Transportation, Distribution, and Warehouse Planning

The activities of transportation, warehousing, and inventory management represent three fundamental functions of logistics and supply chain operations. Firms often describe these activities collectively as their distribution function. In more general terms, one can think of distribution as the management system by which a firm stores and delivers its products to its customers. Thus, distribution is a critical, high-visibility function that ultimately has responsibility for customer deliveries. In this chapter, we review selected analytical techniques and measures that supply chain professionals employ to monitor and manage transportation, warehousing, and inventory (i.e., distribution). By studying these analytical methods, we will enhance our understanding of these three functions, and the types of quantitative analyses used to provide management decision support for these critical logistics activities. Importantly, we will also illustrate the highly dependent, linked relationships that exist between transportation, inventory management, and warehouse operations.