Editorial

Citation

Waller, M.A. and Lalwani, C.S. (2008), "Editorial", The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 19 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlm.2008.30019aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: The International Journal of Logistics Management, Volume 19, Issue 1

Logistics is concerned with managing tradeoffs. It is the management of the flow and storage of all types of inventory in all states of distribution in supply chains, such that total costs are minimized and customer service targets are achieved. Minimizing total costs and achieving customer service targets involves managing tradeoffs. The International Journal of Logistics Management (IJLM) seeks to advance knowledge and practice in the discipline of business logistics.

Professors Martin Christopher and Douglass Lambert, both premier scholars in logistics, were the pioneers behind IJLM, starting it almost 20 years ago. Under their leadership and guidance, IJLM has advanced the discipline of business logistics. We are grateful to them for trusting us with the stewardship of the journal into the future. We desire to continue to build on the reputation of the journal that has been established through the diligent and thoughtful efforts of Professors Lambert and Christopher.

We welcome all methodological approaches of inquiry into phenomena associated with logistics and supply chains. Any research methods that help us define, explain and predict logistic phenomena are appropriate for IJLM. We encourage laboratory experiments, discrete event and other simulation experiments, field experiments, statistics analysis of archival data, surveys, operations research methods, abductive methods, case studies, and others. The key question is the following: does the manuscript advance the knowledge and practice of logistics?

Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen farther, it is on the shoulders of giants,” referring to the many researchers who had gone before him. We would like to see manuscripts submitted to IJLM recognizing the many researchers who have published in the top logistics journals by citing relevant publications.

While logistics focuses on the flow of material, information and products from the perspective of total costs, customer service, and tradeoffs, the integration of logistics in supply chain operations, and the integration of business processes between functions within a firm and between firms are often required to minimize these costs and to satisfy customers. We also welcome manuscripts that address process integration when it is relevant to logistics, even if it is not directly addressing a specific logistics process.

Matthew A. Waller and C.S. Lalwani