TITLE : BASIC BUSINESS LOGISTICS: TRANSPORTATION MATERIALS MANAGEMENT PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION. 2ND ED

This is a book about the management of the flows of goods and services in profit and nonprofit-oriented organizations. It is a vital subject and often absorbs a substantial portion of an organization's operating budget. Typical activities include: transportation, inventory management, order processing, acquisition, Warehousing, materials handling, packaging, and product scheduling. Popular titles for this subject, other than Business Logistics are: Physical Distribution Management, Transportation Managemcnt, and Materials Management.

The focus of the text is to provide thc student or the professional person with an overview of the management of logistical activities in the organizational environment. This management is concerned with the activities required to make products and services available to customers at the time, place, and in the form condition desired. The emphasis is on the problems of the business firm, because most of the opportunities and research arc in this area. However, an attempt is made to extend the ideas into thc less discussed areas of logistics in nonprofit and service organizations.

Those familiar with my previous text, Business Logistics Management, will note the contrast. The emphasis here is on the principles and concepts that are guides to decision making. No technical background is required of the reader. The book is geared to the needs of the reader who is confronting the subject area for the first time, whether at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional level.

A Logic for Study

The design of the text is to take the reader through the subject in a building-block fashion. Each section is intended to provide perspective, insight, understanding, and skill development. A perspective of the subject is offered in Part 1. This introduces the essential nature of business logistics, sets its mission, and describes its history. Physical distribution and materials management are introduced as the major management areas of business logistics.

Next, external factors in the form of customer scrvice and the product are introduced in Part 11. These often shape the design of logistics systems to a considerable extent.

Part 111 discusscs each primary activity that the logistician must plan for and operate. The purpose is to offer a basic understanding of each activity and its operation. Each is approached in terms of what the practicing logistician needs to know about the activity, rather than from the understanding that might be gained if each activity were studied in depth.

Part IV deals with the planning, organizing, and controlling of the logistics system. Based on the general knowledge obtained from the previous parts of the text, this part offers guidelines and principles useful in designing the logistics system for efficiency of operation and control.

Finally, Part V takes a look at the future where logistics is headed, how important it will be in the future, and what areas of opportunity may be on the horizon.

Acknowledgments

So many individuals and organizations have contributed to the content of this book, that it would be impractical to identify each individually. Collectively, I would like to recognize the contributions of the many researchers who have generated the ideas used in this volume, the logisticians in the various universities and businesses who have tested the ideas for their practical worth, and the publishers who so graciously gave their permission to reprint, so that the ideas would bc passed along. A special recognition goes to the reviewers of the manuscript, who anonymously offered their constructive comments for the improvement of the book.

My deepest appreciation to all.

RONALD H. BALLOU