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Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.

Plant location has been an enigma for planners since the Middle Ages. As early as 1647 Cavaliere tried to find a point which minimised the distance between three given locations. A special case of this problem was formulated by Heinen in 1834. Fagano increased the problem from one considering three points to one of four. Fagano's work was extended to the case of n points by Tedenat in 1810.

A very important concern of physical distribution managers is deciding the location of warehouses (distribution centres or depots). It is, therefore, not surprising that this location problem has been receiving considerable research attention and indeed, some impact has been made in actual industrial warehouse location decisions. The interested reader is referred to the expository articles, which describe both the theoretical developments and some practical applications of the theory.

Introduction Operations research, i.e. the application of scientific methodology to operational problems in the search for improved understanding and control, can be said to have started with the application of mathematical tools to military problems of supply bombing and strategy, during the Second World War. Post‐war these tools were applied to business problems, particularly production scheduling, inventory control and physical distribution because of the acute shortages of goods and the numerical aspects of these problems.

Key components of the logistics mix are described in an effort to create an understanding of the total logistics concept. Chapters include an introduction to logistics; the strategic role of logistics, customer service levels, channel relationships, facilities location, transport, inventory management, materials handling, interface with production, purchasing and materials management, estimating demand, order processing, systems performance, leadership and team building, business resource management.

Prior literature has widely established that the design of storage locations impacts order picking task performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance impact of unit loads, e.g. pallets or rolling cages, utilized by pickers to pack products after picking them from storage locations.

An empirical analysis of archival data on a manual order picking system for deep-freeze products was performed in cooperation with a German brick-and-mortar retailer. The dataset comprises N = 343,259 storage location visits from 17 order pickers. The analysis was also supported by the development and the results of a batch assignment model that takes unit load selection into account.

The analysis reveals that unit load selection affects order picking task performance. Standardized rolling cages can decrease processing time by up to 8.42% compared to standardized isolated rolling boxes used in cold retail supply chains. Potential cost savings originating from optimal batch assignment range from 1.03% to 39.29%, depending on batch characteristics.

This study contributes to the literature on factors impacting order picking task performance, considering the characteristics of unit loads where products are packed on after they have been picked from the storage locations. In addition, it provides potential task performance improvements in cold retail supply chains.

Retail technologies vary in their success in countries other than where they were developed to some degree based on the nature of the environment that they encounter. Elements that contribute to the success of a retailing form in one country's culture may be absent in the culture of another country making the international transfer of retailing technology less successful. This study examines the entry of warehouse clubs into the Asian environment in terms of how well this retail technology, primarily developed in the West, meets the needs of Chinese customers.

Examines the interdependence between facility location, transportation and inventory issues in a distribution network design problem. Management of inventories, determination of transportation policy, and location of plants and distribution centers are normally carried out by different groups of people in an organization. These activities interact, however, when the transportation is used to replace inventory, an increase in the number of warehouses increases total system inventory or location of warehouses would dictate the type of transportation mode choice or carrier that needs to be used. The proposed model, FLITNET, is expected to provide a more complete representation of the trade‐offs that exist among the location, transportation and inventory cost components, and lead to an optimal solution.

An ever-increasing number of companies outsource logistics activities to third-party logistics (3PL) providers to beat the competition. From the buyer's (shippers') perspective, selecting the right 3PL provider is crucial, and from the 3PL provider's perspective, it is imperative to be attractive and to retain clients. To this aim, a potential lever can be physical assets, such as warehouses, which the literature has traditionally neglected. The objective is to benchmark the importance of warehouses for 3PL providers to attract/retain clients and for shippers to select the right 3PL provider.

The authors performed an empirical investigation through interviews on dyads (3PL providers/shippers) and utilized the Best-Worst Method (BWM) to rank the criteria used in the 3PL buying process and allow the warehouse's role to emerge.

Results show that the 3PL buying process consists of four phases and three evaluation steps. The selection criteria are classified into three groups: order qualifiers, order winners and retention factors. The warehouse has different levels of importance throughout the process. It appears that it can indirectly enhance the attractiveness and retention capability of 3PL providers through other selection criteria.

By combining the resource-based view and the customer value theory, this research extends the theory on logistics outsourcing by studying the phases of the 3PL buying process and scrutinizing the criteria used in different evaluation steps. The research adds a double perspective of analysis (3PL providers and shippers), which is missing in the literature, and focuses on the importance of warehouses.

In this paper, the authors describe a geographical information system (GIS)‐based software system for managing and integrating multi‐facility warehousing and production systems that are distributed within a relatively large geographical area. The development of the software system is motivated by a unique warehousing environment at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The arsenal scenario is characterized by a novel set of highly limiting warehouse constraints. Although motivated by this unique problem, the software system has been designed to maximize technology transfer capability into diverse general warehouse settings. The paper presents motivation, describes features, and demonstrates the efficacy of operations using the software system. The system is verified and validated in a case study setting. It is demonstrated that the GIS platform offers unique capabilities that enhance problem solutions. In conclusion, the paper offers a contribution to the literature by presenting the use of GIS as an integration strategy in an exciting new area of application.