Global Logistics: New Directions in Supply Chain Management

by Donald Waters

The field of logistics continues to develop at a remarkable pace. Until recently, logistics was barely considered in long-term plans, but its strategic role is now recognised and lies at the heart of long-term plans in almost every business. Reasons for this change communications and information technology offer new opportunities; world trade grows; competition forces operations to adopt new practices and become evermore efficient; and the concern for the environment increases. Add to this the increased emphasis on consumer satisfaction, flexible operations and time compression, and it's clear that getting logistics right is important.

This 7th edition of Global Logistics , edited by Stephen Rinsler and Donald Waters, has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect the latest trends, best practices, and cutting-edge thinking on global logistics. It provides guidance on important topics, including agile supply chains, IT, sustainability and performance management, collaboration, outsourcing and humanitarian logistics.

This edition of Global Logistics provides new chapters on supply chain trends and strategies, fulfilling customer needs, and supply chain vulnerability. There are also dedicated new chapters on China and Central and Eastern Europe to assess developments across the globe.

This edition serves as a forum for acknowledged sector specialists to discuss key logistics issues and share their authoritative views. The new edition introduces new contributors, including leading thinkers from international universities and businesses. Global Logistics is an invaluable source of guidance and practical advice for students, managers and practitioners, who will find it an essential text that also includes online resources.

Online resources available include a student manual with key learning outcomes for each chapter.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

513 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2007

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't understand how come there is at least a 7th edition of this book. But maybe supply chain management is just talking nonsense and the technical real-life issues of how goods are transported are addressed in another field.

[Jason Tonkovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title is well organized and offers a glimpse into general logistics trends. Decent read for someone looking to broaden horizons outside of their current service or focus area in the field. I found an abundance of strategic reasoning, backed by a few commercial examples supporting chapter ideas. The real-world application principles were slightly lacking, but the statement cases provided useful alternative viewpoints.

A good introductory primer that embraces wider interconnectivity within supply chains. Particularly Chapter 6 defining agile operations. I am always a proponent of agile methods, and one statement concerning misalignment stood out to me:
"How this often happens is that research and development (R&D) wants to innovate and expand product ranges, sales wants to create more opportunities to sell, while supply chain and operations want to avoid margin reductions from cost of complexity in operations. A lack of process integration leads to uncontrolled efforts disconnected from market opportunity."

That can very well hold true no matter what business you are in.