Cardiff Business School

Logistics and operations management

The Logistics and Operations Management (LOM) Section at Cardiff Business School, comprising of around 40 colleagues, is one of the largest and most forward-thinking academic groups working in this topic area in the United Kingdom.

We are inter-disciplinary in our skills base, with members' backgrounds including business, mathematics, economics, engineering, geography, law, management, computer science and psychology.

Aligned to the Business School’s ambitions in becoming the world’s first ‘Public Value’ Business School, LOM’s mission is to make a positive impact in the communities of Wales and the world through our research and engagement as well as our learning and teaching activities. We are a research-intensive Section tackling the Grand Challenges facing organisations, management and today’s and tomorrow’s global societies. We are committed to progressive ‘Public Value’ principles seaming through all our teaching and learning activities.

Learning and teaching

Through our teaching we aim to nurture the next generation of logistics and operations management leaders. We help our students become confident and motivated management professional prized for their problem-solving capabilities.

Informed by latest research and advised by industry leaders through the LOM Section Strategy and Advisory Board, our teaching offers students the opportunity to explore Grand Challenges, to develop their knowledge and work with contemporary issues such as data analytics, circular economy and blockchain in supply chains. We support our teaching with a wide range of databases, guest speakers, specialist careers events, innovative teaching approaches and inspiring lecturers.

At postgraduate level, we offer a range of specialist Masters programmes that recognise the importance of multi-disciplinarity: MSc Logistics and Operations Management, MSc Sustainable Supply Chain Management and MSc Maritime Policy and Shipping Management. View a diagram of how the LOM MSc programmes interlink. We also contribute to the Cardiff MBA and MSc MBM.

The distinctive features of our MSc programmes include:

learning from one of the largest groupings of logistics and operations management experts in the UK.
having flexibility to choose from a variety of optional modules in which you are interested.
collaborating with an industrial partner on a research project while collecting primary data for your dissertation.
learning the latest insights on logistics and operations management research and practice from high-profile guest speakers and company visits.

At undergraduate level, we contribute to the flagship BSc Business Management programme, offering a specialised route in Logistics and Operations Management as well as modules on the general management route.

The LOM Section supports an active and talented group of Postgraduate Research Students and applications are welcome by those interested in studying towards a PhD or MPhil.

Research, innovation and engagement

The LOM Section has a tradition of producing internationally recognised research across disciplines. A major mission of our work is to contribute to the Grand Challenges of our time and the thematic areas of the Public Value Strategy: decent work, embedded innovation, sustainable economy, business remodelled and Future.org.

During the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) period (2014-2020), we have been involved in excess of £5 million of funded research projects, and we have published extensively high quality and high impact publications in internationally recognised academic journals. The results of our research and engagement activities led to the development of impact cases and changes in practices in the private and public sectors. We also contribute to government committees' consultations.

During our LOM Section Annual Conference (LOMSAC) we celebrate and share our collective research. View a word cloud of the key words from publications to the latest REF.

We engage closely with external organisations, including a range of knowledge transfer partnerships, collaborative funded projects, contribution to executive education, keynotes to industry audiences, and hosting of major practitioner events.

This, along with advice on activities coming from our Strategy and Advisory Board ensures that our research and teaching is highly relevant and impacts on practice. We have developed an overview of our engagement activities, explaining our work with the media, public outreach, work with government and industry, as well as a range of other ways in which we connect with society and stakeholders.

Themes

In our research, we actively engage with the public, private and third sectors. Our domains include automotive, food and drinks, textiles, healthcare, humanitarian aid, transport and logistics, manufacturing, and retail.

Our research covers a broad range of Themes in operations research, operations management, and supply chain management in the areas of:

business ethics, sustainable business and business models
collaboration in procurement, supply chains and logistics
corporate social responsibility, modern slavery in supply chains
E-commerce, E-logistics, e-supply chain
digitalisation - supply chain digitalisation, emerging technological developments, technology innovations in logistics and supply chain
freight transport and logistics
- Green logistics, decarbonisation, international logistics, multi-modal transport, logistics business relationships, local development initiatives in alternative transport
- Humanitarian logistics
- Autonomous vehicles, electric vehicle industry
forecasting
- Forecasting models, forecasting for social good (health, humanitarian, environment, education), interface between forecasting and decision making
logistics modelling
- Network design, vehicle routing, last-mile transportation, integration of freight and public transport
operations
- 3D printing, lean, six sigma, continuous improvement and change management, manufacturing systems management, operational excellence in the era of Industry 4.0, engineer-to-order supply chains, operational excellence for healthcare supply chain
policy research (logistics, transport, procurement)
procurement, strategic purchasing and supply
- Public buyer behaviour, SME participation in public contracts, supplier selection, national procurement policy
resilient, lean and agile supply chains and logistics
shipping and maritime
- Port operations and management, shipping risk management
- Maritime economics, shipping finance
- Maritime policy and law
sustainable supply chains
system dynamics and supply chain dynamics, systems thinking, General Systems Theory, business systems engineering
- Bullwhip effect, dynamics in production and inventory systems, inventory control and inventory management

Groups and centres

We are also home to several research groups and centres, which provide the ideal environment for the development of new ideas and theories as well as the promotion of synergies. These include: