A coordinated and integrated management of the Manufacturing Logistics function is essential for the success of any manufacturing enterprise. Manufacturing Logistics (ML) is defined as that part of a business enterprise engaged in the planning and control of inventory and production. The activities of manufacturing logistics range from aggregate production planning to detailed shop floor scheduling and control and include the typical materials management functions of inventory planning, production planning and scheduling, purchasing, and material control. These manufacturing management functions interact with each other and hence proper coordination between them is critical. The practice of Manufacturing Logistics management is in dire need of improvement. In spite of major advances in technology, inventory turns (a measure of ML performance) for US manufacturers has seen no significant improvement over the last four decades. While the practice of ML continues, the research effort in ML is conducted largely by the academic community. This workshop will address three dichotomies among the ML researchers and practitioners. These are: (1) academic versus industry points of view, (2) engineering versus business point of view, (3) operations research versus information systems point of view. If major advances in the practice of ML are to take place then a long run and coherent point of view will be needed with an eye toward focussing research talent/efforts to the best advantage. ***
