Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the class, students are expected to acquire the basic knowledge about logistics activities, processes and systems.
Applying knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students will acquire the skills needed to understand, govern, plan and design the main logistics activities, with particular reference to transport, packaging, handling and storage of goods.
Making judgements
The student must possess the appropriate knowledge for a critical analysis of the main logistics activities.
Communication skills
The student should acquire the vocabulary specific to the field of logistics. Basic terminology should be known in both Italian and English language
Learning skills
The student will be able to carry out a project of the main logistics systems and illustrate the results.
Prerequisites
Industrial Logistics is a mandatory course of the Bachelor degree in Engineering Management. Since there are several profiles (curricula) on the said degree course, with various educational offers, it is not possible to identify mandatory propedeuticities for the course of Industrial Logistics. However, for a better understanding of the course contents, it is recommended that students intending to take the exam have already taken all the exams of the first two years of the Engineering Management degree program. Knowledge of basic mathematics (derivatives, integrals, algebraic calculus) and elementary geometry is also required. Students are in particular advised to have taken the exams relating to mathematics and physics and of “Industrial plants”.
Course unit content
The course addresses mainly theoretical arguments. The following list includes the main topics:
- Logistics activities
- Freight transport systems
- Packaging systems
- Material Handling systems
- Warehouse design.
Full programme
The logistics system
• Logistics activities
• Physical description of the logistics system and related flows
• The performance of a logistics system. The concept of total logistics cost.
Freight transport systems
• Introduction to freight transport systems and choice of transport mode
• The road freight transport and related costs
• Intermodal transport.
Packaging systems
• definitions and terminology
• The costs associated with packaging
• Environmental aspects of packaging. The channels of the reverse logistics;
• Guidelines and regulatory issues related to packaging;
• Types of packaging and description.
• Identification of the packaging
• Management and design of packaging systems
Material handling systems
• definitions. Classification of material handling systems. Construction features and performance. AGV systems
• Design of material handling systems
• Description of the main types of material handling systems.
Warehouse design
• Definitions and terminology.
• processes and functional areas of a warehouse
• Process design of the storage areas intensive in manual warehouses.
Bibliography
Ferrozzi, Shapiro. Logistica e Strategia Vol I e II. McGraw-Hill
Caron, Marchet, Wegner. Impianti di movimentazione e stoccaggio dei materiali. Hoepli, Milano
Lessons slides provided by the professor.
Teaching methods
The theoretical arguments are discussed during lectures. Teaching activities will be in the form of frontal lessons in classroom, according to the decision made by the University about the organization of courses since academic year 2021/2022. The course includes exercises on the topics covered in class, which are expected to show the practical and design aspects of the course. The professor will make the teaching materials available through the Elly platform, which students are required to register for at the beginning of the course. That material is updated from year to year, which implies that it is not immediately available in its entirety at the beginning of the course. Vice versa, it is uploaded to the system as soon as it has been updated. In any case, the professor will do the best for uploading the material related to each chapter covered BEFORE the beginning of the discussion of said chapter.
Assessment methods and criteria
Learning is tested by means of a written examination in the form of a multiple-choice quiz, printed and taken in class. The test consists of 18 questions in total, to be completed in 60 minutes. 13 questions take the form of theoretical questions (worth 1.25 points; penalty for incorrect answers -0.3 points) and 5 questions take the form of exercises (worth 3 points; penalty for incorrect answers -0.3 points).
Each question has 5-6 answer options, only one of which is considered correct. There is always an option "I prefer not to say," which is obviously not the correct option, but if selected by the student, it does not involve a penalty. The teacher also interprets as "I prefer not to say" a question left blank by the student, and therefore does not apply penalties.
For exercises, it is mandatory to report the written solution that should CLEARLY indicate the line reasoning that led to selecting the (correct) answer. For the purpose of scoring the exercises, the following rules apply:
- full 3/3 marks are awarded to the exercise IF AND ONLY IF: 1) the answer selected is the correct one; and 2) the answer is accompanied by the correct unwinding, which justifies the answer given;
- in the case of a correct answer NOT accompanied by a solution procedure or accompanied by partial solution, from which it is not clear how the student came to select the selected answer choice, the score is NULL;
- in the case of selection of the "correct" answer option, accompanied by a result given that is completely out of scale with respect to the answer options given, the score is NULL as well. In fact, the answer options are not determined randomly, rather, they are relatively "reasoned" and close to the result of the exercise. Therefore, a result that is completely out of scale can only be wrong, and is treated as such. For the above reason, the professor does not advise students to answer the question where the result found is not in line with the answer options provided; if this is the case, it is preferable to select the "I prefer not to answer" option;
- in case of correct answer, with unfolding containing errors, the score is PARTIAL between 0/3 and 3/3 points;
- in case of selecting the wrong answer, the score is NEGATIVE (penalty) or NULL, regardless of the rest.
The teacher reserves the right to assign lower or partial scores even to situations other than those represented above, which, however, are those most frequently observed during the exams.
The maximum mark achievable is approximately 31 points, corresponding to a mark of 30/30 cum laude. Lower scores are rounded off (if necessary), depending on the mathematical score achieved, and in particular: fractional scores from 0.05 to 0.45 are rounded down, while fractional scores from 0.5 to 0.95 are rounded up. The test does NOT include any bonus points. Therefore, an examination is considered sufficient if the score obtained is at least 17.50/30; lower scores ARE NOT considered sufficient.
Students are advised to read the questions carefully before answering.
For the written test, the learner may use a calculator, but may not use teaching materials.
The final assessment is expressed in thirtieths and the result is sent to the students using the ESSE3 platform. After the publication of the results, and by the date of the minutes, the teacher is available for students to view the assignments and request any clarifications. A supplementary oral test is NOT foreseen.
Other information
The exam can be taken ONLY and ONLY IF the student is correctly registered on ESSE3 system. A student which is not registered for the exam is not accepted and cannot do it in that session. NO JUSTIFICATIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED AS VALID FOR THE LACK OF THE REGISTRATION; the professor also advises against students making such requests. Upon successful completion of the examination, the student has a maximum of 15 days to proceed with the verbalization or prosecute the case of rejection of the grade (deadline imposed by the online verbalization system). Please note that the action of accepting/rejecting the grade is entirely up to the student, and that the teacher does NOT have any action that can be exercised in this regard. Therefore, communications sent to the teacher with a request to reject the grade are completely useless and CANNOT be processed by the professor. After that period, if the student has not performed the Reject action (or has not performed any action), the grade is deemed to be accepted and will be verbalized.
