Principles Of Supply Chain Management

Welcome to the fifth edition of Principles of Supply Chain Management: A Balanced Approach. The practice of supply chain management has become widespread in all industries around the globe today, and the benefits to firms of all sizes are being realized. We think this text is unique in that it uses a novel and logical approach to present discussions of this topic from four foundation perspectives: purchasing, operations, logistics, and process integration.

We think this text is also somewhat different than the other supply chain management texts available, since we present a more balanced view of the topic-many of the texts available today concentrate primarily on just one of the three areas of purchasing, operations, or logistics.

The objective of the text is to make readers think about how supply chain management impacts all of the various areas and processes of the firm and its supply chain trading partners and to show how managers can improve their firm's competitive position by employing the practices we describe throughout the text. Junior- or senior-level business students, beginning MBA students, as well as practicing managers can benefit from reading and using this text.

There are several changes to this fifth edition that we hope you will find interesting and useful. Perhaps the biggest change are the three cases at the end of each chapter (Chapter 1 has just one case). The teaching notes for each case can be found in the Instructor's Manual.

There is also a greater emphasis on technological advances throughout the text. Addition-ally, each chapter contains a number of SCM Profiles, beginning with a chapter-opening pro-file, and then other smaller company profiles throughout the chapters. All chapter references throughout the text have been updated, with new and interesting storylines, to keep readers engaged and informed. Additionally, new end-of-chapter discussion, essay and project ques-tions, and exercises have been added. Other ancillary materials are described below.

As with the fourth edition, the fifth edition has a tie-in to a wonderfully engaging global supply chain simulation game called SCM Globe. A separate page dedicated to SCM Globe follows this preface. We are very excited about the simulation and hope instructors will take it for a test drive and then use it in their classes.

New to the fifth edition is MindTap for supply chain management. A separate page dedicated to MindTap follows this preface.

Finally, PowerPoint lecture slides are available for download. The online instructor resource center contains sample syllabi, case teaching notes, answers to all of the end-of-chapter questions and problems, and a test bank. In the Chapter 1 Appendix, there is a discussion of the Beer Game, with inventory tracking sheets to allow instructors to actually play the game with their students. There are also quantitative as well as qualitative problems and questions, essay/ project exercises, and Excel problems spread throughout most of the chapters.