The stage of development of the logistics management thinking and of the OR methods make possible the solving of many problems of the organizations and reinforce the modeling directed to the cohesion in the supply chain. As one result, we can observe a better integration of the levels of decision for the efficiency of the strategic logistic plan with the possibility of applying a broad point of view, meaning satisfactory financial results and high quality of the service levels while the environment and bio-diversity are respected.

This creates a scenario allowing the formulation and solution of many actual organization problems with such methods, since the simple ones to the more complex. Reports of applications of OR in logistics and the supply chain cohesion are very important to disseminate the importance of OR to obtain the better results for today and for the future.

The main challenge of the industrial companies in the contemporary world is to achieve and maintain operation results accordingly to international standards of performance in a company classified as World Class Manufacturing. A company capable of achieving such a standard is able to measure the plant performance from the construction of production performance indicators adherent to its manufacturing process, and may possibly intervene emphatically when there are random restrictions that might inhibit the achievement of that objective. This is done in the pursuit of recognizing both the distance of its goal and the company possibilities of surpassing the level of effectiveness in a World Class Manufacturing company operation.

This practice has been growing in recent years from the new generation of expert systems in production scheduling, an evolution of Finite Capacity Scheduling systems for APS systems that emerged from the 1990s.

The logic of sequencing defined in the mathematical model implemented by APS systems deals with variables and constraints of the manufacturing process, product mix, strategies to meet the defined demand and production flow. Products and operations specifics can be considered as attributes, in order to establish criteria for prioritizing the model and allowing the simulation of scenarios for the production schedule. Apparently complex, the modeling process consists of surveying all manufacturing capabilities and processes of the products to be developed, and subsequent structuring the relationship of all components in the production system which, somehow, affect the production schedule.

The main objective of this special issue is to bring together papers that address the use of APS systems with emphasis on the integration of information flow in the supply chain.

Supply Chain Management encompasses different activities between suppliers, manufactures, warehouses, retailers and end-customers and due to the major transformation in the business world, The research community has been active in supply chain management area to help practitioners understand these changes in the marketplace and their implications. Still there is a gap in the research area related to supply chain in general and reverse logistics in specific. The special issue intend to address the growing opportunities for research in the area of reverse logistics and green supply chain.

To improve the efficiency and performance, firms grow to outsource part of their operating process in their supply chains to the third party players. The third party logistics and IS outsourcing are the two typical examples of this, and the third-party payment is another one which receives increasing attention in today’s e-commerce environment. Outsourcings, however, tend to lengthen and complicate the supply chains and can impair the efficiency and performance in turn if they are not well organized and managed. To reduce the negative impacts of such lengthened and complicated supply chains on firms’ operational efficiency and performance, some concepts such as communications, knowledge/information sharing, partnership, and trust, have been emphasized. The purpose of this special issue is to bring together the research on the third party’s role in today’s supply chain management in the B2B context. Especially how firms can gain benefits from the support of these third parties.