The text begins with a discussion of the basic principles of supply chain management and some attributes of certain industries. The remainder of the text is devoted to developing and applying mathematical concepts needed to address the many issues associated with managing supply chains and, in particular, uncertainty, in a variety of real world settings. In particular, the final chapter is devoted to the design and operation of a vaccine distribution system during a pandemic along with a critique of the way the system used in the United States performed.

Jack Muckstadt is the Acheson-Laibe Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, in Cornell University's School of Operations Research and Information Engineering and a Stephen H Weiss Presidential Fellow. Professor Muckstadt was the School's Director for nine years; he also established and was the first director of the Cornell Manufacturing Engineering and Productivity Program. He is the co - director of Cornell's Institute for Disease and Disaster Preparedness. His teaching, research and consulting interests are in the areas of manufacturing systems and manufacturing logistics, supply chain systems, service parts management and, most recently, response logistics for mass casualty events and health system operations. He is a Fellow in two professional organizations.

Professor Muckstadt was an active duty officer in the U.S. Air Force for 12 years and the reserves for 9 years, primarily working in the logistics field, with responsibility for spare parts planning.

Among the organizations he has or is currently consulting for are Amazon.com, Avon, Accenture, Eaton-Aeroquip, Aspen Technology, General Electric, Xerox, General Motors, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Chicago Pneumatic Tool, SAS Air Lines, Rand Corporation, Logistics Management Institute, IBM, General Foods, United Rentals, Sunoco, Philip Morris, Servigistics, Nissan and Bell Atlantic.

He is the Senior Partner of Cayuga Partners, a consulting company that focuses on supply chain design, analysis, and operations.

Dr. Muckstadt holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester and an M.A. in Mathematics and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Preface.- Principles of Supply Chain Management.- Analysis of Ordering Patterns in Serial Supply Chains.- Pooling in Supply Chains.- Mathematics of Pooling.- Including Capacity Limitations in Planning Models.- Real-time Execution Systems.- Design and Operation of the Vaccine Distribution Supply Chain.- Bibliography.- Index.