of mathematical models have been proposed to tackle this issue. The first group aims to derive time-dependent origin-destination matrices that specify the number of empty containers to be repositioned at a decision epoch; the second group aims to develop effective statefeedback contr…
Empty container repositioning is an important issue in the liner shipping industry. Generally stated, two groups of mathematical models have been proposed to tackle this issue. The first group aims to derive time-dependent origin-destination matrices that specify the number of empty containers to be repositioned at a decision epoch; the second group aims to develop effective statefeedback contr…
Presents a supplier view of the realities of quick response supply chain partnershipping in the grocery sector. Discusses the factors which determine the level of stock held by manufacturers and retailers and the resulting conflicts which occur in reconciling policies pursued by both parties. Asks why manufacturers and retailers want quick response partnerships and what their objectives are.
Presents a supplier view of the realities of quick response supply chain partnershipping in the grocery sector. Discusses the factors which determine the level of stock held by manufacturers and retailers and the resulting conflicts which occur in reconciling policies pursued by both parties. Asks why manufacturers and retailers want quick response partnerships and what their objectives are.
Some managers may assume that improvements in service can only be achieved by an increase in stock investment and that any stock reduction will reduce service efficiency. However, it is possible to combine a reduction in stock with an overall increase in effectiveness. Unisys found that this “win‐win” option is a viable alternative when it carried out a review of its customer service bu…
Addresses the perennial issues of effective supply‐chain management ‐ balancing stock inventories, service delivery mechanisms and retaining requisite profit margins while ensuring customer loyalty ‐ against the background of increasing business competition in the 1990s. Considers the potential contributions of partnerships, inventory management, sales‐based ordering and promotion pla…
Stresses the crucial importance of the balance between companies’ policies of inventory management and the occurrence of disturbances in logistics flows. The study is based upon a mail survey in the automotive industry. It is concluded that there is in part a significant association between companies’ inventories and disturbances in inbound and outbound logistics flows. The financial benefi…
This research applies the construct of bullwhip effect in a non-traditional context. It is explored in intra-organisational echelons. It is argued that the bullwhip effect in a company’s inventory management of inbound and outbound logistics flows depends in part upon the gap between the degree of speculation and postponement of business activities. It is also argued that the bullwhip effect …
Modern manufacturing systems enable manufacturing management to plan, control and record manufacturing activities. However, manufacturers have been found to adopt practices and incur overheads to deride the benefits arising in other operational areas of their activities from the implementation of traditional systems. Current manufacturing practices are burdened by the legacy of these traditiona…
Traditionally, aggregate inventory realignment has tended to be a reactive response to crisis signals revealed by financial performance measurements. Symptoms and problems are usually confounded, while corrective actions are localized with less than adequate customer connectivity. This article links inventory requirements to customer requirements for response, quality, and their benefit‐to…
Examines the reasons driving French food retailers to build major speculative inventories through forward buying from their suppliers. First analyses the origin of the phenomenon and its strategic basis. Then, using the model of postponement‐speculation proposed by Louis Bucklin in the mid‐1960s, explains why forward buying does not conflict with a reduction of in‐store inventories. Final…
Studies have shown (1) that a company that ignores lead-time demand variability may suffer great financial damage, (2) that the gamma distribution provides the most common best fit to lead-time demand for a variety of inventory items, and (3) that a fixed lead-time demand assumption or a normal approximation to it will often yield significant errors because the true distribution is usually very…
Examines three areas within warehouse management of stocks: determining material requirements; establishing storage needs; and controlling supplies. Based on an example of a company manufacturing different boxed games, Monopoly for example, argues for slick scheduling to bring stock under control and enhance the service level to the production line.
This paper seeks to examine key factors within the control of store managers to optimizing inventory and store results.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the total cost function of an inventory system with a reorder point/order quantity policy where the lead time is controllable based on the cost paid by the buyer for the service.
Since developing efficient product-location strategies represents a critical issue in operations management, due to its impact on warehouses performance in terms of both service level and operation costs, this paper aims to focus on possible improvements in the allocation of SKUs, numerically evaluating how these can lead to a reduction of both overall required warehouse space and material hand…
Logisticians are trained to identify trade‐offs and to devise compromising solutions which produce the lowest total costs. For example, the economic batch size is a compromise between setup costs and inventory carrying costs. Presents a problem‐analysis technique which helps the analyst to eliminate the problem so that no compromise is necessary. For example, instead of balancing inventor…
The need to make forecasts is commonplace in industry. The accuracy (and hence, usefulness) of forecasts varies from one sector to another, but is rarely high. Describes an approach to the monitoring of forecasts which aims to detect significant inaccuracy and to quantify the correction(s) that need to be made, based on well‐established methods of SPC, and so it also allows any changes in the…
Looks at how inventory can best be monitored and measured in the warehouse. Includes finding out what has to be monitored and measured; a closer look at stock counting; discussing how information is gathered; asking what makes a good warehouse management system and what the benefits are of using inventory control and warehouse management together and looking at working with limited systems.