Purchasing Books

this book is good but if you really want to learn about supply chain management better look for STRATEGIC LOGISTIC MANAGEMENT FROM JAMES STOCK AND DOUGLAS LAMBERT

This is a solid introductory effort to supply chain management and the integral function and role SCM plays in contemporary business.

The authors do an excellent job describing the importance of operational excellence in an age of increased globalization. The authors also do a superb job in emphasizing the role SCM plays in shareholder value, and how SCM can be used as an X factor in forging competitive advantage.

The only fault I see with the book is the focus on speed instead of authoritative SCM optimization. Charles Fine's Clockspeed and other works handle supply, demand, delivery issues in a more balanced and lucid manner.

Supercharging Supply-Chains is aimed at providing senior executives with an overview of the issues, and an approach to achieving operational excellence through the supply chain.

Highlights of the chapters include:

* Linking operational performance to shareholder value- greater free cashflow & market capitalization , operations as the bridge connecting strategy & shareholder value, key principles for operational excellence (e.g. differentiated supply-chain strategy, organize along processes, collaborate with customers & suppliers, invest in IT, people & expertise, manage by product/channel, outsource elements, think globally, build regionally, operate locally, and execute through focus, measurement & empowerment).

* Operations issues- business overview (develop, plan, buy, make, move, sell, market, and finance), only 4 organization structures, key metrics (EMV, share price, return on net assets, net profits after tax), 3 requirements for competitiveness (structure, measures & rapidity), 12 key imperatives (flexibility, plan & measure, structure logistics, leanness, information optimization, unequal customer treatment, operate globally, virtuality & collaborative management, e-commerce, leverage people, operationalize new product introductions, mass-customize & postpone), and dashboard performance measures.

* Demand and supply planning- 8 key tenets (high-level accountability, combine demand & supply planning, eliminate impact of product forecast, create a common language & focus on commonality, treat customers unequally, plan for spares & returns, replace inventory with information & analysis, and focus on deployment transparency).

* Sales- 4 key steps (segment markets & product groups, identify key value points by customer, identify consolidation opportunities around the customer, and identify & create common processes & systems around the customer).

* Sourcing & suppliers- 10 principles (extend chain towards suppliers, organize right people effectively, develop commodity teams, practice global sourcing & supplier management, focus on total costs, simplify, let suppliers manage (vendor-managed inventories, consortium buying, or outsourcing), leverage IT and e-commerce, enhance sourcing automation, partner smart), and 6 basic IT areas (tactical planning & support, core transaction processing, EDI/web, imaging/forms automation/bar-coding, automated purchase orders, and integration with suppliers' IT).

* Advanced logistics- reducing capital expenditures by improving use of fixed assets (rationalize distribution networks, outsource select processes, explore shared facilities, optimize use of equipment, and understand tax implications of chain) and reduce working capital by minimizing inventories (consolidate warehouses, use in-transit warehousing, replace inventories with information, reduce distribution cycle time, and implement demand/supply planning & management).

* Product introductions- 6 tenets- link PIP to supply/demand planning, concurrent/codevelopment, design with commonality, better business case, and world-class teams.

* Supply chain project management- ensure value, manage risk, use method, and use iterative approach.

* Summary findings from a basic supply chain survey study.

Strengths include: the timeliness and interest of the subject; the concise content-rich style; good use of appropriate & attractive sidebars, figures, and tables; mostly high-quality content; and good consistent chapter structure including summary and "questions for the managers".

On the negative side are: the occasional typos, errors & omissions; inconsistency & lack of definition of acronyms; poor supporting materials & references; some throwaway (non-value-add) content; re-labeling of older established technologies as current & innovative (e.g. EDI); and a "linear-generic" rather than "thorough" treatment of the subject (i.e. little option of tools for each stage). `Supercharging' sometimes felt like a (good) sales document or lightly-referenced literature review, without enough guidance for you to directly use the material without (Ernst & Young) consulting support.

Overall, supercharging supply chains is a good starting discussion point on contemporary supply-chain practice. Use with a deeper operations text like Slack or Wild (with wide, referenced, rigorous toolsets), as well as supply-chain vendor specifics (standards/professional organisations, tools, and methodologies) to actually achieve business change. Clients beware- extracts from Supercharging charts and tables could be used by unscrupulous consultants to sell supply-chain engagements!

I am a consultant with the largest supply chain practice in the world, and I await the release of new texts on supply chain content with great interest. Based on the reputation of Gene Tyndall and a colleauge's personal recommendation, I purchased "Supercharging" with this same great enthusiasm. After finishing the book, however, my opinion is that its a grand testament to the hypebole, unsubstantiated claims and lack of professional rigor that so often gives consultants a bad name. The book seriously drops the ball in several areas.

First, I have read enough books, including this one, that promise enhanced supply chain management will directly improve share price; despite "Supercharging" positioning this as the central tenant of their argument, I am still waiting for valid proof. Anecdotes and self-serving case studies, which this book has in extreme abundance, will not suffice.

If you conduct a literature seach of academic databases you can find dozens of rigorous, statistically valid studies that attempt to isolate and identify the primary correlative variable(s) to a firm's share price. To my knowledge, the following variables have been examined: EVA generation, marketing capabilities, traditional accounting measures, change in EPS, product/process quality performance and even supply chain management. Conclusions from all these studies which I have read are typically mixed, but none of them claim to have found the "magic bullet;" Tyndall et. al. not only claim to have found the magic bullet, but they ask us to swallow this significant statement based solely on the collective experience of the authors. As they say, we believe God, all others must bring data.

For example, I would like the authors to provide the source data for a figure early in the book which shows a straight-line, linear relationship between a firm's "instrinsic" stock price and its working capital investment rate. So my conclusion is that by simply increasing working capital turnover, any firm can boost their market capitalization by several billion dollars. I would ask the authors to look at Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE), which dramatically improved its working efficiency in the recent past when it shed its manufacturing assets and became a "shell" corporation. There was a short-lived share price jump, which was simply a favorable reaction from The Street, which has long-since disappeared.

The lengthy point which I am trying to make is that for every self-serving case example the authors have dredged up, I can serve up one which is equally contradictory. I feel they are treading on complex ground with heavy boots and stepping on all kinds of land mines.

Second, this book is a great witch's brew of the latest supply chain programs and trends: integrated planning, customer-centric logistics, collaboration, etc. I am very uncomfortable with knowledgeable supply chain consultants presenting laundry lists of what the authors call "proven and common sense" ideas to readers with no discriminatory or categorical framework to support the ideas. For example, its very easy to claim that eProcurement is a great approach for gaining operational excellence. What this book does not do, and what is much harder to do, is to help a company decide what will give them a defensible, strategic advantage in thier supply chain. Maybe its not eProcurement, but a strategicu sourcing project to stabilize and capture sources of supply. Maybe its a supplier rationalization and management project to cut transaction and ordering costs. The point is, the approach used by the authors is analogous to giving an excited teenager his first new hunting rifle with no instructions: you know he's probably going to kill something, we're just not sure if its a deer or the neighbor's dog.

Last, this is just too much of a feel-good book for me. I felt like I was slowly being suffocated by all the consulting-ease, jargon and glittering generalities that pervade the book. Remember, I am a supply chain consultant that truly believes most all companies have significant untapped operational and financial improvement opportunities in their supply chains. I just feel that its the consultant's duty to temper his/her beliefs with (valid!) empirical data, rigorous approaches and a value-adding framework to discuss all of these new ideas.

I would never recommend this book to anyone. If you are supply chain beginner I would recommend purchasing one of the college texts which contain structured content on supply chain fundamentals. Don't allow this book to put stars in your eyes or make you skip all the good supply chain details that already exist in more basic texts.

If you are a supply chain professional, I recommend you also skip this book and search for texts that focus on your particular area of specialization. Don't believe the hype, and if you do, don't blame me just because I am a consultant.

Good book but came with a defective forms CD.I was told by the American Management Association that I need to run the CD on win 95 to open the files? The book was published in 2002!

I've ordered this book 3 times. Each time the book, which includes a CD-ROM in the back for the ease of duplicating the many forms inside, came with a defective disk. AMACOM rebuffed, rather rudely in fact, my request for a replacement disk. They were also contacted by ... AMACOM refused their request to fix their defective CDs as well. At this point, I'm returning the book.

This is unfortunate because the book is well written, but I have no plans to purchase anything published by AMACOM again.

I was a little skeptical about ordering the book given the other review's comments of defective cds. My book came with 2 cds and the one with the files in RTF format worked just fine with MS Word.
The contents of the book are layed out in an easy to follow structure. It is easy to transition from the early overview chapters onwards to specific, detailed topics covered later in the book.

This book give us very practical information related to negotiation and contract practices.
On the side of negotiation, the subjects are mostly to beginners on Supply Chain Depts.
The topics about contracts (templates, T&Cs) bring useful information, even to seniors executives.
I recommend to take care about the author's advice to managers on how they may interact with Legal Departments, if you work in Brazil.

A quick look at the back cover tells you that the author struggles with the passing of the days of win-lose. In the book, he writes as though he is so fearful of being manipulated by a vendor, that he becomes a predator. Is that the way to build a relationship? Is the business world a jungle or do we make it a jungle by how we act? What would the game of business be like if we all played fair? We will never know if we follow the tactics in this book. The retail auto industry is learning the long term ill effects of manipulation and even they are changing their ways.

I wonder what happens when the vendor discovers your ploys? Are they on your property when they discover you have lied to get a better deal? Are they protecting your employees by installing safety equipment when they learn that you are not trustworthy? The author advocates that the vendor ploys to take your money so you should ploy to get the most for your money. At what level of ethics does this make sense?

When is it really okay to lie? What do you teach your children? Page 80, the endless BAFO recommends that you lie to vendors in order to get a better deal. What happens if that vendor is your neighbor or attends your church?

We live where we work more today than ever before. Check your name on the internet and see who already knows what you do. We must sustain positive relationships at work and at home. Manipulation is not sustainable.

I recommend Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey or Conscious Business by Fred Kofman.

[Disclaimer: I'm Stephen's friend and we talk frequently about these topics.]

The simple truth is that there aren't that many good resources available for people who negotiate contracts, and virtually none of them are written for someone who is a contract professional and sees vendor ploys on a consistent basis. This would seem to not necessarily be a huge deal - you wouldn't think that a negotiation handbook would need to be written to that specific of an audience.

Contract professionals, however, are in a really strange position. We tend to see these ploys so many times and in so many forms that it is sometimes hard to catch the nuances. In other words, we become SO immersed in the shades of gray that we can't tell which shade is lighter or darker.

Stephen's book delineates each shade of gray. He takes each ploy, breaks it down to its component parts and explains the mechanisms by which it works (and how to counter it). Then he turns the tables to discuss buyer tactics and their operation.

Additionally, the Contract Negotiation Handbook covers specific language negotiation on several key contractual terms - which very few other publications even attempt. Lastly, Stephen reviews methods by which you can measure negotiation performance, in essence giving the reader the ability to measure the results of putting the Contract Negotiation Handbook's advice into practice!

Overall, this book more than makes good on its promise of being indispensable. I hope you don't have one the next time we meet across the negotiation table.

Knod and Schonberger have written the best general text available on production/operations management at the undergraduate level.The text has very good chapters on Capacity Planning(aggregate capacity planning),Scheduling,Design(reliability and serviceability),Quality and process control(especially pp.318-322 on mean and range charts and pp.327-330 on process capability analysis),Inventory control,Timing(waiting lines and queues),and PERT.A minor weakness is that a discussion of the use of the Beta distribution in PERT analysis is omitted from the book.Anyone who covers this book throughly will be very well prepared to take senior level undergraduate courses and graduate level courses in operations management.

Fairly good survey book. Having an undergrad operations background, I found this book mirrored the strengths and weaknesses of a more detailed operations curriculum. Book is best in framework and quantitative model overviews, weaker on softer subjects like staffing, project management, & holistic quality.

If your MBA professor offers Schonberger as the answer to 21st Century Operations Management, seek a transfer quick. Obsessed with a touchy-feeling "quality paradigm", there is not enough meat here to frighten off the most zealous vegetarian. The chapters on "managing projects" and "facilities management" are especially shallow.

After reading this book on trading the OEX, I had a better insight as to how this instrument works. Personally, I'm still considering whether or not I should start trading the OEX. This book helped me a lot in my decision. If you have any interest in OEX trading, you should start by readin this book.

On reading further -- each chapter has been exended to include later trades (1990 - 93) and some strategic changes to the approaches are suggested. The book is interesting reading, some of the comments are good (amusing) but not always helpful in trading. The discussion of SP500 futures should deter many a would-be trader, I would think.

If you have a copy of "Taking Profit from the OEX" by Arthur Darack then just re-read it. This book, supposedly published in 1995, is just a re-hash of the previous book. Even the chapter headings have the same name, and the same content. If nothing has changed since the first one (198?) then why change the title. Stan Graham

For anyone in the leasing business, this is a wonderful book to own. It is a complete training course in equipment leasing. The author has the only good explanation I could ever find of concepts such as leveraged leases. This book is a _must_ for anyone in the equipment leasing industry.

I wish that the author had worked out a few examples with the reader on cash flows and pricing of leases. There is some math that is not very clear to the first time reader. I also wish that there was some more information about vendor leasing and lease origination.

Regardless, this is one heck of a training course in leasing for under 20 dollars. If you are in any way involved with leasing, this is money well spent.

This book is more about the benefits and features of leasing. It does not give the reader any information on structuring a lease. The only benefit that I saw in reading this book was that it did inform me about different lease types.

In many instances, Gordon seems to be protective of sellers although the first word in the title is "Buyers." As a buyer, I am frustrated with her biased advice, e.g., leave positive feedback for the seller so that they will do the same for you. A buyer completes his/her responsibilities first, that is, to pay. Once done, the logical step would be for the seller to rate that buyer. Then when the piece of jewelry is received--if it is received--the buyer should rate the seller on whether the piece was sold and shipped with integrity.

This book can be interesting even if you have utterly no intention of buying or selling jewelry on eBay. Who would have thought when eBay started up, selling trinkets, that jewelry would rapidly form a multimillion dollar niche? Not a small niche at all.

Gordon goes into the practical details for both buyers and sellers. The book's paramount theme seems to be how to avoid getting ripped off. Unsurprising, considering the high valued nature of the items. For professional sellers, detecting fake buyers is vital to staying solvent. Whereas real buyers tend not to do this as a profession. So while a buyer might suffer a loss due to a fake seller, it's not like being put out of business.

But, if you follow her guidelines and use some common sense, you should have good chances of a successful transaction.

I was disappointed. The material in this book is incomplete and dated. Don't bother.

This book is really cool. It tells you how to search and compare cars online. Allows everyone who is interested in buying a new or used car a way to inform themselves on everything from the safety to the best prices. How to find car clubs, speciality items - everything except how to find a date. Really cool book!

This book delivers answers to questions you may not have even considered before buying a business. It is an easy to understand, step-by-step practical approach to a highly involved process, and could save one thousands of dollars and many long hours of disappointment. Tuller delivers the goods from the start of the buying process to the finish, giving practical examples all along the way. Highly recommended!

The author should concentrate less on the quantity of books he throws together and more on the quality of the material. As a business broker, I felt the book was full of unrelated tangents and only occasionally provided the reader with useful insight.

A couple of years ago, a friend and I decided to try our hand at the surplus business that everyone was talking about. He ordered a course from a company called ACL and after months of frustration with the material and company, we almost gave up the idea. We ran across Mr. Kulesza's book, "Hidden Wealth: How to find, buy, sell and broker surplus and liquidated goods" and fearing it might be another scam, we almost didn't buy it. What a mistake that would have been! After we read the book several times, the whole concept of the industry suddenly became clear to us. We were on the wrong track all along, thus our frustration. Since then we've built up a great closeout/surplus business that supports both our families very well. When we heard that Mr. Kulesza released a new fourth edition, "Hidden Wealth: How to reap huge profits from surplus goods and equipment in the 21st century" we had to have it. He outdid himself with this updated edition. Anyone wanting down-to-earth, no bull, step by step information about surplus must read this book.

Contrary to what one reviewer wrote, there is nothing in the book about antiques! Don't know where that came from. And the text is not large...it's small and packed on pages with no filler material. A meaner, leaner version of the previous edition.

I'll forever be grateful to the author for his fine work and dedication to the industry. There's a good reason this book made it to the fourth edition. It changed our lives for the better. It's the best forty bucks I've ever spent.

The big type, the philosophical filler pages, and the fact that he's basically saying "call around for hours, and see if anyone has anything they are desperate to get rid of, then turn around and sell it at a profit" fulfilled my expectation that this book would be virtually worthless to anyone trying to find out exactly HOW to make money in this business.

This book was biased towards antiques, which I know absolutely nothing about, and would certainly lose my shirt attempting to sell. I had hoped instead for some SPECIFIC examples of where to go and find items to sell. Instead, this book is mostly vague "you can do this" rah rah stuff. Utterly worthless to me, especially at the obscenely high price for a paperback with big type.