Logistics
It is only relatively recently that logistics and supply chain management have emerged as key business concerns, and it is now generally accepted that supply chains, and not individual firms or products, are the basis of much marketplace competition. Transport services (links in supply chains) and transport infrastructure (nodes in supply chains) are key elements in efficient logistics systems. Maritime transport (comprising ports as nodes and shipping services as links) is the dominant mode for international freight movements and is thus crucial to international trade and a vital component of many supply chains.
We wont get hung up on definitions, but it is important to distinguish logistics from other terms as it is a term that is today increasingly being used very loosely. Logistics isn’t just transport, although transport is of course important. Logistics then comprises transport, inventory management and related information systems and is in essence the engine of the supply chain.
Together with my colleagues Professor Chandra Lalwani (Newcastle and Hull Universities) and Dr Tim Butcher (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) we have written a textbook, first published by Wiley in 2008, and titled ’Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management’, a second, updated edition was published in 2012 with Professor Roya Javadpour from California Polytechnic State University joining our author team – click here for details
To purchase the book click here
Applied Work
I regularly work with organisations to help them solve logistics problems, here is a sample of some of the organisations I have worked with over the past few years:
- Immunodiagnostic Systems plc
- Bord Bia
- Dublin Airport Authority
- Dublin Port company
- Drogheda Port company
- ESB Retail (retail division of the national energy utility)
- Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC)
- Mitsubishi Electric
- Reva Showers
- Seven Seas
- The Marine Institute and The Irish Maritime Development Office
- Various Irish Government departments
