Lectures
All models follow the Model Format Reference. Reading Julia is a self-test on the Julia these lectures use, for anyone not yet reading it comfortably. The links under a lecture are its script, holding all of the Julia code; its overview video; its twin, the lecture’s markdown text, which an assistant can read whole; and, once the lecture has been taken up in class, its recap, which answers what the review found hardest.
1. Introduction
What is logistics engineering? · Scope of logistics decisions · Modeling: representation and prescription · Levels of modeling · Level 0: Guesstimation · Level 1: Mean value analysis · Getting started: Claude Code and the toolchain · How the course’s files move
1.3 System Performance Estimation
Bracketing · Production systems · Little’s Law · Variability and the Poisson process · Throughput feasibility · Level 2: Cycle-time estimation · Level 3: Simulation · Stationarity · Where variability goes in a line
2. Location
2.1 Types of Location Problems
Taxonomy of location problems · Competitive vs cooperative location · “Nonlinear” vs minisum objectives · Solving the minisum problem by hand · Other location objectives · A taxonomy of objectives
Weights: monetary vs physical · Procurement and distribution · Single-facility minisum · Other types of location objectives · Logjam: the logistics toolkit · Computing distances with Logjam · Circuity factors · FedEx hub choice
2.3 Multifacility Location–Allocation
Allocation · Types of multifacility problems · Co-locating operations · Location–allocation problem · Integrated vs alternating · ALA procedure · Large-scale examples
How many new facilities · Uncapacitated facility location · Construction and improvement · Simple UFL heuristics · ADD and DROP heuristics · EXCHG and HYBRID heuristics · p-median facility location · Estimating NF fixed cost
Actual and population-inferred demand · U.S. statistical geography · Choosing a resolution · Aggregating demand points · Average distance within a region · Aggregate demand in a location model · Data wrangling · Joining other data to a demand set
What makes network design hard · Bottom-up vs. top-down analysis · Popco Bottling Company · Two plants on one road
3. Transport
3.1 Overview of Freight Transport
Shippers and carriers · Transport modes and costs · U.S. logistics costs · Containerization · Ocean and intermodal transport · Rail and railcar tracking · Ports and inland infrastructure · Freight terms
Trucking services and operations · Design constants · Truckload shipments · Less-than-truckload shipments · Freight class and LTL tariffs · Estimate against quote
Periodic shipments · Full-truckload charge · Inventory cost · Optimal shipment size · Aggregate periodic shipment
Full-truckload location · Transshipment · Location with total logistics cost · Warehousing
4. Networks
4.1 Shortest Paths and Road Networks
Network representations · Dijkstra’s procedure · Other shortest-path procedures · Road networks · Travel time
4.2 Assignment and Transportation
OpenStreetMap · Linear assignment problem · Transportation problem · Minimum cost network flow
Production-inventory planning · Capacity determined outside the model · Capacity determined inside the model · Forecasting demand · Planning horizon
4.4 Prod-Inv: Multiple Productssoon
5. Routing
5.1 Traveling Salesman Problemsoon
5.2 Route-based Construction Proceduressoon
5.3 Vehicle Routingsoon
6. Inventory
6.1 Working and One-Time-Safety Stocksoon
6.2 Periodic Safety Stocksoon
6.3 Production System Designsoon
References
The following sources are recommended for further study. They are collected here rather than under individual lectures because most of them apply to more than one, and several apply to more than one topic. None is required: there is no textbook for this course, and everything needed to do the work is on this site. Alphabetical by first author, with the topics each applies to in parentheses, which is where it applies rather than a limit on where it is useful.
Ahuja, R.K., Magnanti, T.L., and Orlin, J.B., 1993, Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Networks)
Askin, R.G., and Standridge, C.R., 1993, Modeling and Analysis of Manufacturing Systems, Wiley. (Lec. 1.3: Syst. Performance Est.)
Bartholdi III, J.J., and Hackman, S.T., 2019, Warehouse & Distribution Science, version 0.98.1. Full text, free (General)
Cachon, G., and Terwiesch, C., 2006, Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management, McGraw-Hill. (Inventory)
Daganzo, C.F., 1999, Logistics Systems Analysis, 3rd Ed., Berlin: Springer. (Transport)
Daskin, M., 1995, Network and Discrete Location: Models, Algorithms, and Applications, New York: Wiley. (Location)
Francis, R.L., McGinnis Jr., L.F., and White, J.A., 1992, Facility Layout and Location: An Analytical Approach, 2nd Ed., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Location)
Golden, B.L., and Assad, A.A., Eds., 1988, Vehicle Routing: Methods and Studies, Amsterdam: North-Holland. (Routing)
Hopp, W.J., and Spearman, M.L., 2000, Factory Physics: Foundations of Manufacturing Management, 2nd Ed., McGraw-Hill. (Lec. 1.3: Syst. Performance Est., Inventory)
Larson, R.C., and Odoni, A.R., 1981, Urban Operations Research, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Full text, free (Location)
Mirchandani, P.B., and Francis, R.L., Eds., 1990, Discrete Location Theory, New York: Wiley. (Location)
Russell, S.J., and Norvig, P., 2021, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 4th Ed., Hoboken, NJ: Pearson. (Networks)
Silver, E.A., Pyke, D.F., and Peterson, R., 1998, Inventory Management and Production Planning and Scheduling, 3rd Ed., New York: Wiley. (Inventory)
Simchi-Levi, D., Kaminsky, P., and Simchi-Levi, E., 2008, Designing and Managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies, and Case Studies, 3rd Ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill. (Location)