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MANAGING PROJECTS

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Projects represent nonroutine business activities that often have long-term strategic ramifications for a firm. In this chapter, we examined how projects differ from routine business activities and discussed the major phases of projects. We noted how environmental changes have resulted in increased attention being paid to projects and project management over the past decade. In the second half of the chapter, we introduced some basic tools that businesses can use when planning for and controlling projects. Both Gantt charts and network diagrams give managers a visual picture of how a project is going. Network diagrams have the added advantage of showing the precedence between activities, as well as the critical path(s). We wrapped up the chapter by showing how these concepts are embedded in inexpensive yet powerful software packages such as Microsoft Project. If you want to learn more about project management, we encourage you to take a look at the Web site for the Proj...
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LOGISTICS

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As critical as logistics is today it will continue to grow in importance. In fact, several trends will keep logistics at the forefront of many firms’ strategic efforts:
·         Growth in the level of both domestic and international logistics;
·         Outsourcing opportunities; and
·         Increased emphasis on sustainability at the company level.
The last two points deserve special mention. As logistics becomes more globalized and information intensive, more firms are outsourcing the logistics function to specialists, most notably third-party logistics providers (3PLs). This trend is expected to continue. However, firms must carefully analyze the strategic benefits and risks of outsourcing. Firms must remember that outsourcing is part of a logistics strategy, not a substitute for one.
Second, logistics covers a wide range of business activities that are inherently resource intensive. It is therefore a natural focal point for many firm’s sustainability efforts. Often, organizations have found solutions that improve sustainability as well as other important performance dimensions. For example, many manufacturers have switched to using reusable shipping containers that not only reduce the amount of material ending up in landfills but provide superior protection and are cheaper in the long run than one-time-use containers. In other cases, however, efforts to improve sustainability can hurt an individual firm’s cost, quality, or delivery performance. When this occurs, government regulations are frequently used to rebalance business costs and societal costs and to “level the playing field” across competitors.
We started off this chapter by discussing why logistics is critical and by examining the major logistics decision areas, with particular emphasis on transportation modes and warehousing. We then discussed the concept of a logistics strategy and introduced some commonly used logistics decision models.
But we encourage you not to let your logistics education end here. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP; www.cscmp.org) is a valuable source of education materials, white papers on state-of-the-art research into logistics, and professional contacts.


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