The comments of delegates attending recent LRN conferences have included “challenged, stimulated, invigorated, informed … ”. These adjectives certainly describe editors collating conference proceedings and Guest Editors of the conference special issue. We all owe renewed thanks for the efforts of Ed Sweeney following LRN2004 and David Menachof following LRN2003. Above all, we hope that you, the readers, will share our reactions.
How can the proceedings of LRN2005, which attracted over 130 delegates who presented 85 oral and poster papers with authors from 21 countries, be distilled into one edition? One criterion for selecting papers was conformance with the conference theme of inter-national logistics and supply chain management, but such parochialism would deny a myriad of excellent and diverse papers that were presented. Behind the scenes, initial sifting of papers relied on the contributions of a dedicated team of professional, diligent and uncomplaining volun-teers. Jonathan Challacombe, Irma Pasukeviciute, Dongping Song and Eugene Madejski deserve special commendation for their editorial efforts. During conference, Denise Horne assisted Debbie McCauley and the LRN team in ensuring an efficient administration to support presenters. Post-conference, an anonymous team of 30 reviewers contributed to selecting and enhancing papers.
Although Alan McKinnon's provocative review of the impact of European truck tolling schemes on logistics systems has been superseded by UK government policy, it illustrates the importance of keeping abreast of international developments. Only the reader can decide whether Peter Baker's account of the design of distribution centres to meet the needs of agility is characteristic solely of international supply chains. Such chains introduce further complexities posed by Peter Hines, Kate Bailey and Mark Francis relating to quality-based pricing in the agrifood industry, and energy consumption, discussed by Michael Browne, Julian Allen and Christophe Rizet. Andy Chapell and Helen Peck consider the role of six sigma in managing risk in military supply chains.
We sometimes forget that supply chains fail due to internal misalignment, as Anthony Mitchell and Remko van Hoek remind us. System implementation can pose further problems, debated by Paivi Iskanius and Heli Kilpala, and Glenn Parry, Andrew Graves and Mike James-Moore remind us that attempts to forge closer relationships with supply chain partners may even threaten core competences. Not forgetting “the last mile”, Fraser McLeod, Thomas Cherrett and Liying Song review the transport impacts of local collection and delivery points, and David Grant, Chariklia Karagianni and Mei Li consider forecasting and stock obsolescence in whisky production.
Yet, many unanswered questions and much unfinished business remain. The privilege of being first to catch up on developments since findings were presented in Plymouth and edit the next conference proceedings now falls on Michael Bourlakis and his team in Newcastle. We shall be there, and we look forward to seeing you, our international logistics and supply chain partners, at LRN2006.