Transportation mode selection across truck, rail, ocean, and air, the four core warehouse operations, distribution network design, and the make-or-buy decision behind third-party logistics.
This module is where the supply-chain planning decisions from earlier modules turn into physical movement: which transportation mode actually gets goods from one point to the next, how a warehouse receives, stores, picks, and ships product once it arrives, and how many distribution centers a network should operate and where. A worked mode-selection example compares ocean freight against air freight on the same shipment to show why the right choice depends on the inventory context around it, not on cost or speed alone.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a centralized distribution network typically needs less total safety stock than a decentralized one serving the same customers, and when outsourcing a logistics function to a 3PL makes more sense than operating it in-house.