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In the Annual Report of the General Purposes Committee of the Middlesex County Council for the year ending March 31, 1909, it is stated that inquiries were made as to the action taken under the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops Orders of 1885 and 1899 by the thirty‐six district councils in the county, the object of such action being the detection of cows suffering from tuberculosis of the udder. It might be thought that by this time the necessity for putting these orders into force had been thoroughly proved. The Royal Commission on Tuberculosis made a definite statement to the effect that milk derived from tuberculous cattle is one of the principal causes of tubercular disease in the human subject, and, apparently there seems to be some disposition on the part of local authorities to make tuberculosis notifiable. The Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908, which came into force at the beginning of 1909, require that all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis are to be notified to the sanitary authority if the patients are receiving treatment from the Poor Law medical officers. Large sums are spent every year throughout the country on the upkeep of sanatoria with the object of curing cases of tubercle, if possible, but, in any case, of alleviating the sufferings of those afflicted with tuberculosis. On all sides, in fact, it is now recognised that the most energetic measures are necessary in order to combat this terrible disease. It appears from the figures given in the Report referred to that in twenty‐three out of the thirty‐six districts. “No veterinary examinations of cows were made on behalf of the local authorities!” The statement is not made the subject of comment, but we hardly think that the county authorities can regard the results of their enquiry as satisfactory. The Report was apparently presented to the County Council on July 22 last, so that up to that time, at least, it would seem that these twenty‐three districts, in a county with about one million inhabitants, are governed, so far as sanitary matters go, by people who consider themselves qualified to hold opinions diametrically opposed to those held by experts and based on the best scientific evidence at present available.

Transport is only one part of logistics and logistics itself is defined as the management of the entire supply chain. Gives an overview of UK perceptions about transport, focusing on rail in particular, and indicates the need for transport companies to take on the supply chain management view.

The use of competitor analysis is a rapidly growing area of business activity, especially among major corporations, across the world. The old military stratagem “know your enemy; through knowing your enemy you can beat him/her”, has found new life in the contemporary business environment. Surveys carried out in Europe and the USA in 1989 found that two‐thirds of competitor analysis departments were less than three years old. Competitor analysis is becoming increasingly seen as a key component in strategy formulation, in particular, in forming marketing strategy.

Recently there has been debate about whether or not academic research and theories in management are ‘relevant’. The discussion has been extended to marketing and we explore whether or not there is a disconnection between marketing practice and the methodologies, theories and concepts put forward by marketing academics. The possible explanations for the divide between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ in marketing are assessed. We then focus on new product development and consider the practical implications of the considerable corps of research aimed at identifying the influences affecting new product success. We continue by discussing the traditional representation of new product development. This assumes a staged process that can be managed, but which ignores in particular the impact of uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting that marketing needs to reappraise its model of the new product development process.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Logistics and Distribution Strategy; Supply Chain Management; IT in Logistics and Distribution; Just‐in‐time Management; Accounting for Logistics; International.

Bases itself on the findings of Project NewProd — which was an investigation of almost 200 new product cases to probe what separates winners from losers. Presents results from the managerial perspective, showing how selection of new products and particularly that of potential 'winners' is undertaken. Outlines key factors that underlie new projects and the influence of these on product success. Examines merits of emphasizing certain new product activities, using information that helps to launch, with impact, product launch success. States that product development is critical to the firm strategically, beside its cost. Documents that of every 58 product ideas that enter the process just two reach commercialisation stage, and only one is a success. Proclaims that new product failure rates are estimated at between 30 and 60 per cent and of 100 products developed 21.9% are killed prior to launch, 18.7% are commercial failures and 59.4% are successful. Investigates and explores the reasons for failures and successes in great detail with use of figures and tables for further explanation. Concludes that Project NewProd has identified specific properties and dimensions differentiating industrial new product success and failure.

In modern corporations, internal R&D is considered an important source of new products and, therefore, a major mechanism of new business generation. Innovation studies report, however, that only a small fraction of all R&D projects are successful. They recognise that the quality of management is a key factor in predicting the outcome of innovation processes. In spite of this consensus, only a few empirical studies have described how managers from various organisational positions jointly produce certain innovative outcomes in certain industries and corporate contexts (Maidique 1980, Burgelman & Sayles 1986).

The part now being played by logistics in corporate strategy is recognized. Reviews ten articles exploring the theme of “recent insights into logistics”.

It has been suggested that much of the potential inefficiencies associated with supply chain management (SCM) costs can be traced to wasteful practices such as inefficient, unnecessary, or redundant stocking practices, or inefficient transportation. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model which reconciles many of these inefficiencies by integrating production factors, purchasing, inventory, and trucking decisions for optimizing supply chain costs between first‐, and second‐tier suppliers and subsequent OEM customers.

The modeling technique is mathematical programming tested in a simulation model. In an effort to determine the significance of the transportation component of the proffered model, the fully developed model is differentially tested, including standard production variables varying transportation costs, paired with similar instances of the model in which the transportation costs are fixed.

Significant differences are found in the predictive abilities of the respective models, and this supplies pragmatic evidence of the important role that transportation issues play in the consideration of integrated SCM costs.

The key limitation to this finding lies in the validation process. As suggested by Sargent, Monte‐Carlo studies are useful for validation purposes, and the supply chain optimization model (MHSCM) is certainly confirmed through this particular simulation.

The managerial focus on transportation management and cost control in SCM can be highlighted as a critical implication of the study.

The structure of the MHSCM is robust, and may be useful for cost‐control planning purposes in a dynamic environment, subject to certain limitations accruing to the methodology.

It is now quite widely suggested that a post‐industrial revolution is in progress (see, for example, Handy, and Naisbitt). Mass unemployment, rapid obsolescence of established technologies and the emergence of new technologies are some of the more concrete examples of the dislocation and reshaping of the economic, social, political and value patterns which we had come to take for granted in previous decades.