Supply Chain Strategy

by Edward H. Frazelle

High-Tech and High-Touch Logistics Solutions for Supply Chain Challenges In today's fast-paced and customer-oriented business environment, superior supply chain performance is a prerequisite to getting and staying competitive. Supply Chain Strategy is based on world-class logistics practices in place in successful supply chain organizations, the latest academic breakthroughs in logistics system design, and the logic of logistics. It presents the proven pillars of success in logistics and supply chain management. Part of McGraw-Hill's Logistics Management Library, Supply Chain Strategy is organized according to author Dr. Ed Frazelle's breakthrough logistics master planning methodology. The methodology leads to metrics, process designs, system designs, and organizational strategies for total supply chain management, total logistics management, customer response, inventory planning and management, supply, transportation, and warehousing. Concise yet complete, Dr. Frazelle's book shows how to develop a comprehensive logistics and supply chain strategy, one that will both complement and support a company's strategic objectives and long-term success. Logistics­­the flow of material, information, and money between consumers and suppliers­­has become a key boardroom topic. It is the subject of cover features in business publications from Wall Street Journal to BusinessWeek . Annual global logistics expenditures exceed $3.5 trillion, nearly 20 percent of the world's GDP, making logistics perhaps the last frontier for major corporations to significantly increase shareholder and customer value. And at the heart of every effort to improve organizational logistics performance? Supply chain efficiency. Supply Chain Strategy is today's most comprehensive resource for up-to-the-minute thinking and practices on developing supply chain strategies that support a company's overall objectives. Covering world-class practices and systems, taken from the files of Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, General Electric, and other companies, it covers essential supply chain subjects Supply Chain Strategy explains and demonstrates how decision makers can use today's technology to enhance key logistics systems at every point in the supply chain, from the time an idea or product is conceived through its delivery to the final user. It describes the major steps in developing an effective, workable logistics management program­­one that w

357 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2001

Reviews

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is fond of reading and thinking about the study of logistics [1], I figured that I would like this book, and I did.  Logistics has often been looked down upon as one of the less prestigious aspects of business, despite its immense important, and those of us who are deeply fond of studying logistics tend to have a strong degree of support for the underdog about us, as this book certainly does.  What surprised me about this book was not that I enjoyed it a great deal but rather that the author repeatedly cites scripture and draws parallels between our absence of faith in what cannot be seen between inventory as well as matters of faith.  The fact that the author is able to make an impressive connection between supply chain management and the difficulties of faith raises this book from a solid book about a neglected area of study to a very interesting book that is deeply worthy of being read.  To be sure, some of the technological aspects of this book are likely to be at least a little bit out of date because it was written about fifteen years ago, but the underlying principles of how improving one's logistical capabilities can improve a business for its customers as well as everyone else involved is certainly a timeless and worthwhile lesson.

The roughly 350 pages of this book are thoughtfully organized into ten chapters.  The first chapter defines logistics and shows its change over time in business.  After that the next two chapters investigate logistics performance and practices in activity profiling and data mining as well as various performance, cost, and value measures for the field.  The next five chapters look at various practices and systems within logistics as a whole:  customer response principles and systems, inventory planning and management, supply management, transportation and distribution management, and warehouse operations.  The last two chapters examine the implementation of logistics systems including logistics and supply chain information systems and logistics organization design and development.  As someone who has worked in various logistics related jobs, especially as the author defines it, there was much to appreciate here in terms of the attention and respect that he pays to logistics in general.  The author has previously written books on warehouse management and it is pretty clear in this book that he speaks with some expertise in the subject.

There are at least a few things that the author seeks to do with this book, and in the intervening years it is clear that at least some of these goals were met.  The author's caution about customer responses to outsourcing was advice that many companies unfortunately did not heed at some cost to their reputation in many cases.  The discussion of warehouse management being stuck between a rock and a hard place definitely applies as more has been demanded of support functions where less resources have been provided, with results that have been predictable.  This book manages to give some strong encouragement to firms to reward their most productive staff so that logistics departments can retain their best employees in the face of desires for advancement and increased salaries.  The book features some quaint spreadsheet-looking dashboards for key performance indicators for various logistics measures and the book as a whole has strong achievement in terms of its visuals.  If this book is read by managers and executives and not only logistics employees with an interest in self-education, it is possible that this work may have done some good in raising the stature of logistics among world-class companies who were aware that companies no less than armies depend on their competence and skill in such areas. 

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

[Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Broader logistics based book than World Class Material Handling. Probably Better source for any supply chain professional