THE ROLE OF LOGISTICS IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

For many firms, a program of successful new product development (NPD) projects is critical to overall company strategy. However, the role of logistics in NPD has rarely been researched. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the relationship between logistics involvement in new product development and improvements in NPD project performance and NPD logistics performance. Senior logistics managers in manufacturing firms in the United States were surveyed to test these relationships. The analysis demonstrated NPD project performance and NPD logistics performance improved with the involvement of logistics in NPD.     

THE ROLE OF LOGISTICS MANAGERS IN THE CROSS‐FUNCTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

There is confusion about the domain of supply chain management, and the functions and processes that should be included. In this paper, we describe the key supply chain management processes, the role of logistics managers in each of these processes, and what the logistics function gains from this involvement.