Reliable, Secure and Resilient Logistics Networks: Delivering Products in a Risky Environment

This book synthesizes the current state of knowledge on logistics infrastructures and process modeling, especially for processes that are exposed to changing and uncertain environments. It then builds on this knowledge to present a new concept of dependable product delivery assurance. In order to quantitatively assess dependability, a service continuity oriented approach as well as an imperfect knowledge based concept of risk are employed. This approach is based on the methodology of service engineering and is closely related to the idea of the resilient enterprise, as well as the concept of disruption-tolerant operation. The practical advantages of this concept are subsequently illustrated in three sample applications: a modified FMECA method, an expert system with fuzzy reasoning, and a simulation agent-based model of logistic network resilience.

The book will benefit a broad readership, including: researchers, especially in systems science, management science and operations research; professionals, especially managers; project managers and analysts; and undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students in engineering.

Lech Bukowski is a Professor of Management Engineering at the University of Dąbrowa Górnicza (Poland). His areas of interest include System Science, especially Systems Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Resilience Engineering, Industrial Logistics and Management Engineering. He has published more than 220 scientific papers and is the author or co-author of 12 monographs in Polish, English and German.

Bukowski graduated from the AGH University of Science and Technology Cracow (Ph.D. degree in 1976 and D.Sc. degree (Habilitation) in 1990) and was appointed Professor of Engineering in 1998. In 2003 he received an honorary professorial degree from the Technical University of Clausthal (Germany). He is an active member of the Scientific Committees of many international congresses and conferences (e.g. chairman of the Conference Total Logistic Management since 1996) and serves on the editorial boards of various scientific periodicals. He has been invited as a Visiting Professor to academic institutions in e.g. the United States, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. 

Bukowski’s professional career began at the Chemical Company “Azoty Tarnów” and continued as head of the research group at the Metallurgical Company “Nowa Huta” in Cracow. From 1976 to 1994 he was a lecturer at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics), and from 1981 to 1987 he also served as an Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Clausthal in West Germany. From 1994 to 2003, Bukowski worked as a Professor of Engineering and Head of the Department for Systems Quality and Reliability. He worked at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow as Head of the Systems Engineering Department (2003–2006), Head of the Management Engineering Department (2006–2012), and Dean of the Faculty (2005–2012). Since 2013 he has been working at WSB University as Director of the Business EngineeringCenter.