University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Advanced Supply Chain Management
Book

Advanced Supply Chain Management

How to Build a Sustained Competitive Advantage

Charles C. Poirier
Berrett-Koehler, 1999
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Cheers to Charles C. Poirier, who took a topic that almost cries out for unintelligible jargon and undecipherable graphs, and instead laid it plain, in common English, for all to understand. His essential notion: To achieve efficiencies you must develop a closer working relationship with the vendors that make up your supply chain. The goal is to share real-time inventory and production data so that your network of business partners - Poirier’s supply-chain constellation - is better able to meet the end needs of the consumer. The major shortcoming of the book lies in its omission of information-based companies from its analysis. How can knowledge industry firms integrate their less tangible supply chains, and will they reap the same rewards as widget-makers if they do? Regardless, getAbstract strongly recommends this book to anyone not an expert in the latest logistics-management techniques - and, unfortunately, that’s almost everyone.

Summary

It’s the Supply Chain, Stupid

Your supply chain holds the answer to your business woes. The key to growing your business is not your strategies, your technology, or your people. It is your ability to manage the chain of vital inputs that you need to create your product and services. Every company has one, and every company relies on one for its survival - but not every company realizes that the secret to its long-term success lies in its ability to improve and perfect its supply chain.

Efforts to bolster supply chain management have been going on for over a decade. Alternatively called logistics reengineering, process redesign, or distribution-channel improvement, they all aim at the same target: reducing costs by improving the logistics of purchase and distribution of vital resources. Today’s successful companies have formed networks for sourcing raw materials, storing and distributing products, and ultimately delivering them to the customer. This is the essence of supply-chain management. In the past, these efforts focused on what the company could do internally to make the process more efficient. Unfortunately, this approach limits the effectiveness of your supply...

About the Author

Charles C. Poirier is a consultant and author with more than 40 years of industry experience. As a partner in CSC National Supply Chain Practice, one of the world’s largest management consulting and information technology firms, he has helped scores of companies develop more effective supplier networks. He has held a variety of management positions, including senior vice president of manufacturing and marketing at a Fortune 100 company. Poirier is the author of Business Partnering for Continuous Improvement, Avoiding the Pitfalls of Total Quality, and Supply Chain Optimization.

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