A trend toward global customers, an increasing demand for customer service, a growing awareness of the huge logistics cost to provide this service and the remarkable technological advances related to computing are revolutionizing logistics. The key components to gaining a competitive advantage using logistics are ��strategy�� and ��technology.��  There is currently a huge investment being made in technology for automatically capturing logistics data, tracking material, and processing logistics related transactions. This creates the opportunity for taking advantage of better quality, more detailed, and more timely information.  It also poses the threat of logistics managers being buried under an avalanche of data or to the automation of bad decision making.  In order to achieve the potential of new logistics technology, it must be integrated with good logistics strategy and decision-making. This presentation will discuss the growing availability of this new information technology, its impact on logistics strategies, and the concepts and tools necessary to utilize it for competitive advantage.

Dr. H. Donald Ratliff is Regents�� and UPS Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Executive Director of the Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech.  He was Co-founder and served as President of CAPS Logistics, a leading edge supplier of logistics software, until its acquisition by the Baan Company in September 1998.  He also servers on the executive board of the Logistics Institute �C Asia Pacific.
As Executive Director of the Logistics Institute, Dr. Ratliff provides leadership for the largest research program in the world devoted to the study of engineering logistics. Dr. Ratliff has published more than fifty refereed papers and designed a variety of computer software addressing logistics issues.  He has given more than one hundred invited presentations at national and international meetings.  He has consulted for over forty companies on a wide range of issues related to movement and storage of products.
Dr. Ratliff has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Operations Research, Area Editor for Optimization, Departmental Editor for Applied Optimization in IIE Transactions and Associate Editor of Management Science.  He was awarded the 1991 ��Outstanding Research Award�� of the Institute of Industrial Engineers for his work in logistics and is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers.  Dr. Ratliff was elected to the National Academy of Engineers for his work in developing interactive network optimization methodology for use in the design and operation of logistics systems