Scheduling a Major College Basketball Conference

I am pleased to present this Focus Issue on Manufacturing Logistics. Unlike a special issue, where new papers are solicited that deal with a theme, this issue was created by pulling together previously accepted papers from all topical areas of the journal. Thus, this focused issue achieves two goals. First, it creates a volume that presents state-of-the-art thinking on manufacturing logistics. Second, it reduces the backlog of accepted papers thereby reducing the publication delay-i.e., the time from acceptance to publication-which had been as long as 24 months. Our goal is, through the use of this supplement, to reduce the publication delay to 12 months over the next year. I hope that you enjoy this focused issue and I look forward to your comments and suggestions.