International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

Ho, Chrwanjyh

1990 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/09600039010144869

Distribution requirements planning DRP is oneof the scheduling methods used in logisticssystems. A generalised version is presented ofa DRP system designed to enhance schedulingflexibility of currently used DRP systems and todeal with multisourcing transshipment problemsin a multiechelon logistics system. The requiredinformation inputs, capabilities and advantages ofthis generalised DRP system are described indetail. Finally, the future research direction toimprove the adaptability of DRP in distributionsystems is discussed.

Rana, Krishan

1990 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/09600039010005133

Order picking in a warehouse consumes most ofthe stockroom labour because of the highfrequency of transactions. This article presentsan algorithm for order picking in narrowaislewarehouses and describes its implementationusing a spreadsheet. The algorithm is illustratedby an example, and the algorithmic method iscompared with the current method of orderpicking in the food industry. Randomly generatedproblems show savings of up to 85 per cent indistance travelled by the pickup vehicle. Themanager of the warehouse, where the method hasbeen implemented, confirmed that he has becomemore effective and efficient on order delivery byusing it.

Hillman Willis, T.; Mathews, Mike; Huston, C. Richard

1990 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/09600039010002523

The buyer and planner functions are critical inpurchasing because they provide the primarylinkage with suppliers in the logistics network. Formanufacturing companies that switch to modernproduction strategies such as justintime andmanufacturing resource planning MRP II, theresponsibilities of the buyerplanner are evenmore critical, since purchasing and physicaldistribution take on increased importance. As jobresponsibilities change when implementing newsystems, management must be cognisant of thefactors that comprise favourable performance.These issues are examined and an assessmentprocess is outlined. In addition, a performanceassessment PA model is presented to assist thepurchasing or logistics manager in making a moreenlightened judgement of buyerplanner jobperformance.

Kohn, Jonathan W.; McGinnis, Michael A.; Kesava, Praveen K.

1990 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000000351

The responses of 222 logistics managers inmanufacturing firms were analysed to identifylogistics strategies and evaluate relationshipsbetween organisational environment and logisticsstrategy. The findings were integrated withprevious research to develop a contingency modelof logistics strategy.

Kumar, Sameer; Arora, Sant

1990 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000000352

A mixed twolevel system is considered for partsdistribution. Three approaches are studied for thedivision of the total item set S into subsets S1 andS2. The subset S1 includes items directly servedby the company to the endusers and subset S2includes items served through dealers. Theseapproaches are dealer itembased, company itembasedand systembased.The systems approach is compared with the twoitembased approaches from the dealers andcompanys point of view. A market sensitivitymodel is developed in the systems approach,which considers the effect of customer serviceprimarily average delivery time and number ofitems in set S2 on the captured market share.Optimisation of total expected profit, based on asystems approach, leads to higher profit levelsand to a larger subset S2 than obtained from thetwo itembased approaches.