Inbound Logistics’ Summer Reading Guide 2013

<em>Inbound Logistics</em>’ Summer Reading Guide 2013

Hitting the beach this summer? Don’t forget to bring something to read. Whether you need just a little brushing up, or are looking for the latest best practices to streamline your supply chain, sharpen your logistics skills with these books covering everything from Lean practices to information technology.

Reverse Supply Chains: Issues and Analysis

Edited By Surendra M. Gupta

The introduction of reverse supply chains has created many challenges in network design; transportation; selecting used products, suppliers and end-of-life alternatives; measuring performance; marketing-related issues; remanufacturing; disassembly; and managing product acquisition. This book addresses the issues faced by strategic, tactical, and operational reverse supply chain planners, and provides mathematical and/or simulation modeling-based solutions.

Key takeaways: The reverse supply chain has evolved quickly, opening many new avenues of opportunity. By familiarizing yourself with the latest concepts and methodologies outlined in this book, you can be much more effective at establishing a successful reverse supply chain.

Creating Entrepreneurial Supply Chains: A Guide for Innovation and Growth

By William B. Lee, Ph.D.

Entrepreneurial supply chains can enhance the value of any business, as you’ll see in Creating Entrepreneurial Supply Chains. Learn how leading companies such as Cisco, 3M, and Corning developed entrepreneurial supply chains by focusing on unexplored growth and innovation opportunities, and the value they gained by doing so. A single case study threaded throughout the book illustrates how one company employed the author’s entrepreneurial ideas, concepts, tools, and techniques.

Key takeaways: Rather than rely on a traditional supply chain that focuses only on cost, quality, and delivery, your company may choose to implement an entrepreneurial supply chain, which emphasizes innovation and growth. By including your natural supply chain partners—both customers and suppliers—in your entrepreneurial plans, you can work together to improve supply chain efficiency.

Managing Global Supply and Risk: Best Practices, Concepts, and Strategies

By Robert J. Trent, Llewellyn R. Roberts

As companies continue to go global, it’s important for you to learn what it takes to successfully pursue international purchasing, global supply management, and global risk management. In Managing Global Supply and Risk, authors Trent and Roberts cover all aspects of supply management, and provide a comprehensive overview and explanation of global supply risk. They offer advice on how to prevent and manage risk, and ways to leverage supply market intelligence.

Key takeaways: In today’s tough global business world, it’s easy for any company to make mistakes in the way it manages its supply chain. The advice in this book can help you avoid those mistakes, and improve supply management processes and global risk preparedness.

Information Technologies, Methods, and Techniques of Supply Chain Management

By John Wang

Here’s one handy resource and reference guide for the latest supply chain research, case studies, frameworks, methodologies, architectures, and best practices, contributed by supply chain management experts worldwide. This handbook covers a wide range of topics including benchmarking; customer service and relationship management; distribution network configuration; distribution strategy; inventory management; organization structure; product development and commercialization; supplier relationship management; and warehouse management.

Key takeaways: To manage complex supply chain networks, practitioners must stay on top of the latest supply chain management research and developments. This one book contains all the new methods and best practices you need to help you adopt new strategies that maintain maximum efficiency.

The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain: How to Create A Green Infrastructure with Lean Technologies

By Robert Palevich

This book illustrates how organizations can leverage complex, content-rich information environments to reduce costs and gain environmental benefits. Drawing on ideas, strategies, and technologies gleaned from more than 30 years of running supply chains and collaborating with industry leaders, Palevich presents implementation techniques, and matches them with detailed guidance for evaluating productivity, cost, and environmental improvements.

Key takeaways: By carefully tracking metrics in areas such as transportation, inventory, personnel, paper usage, productivity, building space, IT resources, and service levels, companies can build responsible and profitable supply chains and business operations.

Kanban for the Supply Chain: Fundamental Practices for Manufacturing Management

By Stephen Cimorelli

You know Kanban is a scheduling system for Lean and just-in-time production. But do you know how to apply it to your organization? This recently updated edition of Kanban for the Supply Chain details the steps required for implementing Kanban at each stage of the manufacturing and supply chain management process, and focuses on creating an environment for success. The book presents numerous techniques and tools for setting up Kanban, involving a wide array of material types, dimensions, and storage media, and illustrates how they are useful in any manufacturing environment.

Key takeaways: When properly implemented, Kanban improves material flow, thereby increasing the supply chain’s productivity, profitability, and performance—which is critical to sustaining Lean manufacturing operations.

Supply Chain Security: A Comprehensive Approach

By Dr. Arthur G. Arway

Keeping supply chains secure is a priority for many companies operating globally. Supply Chain Security: A Comprehensive Approach provides the tools necessary to maintain a secure supply chain. The book demonstrates how to establish and enforce security policies and protocols, and shows logistics professionals how to integrate business practices into planning, developing, and operating supply chains to successfully ensure security and protect assets.

Key takeaways: Demonstrating to stakeholders and customers that you provide a secure environment for materials, products, goods, and cargo can increase your customer base and improve the bottom line.

Food Safety Regulatory Compliance: Catalyst For a Lean and Sustainable Food Supply Chain

By Preston W. Blevins

This book provides food for thought for anyone involved in food logistics and transportation. The author presents a roadmap for leveraging existing investments in food safety regulatory compliance into superior inventory management. You’ll learn how to implement Lean operating principles to determine what needs to be improved, in what sequence improvements must be addressed, how one improvement feeds another, and the prerequisites for each improvement.

Key takeaways: Building effective food safety regulatory compliance into your operations creates and sustains supply chain excellence. In addition, implementing sustainability initiatives as part of your food safety compliance operations will help you keep up with the changing business environment.

Customer-Oriented Global Supply Chains: Concepts for Effective Management

By Ephrem Eyob, Edem G. Tetteh

Serving customers through efficient global supply chain management is of concern to many business logistics executives and managers. In Customer-Oriented Global Supply Chains: Concepts for Effective Management, you’ll find expertise, information, and organizational development strategies for implementing effective global supply chain management in various types of industries. The book will enhance your understanding of global supply chain management, and provide solutions to your company’s largest challenges.

Key takeaways: Global supply chain management has garnered more attention in recent years due to globalization, economic policies by companies striving to gain bigger market share, and governments making every effort to establish freer trade. The information in this book will keep you on top of these developments.

Supply Chain Transformation: Building and Executing an Integrated Supply Chain Strategy

By J. Paul Dittmann, Ph.D.

If your company still operates in functional silos, you’ll want to read Supply Chain Transformation. This book explains how to integrate supply chain activities throughout all departments, and increase shareholder value by improving the flow of materials and information. You’ll learn a nine-step process for creating an efficient supply chain strategy, which includes conducting comprehensive, competitive supply chain analyses; implementing new technologies; and winning organizational acceptance.

Key takeaways: A company’s supply chain is responsible for approximately 60 percent of its total costs, yet few organizations integrate it as a key element in their business strategy. Transforming your supply chain can generate benefits for your company, partners, and stakeholders.

Introduction to Logistics Systems Management

By Gianpaolo Ghiani, Gilbert Laporte, Roberto Musmanno

An introduction to the methodological aspects of logistics systems management, each chapter of this book features case studies taken from scientific literature to illustrate the use of quantitative methods for solving complex logistics problems.

Key takeaways: Logistics lies at the heart of modern economies. Stiff competition in today’s markets makes it necessary to manage logistics systems efficiently if your company is to keep up. Through the use of the quantitative methods and analytical tools presented in this book, your business can achieve significant savings, and remain globally competitive.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

By Joëlle Morana

Managing your supply chain sustainably is becoming a growing priority. Numerous factors favor a sustainable supply chain, including requests from stakeholders, as well as governmental, environmental, and societal pressures. But many obstacles block supply chain managers from implementing sustainable supply chain practices, such as cost, and a lack of coordination and communication in the supply chain. This book examines each dimension of the economic, environmental, and societal aspects of sustainable supply chain management, and outlines the elements of a successful sustainable supply chain program.

Key takeaways: In this book, you’ll learn how to acquire the skills to perform audits and diagnostics of each component of a sustainable supply chain.

Supply Chain Forecasting Software

By Shaun Snapp

Snapp covers several fundamental topics of the supply chain forecasting process, including statistical forecasting, consensus, collaboration, error management, and lifecycle planning. This book is valuable for organizations considering the selection of new forecasting software, or organizations that have implemented forecasting systems and processes, yet are failing to see the expected results.

Key takeaways: Successful supply chain forecasters must have the ability to see when their efforts are failing, and know what to do about it. In addition, when choosing a supply chain forecasting software, forecasters must learn to define their requirements to identify the most suitable solution.

Anatomy of a Lean Leader: As Illustrated By 10 Modern CEOs and Abraham Lincoln

By Jerry Bussel

In this book, Lean expert Jerry Bussel identifies the 10 essential characteristics of a Lean leader, and illustrates those traits with stories from modern CEOs and President Abraham Lincoln. This book will help CEOs or supply chain managers instituting a Lean program focus on the behaviors and attitudes that are essential to creating continuous closed-loop improvement, which is the heart of Lean thinking.

Key takeaways: Lean companies cannot be successful when run by traditional command-and-control leaders. To succeed in running a Lean company, leaders must be willing to listen to the opinions of all team members.

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