In many businesses, supply chain people are trapped in reactive roles where they source, contract, purchase, receive, warehouse, and ship as a service. However, in some businesses suppliers contribute to improvement programs, technology, funding, marketing, logistics, and engineering expertise. Breaking into a proactive supply chain role takes broad thinking, a talent for persuasion, and the courage to go after it. This book supplies proven methods to help you do so. A Practical Introduction to Supply Chain describes how to run an efficient supply chain that exceeds expectations in terms of cost, quality, and supplier delivery. It explains the need to integrate systems, the flow of information, and the way in which people work together between commercial purchasing, materials management, and distribution parts of the supply chain. Sharing powerful insights from the perspective of a supply chain manager, the book details practical techniques drawn from the author's decades of experience. It presents methods that apply directly to supply chains involving a physical product, manufactured internally or outsourced, as well as physical operations such as oilfield services. This book demonstrates how to make a supply chain organization work in practice-contributing more to business success than traditional purchasing and logistics organizations can. In addition to writing about practical supply chain issues and approaches, the author also describes proven methods he used while working with client teams on assignments. He also details some of the ways his teams used to manage the people part of the change.

Technology offsets, a nonconventional international trade-financing tool, is used by governments (buyers) to obtain industrial and technological benefits from companies (sellers) as part of international procurement. Offsets deals involve billions of dollars and this practice exists in around 80 countries around the world. Though offsets is a popular practice in defence, it is increasingly gaining popularity in civil sectors. Offsets is often tainted by controversy and receives bad press. What then makes offsets popular? Governments claim that offsets delivers technology and knowledge transfer, skills in high technology sectors and employment, and offsets expands export opportunities through participation in OEM supply chains. For companies, offsets is mainly employed as a tool to obtain a competitive edge and win sales in international business. In the past, there have been mixed results of case studies on the impact of offsets successes and failures. Considering the mismanagement of globalisation, unfair trade agreements and current political and economic discontent, there is a stronger need for governments and companies to use vehicles such as offsets to create a relationship of trust and commitment for sustainable development. This book fills the gap in offsets and focuses on how to manage offsets more effectively by addressing issues of strategy, policy and implementation, technology management, governance and risk. Technology Offsets in International Defence Procurement is designed for those studying international procurement, international trade, international business, technology management, defence policy and industrial policy. This book will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers in both government and industry.

Over the last three decades the world economy has grown strongly on the back of 'globalization' supported by the policies of free-trade, open markets and privatisation. Support has also grown for the concept of 'sustainability', meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. But as the Earth's systems come under increasing strain, the inherent conflict between sustainability and globalization has been exposed. Green Outcomes in a Real World examines the shift in thinking required to reconcile these two important areas of policy. In this ground breaking book, Peter McManners has coined the term 'Proximization' to define a new policy framework. The principles of Proximization are: 'sustainability', 'subsidiarity', 'primacy of the state' and 'market economics' and the application of these familiar concepts towards a sustainable globalised world is novel and different. The author argues that adherence to the principles of proximization will return world society to a stable natural order, and will mean changes. Global commodity flows will reduce and barriers to migration will increase. National governments will demand more control over their finances leading to restrictions on capital flows. Indeed, Peter believes that an element of 'selfish determination' is needed. The new world order will be sustainable by design. Global organisations such as the UN, national governments and global corporations will have to understand and apply a different paradigm. The arguments in this book do not reflect the idealism or even naivety of some of the green movement. This book is about hard-edged reality presented by an author with huge experience and a deep understanding of the business perspective. It will appeal to a wide range of professionals involved in setting policy and future direction for businesses, governments, and non-governmental bodies, as well as to those with an academic interest in business, economics, social and environmental issues, and public policy.

Fashion buying and merchandising has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Aspects such as the advent of new technologies and the changing nature of the industry into one that is faster paced than ever before, as well as the shift towards more ethical and sustainable practices have resulted in a dramatic change of the roles. As a result, contemporary fast fashion retailers do not follow the traditional buying cycle processes step by step, critical paths are wildly different, and there has been a huge increase in 'in-season buying' as a response to heightened consumer demand. This textbook is a comprehensive guide to 21st-century fashion buying and merchandising, considering fast fashion, sustainability, ethical issues, omnichannel retailing, and computer-aided design. It presents an up-to-date buying cycle that reflects key aspects of fashion buying and merchandising, as well as in-depth explanations of fashion product development, trend translation, and sourcing. It applies theoretical and strategic business models to buying and merchandising that have traditionally been used in marketing and management. This book is ideal for all fashion buying and merchandising students, specifically second- and final-year undergraduate as well as MA/MSc fashion students. It will also be useful to academics and practitioners who wish to gain a greater understanding of the industry today.

This book focuses on sustainability in fashion retail, which is fast becoming the pivot point of future fashion retail strategies. Chapters in the book provide theoretical and practical insight on how going green may positively influence the strategy of fashion retailers and marketers, who have to react to the changing society and customer needs. Structured in four main parts, and based on distinct research questions, readers will be able to dig deep into the individual levers for possible adaptions. It thus provides a solid understanding on how to integrate green aspects into any fashion retailers business model.

Fully grasp the core principles of logistics, distribution management and the supply chain, in addition to emerging trends and the latest technologies, with this definitive guide that offers clear and straightforward explanations. The Handbook provides practitioners and students with a complete, step-by-step overview of the many different aspects of setting up, managing and optimizing supply chains. Designed to offer a full appreciation of how supply chains are planned and operated, it is structured logically and delves into topics in more clarity and detail than disparate collections of research papers. Integrating both strategic and tactical insights, this textbook is underpinned throughout by real-world data and worked examples that bring the concepts to life. The seventh edition offers: Updates and solutions designed to meet the challenges faced by those studying and working in the sector New coverage of future supply chain related technologies, including artificial intelligence, data analytics, digital twins and autonomous mobile robots and how these can be used to optimize operations and increase productivity Online resources including lecture slides (tables, images and formulae from the text), acronyms and abbreviations and infographics. Written by an author team with extensive practical experience in some of the most challenging environments across the world, this seminal text is an invaluable resource for both practitioners and students, providing a useful desk reference for topics across the wide ranging and vitally important fields of logistics and the supply chain.

This book provides a systematic framework for effectively creating value through engineering in global business networks, and contributes to an increasingly important branch of engineering operations. By updating the traditional disciplines of engineering and operations management and addressing challenges and opportunities in building global network capabilities, this study offers a contemporary guide for developing effective industrial policies to enhance the global competitiveness of engineering sectors, which will be extremely useful to engineering companies and policy-makers. Themes discussed include main trends and driving forces, state-of-the-art knowledge in relevant subject areas, new technologies and leading practice. This timely book will help researchers, managers and students to gain an overall understanding of the pioneering research occurring in this field and it will enable companies to benefit from global engineering networks.

ERP Systems for Manufacturing Supply Chains: Applications, Configuration, and Performance provides insight into the core architecture, modules, and process support of ERP systems used in a manufacturing supply chain. This book explains the building blocks of an ERP system and how they can be used to increase performance of manufacturing supply chains. Starting with an overview of basic concepts of supply chain and ERP systems, the book delves into the core ERP modules that support manufacturing facilities and organizations. It examines each module's structure and functionality as well as the process support the module provides. Cases illustrate how the modules can be applied in manufacturing environments. Also covered is how the ERP modules can be configured to support manufacturing supply chains. Setting up an ERP system to support the supply chain within single manufacturing facility provides insight into how an ERP system is used in the smallest of manufacturing enterprises, as well as lays the foundation for ERP systems in manufacturing organizations. The book then supplies strategies for larger manufacturing enterprises and discusses how ERP systems can be used to support a complete manufacturing supply chain across different facilities and companies. The ERP systems on the market today tend to use common terminology and naming for describing specific functions and data units in the software. However, there are differences among packages. The book discusses various data and functionalities found in different ERP-software packages and uses generic and descriptive terms as often as possible to make these valid for as many ERP systems as possible. Filled with insight into ERP system's core modules and functions, this book shows how ERP systems can be applied to support a supply chain in the smallest of manufacturing organizations that only consist of a single manufacturing facility, as well as large enterprises where the manufacturing supply chain crosses multiple facilities and companies.

The book provides an introduction to logistics and supply chain management and the application of evolutionary computation, focusing on specific fields related to supply chain issues, from strategic sourcing decisions, and production planning and control to inventory to logistics and its application using evolutionary / heuristics techniques. Bridging the gap between management research, decision-making and computer analysis, this interdisciplinary book features state-of-the-art descriptions of the corresponding problems and advanced methods for solving them.

This book aims to provide academic and industrial applications advancing the critical role of circular economy principles in the sustainability of various resources. The latest research and practice in resource sustainability are shared, discussed, and promoted. The core competency of this book revolves around providing recent advances in sustainable consumption and production implementations, developed tools for environmental and sustainability assessment, technological advancements in resource and waste management/treatment, and advances in waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery. Resources are defined broadly to include (1) physical resources: metals, non-metallic minerals, energy, and water (2) biological resources: food, forestry, land, ecological systems, etc., and (3) "misplaced" resources: air emissions, water pollutants, and solid waste. Finally, legislation, and policy implications and recommendations for resources sustainability are concluded.

Purchasing and Supply Management includes the latest management, procurement, and negotiation techniques and the authors have taken great care to integrate the impact of global commerce on the buyers job. Historically, purchasing evolved as a weak part of manufacturing, gained its independence, and expanded to a financial contributer to a company's success. A major challenge of the buying job is to manage supply management. To do this, the buyer must know and use the full range of techniques and procedures available to the true professional. This book is dedicated to these functions of supply and all they entail.

This book emphasizes three key messages:
Value: While the traditional approaches to supply chain management have favoured cost minimalization, the authors believe that SCM is a value enabler with strategic decisions in supply chain design leading to value creation and tactical decisions in supply chain coordination leading to value capture.
Alignment: While trust-based collaborative practices are the ultimate goal, adequate economic incentives should be designed to ensure the much needed alignment.
Sustainability: Supply chain design should be viewed as a dynamic process rather than a set of activities held together by low transaction costs.

VI Special thanks also go to the employees of the case study companies for their open and friendly support. These are Bernhard Panther and Armin ZeiB from Bosch, Thomas Adler and Jiirgen Herb from Goodyear, Stefan Arnold and Wolfgang Gopfert from Porsche, Bernhard Oymann and Thomas Peilert from Schenker, as well as Ute Leppert and Jorg Mieger from SupplyOn. From SAP, Martin Edelmann, Claus Grunewald, Christian Lienert, Frank Klingl, Klaus Kreplin, Dr. Andreas Otto, Karsten Schierholt, and Dr. Stefan Theis gave us extraordinary support by sharing their know-how. Special thanks also go to Uwe Neuner from IBM for providing his know-how in the area SAP Business Connector. Finally, we would like to thank Matthias Kamberg, Daniel Horstkotte, and Zoe Tsesmelidakis from the FrankfurtlMain University as well as Isabel Kuttner, Tina Werthmann, and Patrick Johnscher of the Freiberg University of Technology (TV Freiberg) for their continuous friendly support while this book was being written. Moreover, we would like to thank Jennifer Brundage from SAP for translating the manuscript. The authors Preface for the First Edition The formation of inter-organizational cooperation is increasingly used to improve the partners' competitive position in a global world economy. This tendency can also be observed in logistics. Several "layers" are involved in a supply chain: vendors, manufacturers, retail companies, logistics service providers, and finally the end customers. Supply chain management attempts to optimize the flows of goods and information between companies.

Interest in the phenomenon known as "lean" has grown significantly in recent years. This is the first volume to provide an academically rigorous overview of the field of lean management, introducing the reader to the application of lean in diverse application areas, from the production floor to sales and marketing, from the automobile industry to academic institutions. The volume collects contributions from well-known lean experts and up-and-coming scholars from around the world. The chapters provide a detailed description of lean management across the manufacturing enterprise (supply chain, accounting, production, sales, IT etc.), and offer important perspectives for applying lean across different industries (construction, healthcare, logistics). The contributors address challenges and opportunities for future development in each of the lean application areas, concluding most chapters with a short case study to illustrate current best practice. The book is divided into three parts: The Lean Enterprise Lean across Industries A Lean World. This handbook is an excellent resource for business and management students as well as any academics, scholars, practitioners, and consultants interested in the "lean world."

This cross-disciplinary business book develops insight into the management of businesses operating in various economic sectors that take a proactive approach to the triple dimension of sustainability (economic, social and environmental), positioning itself as a key reference for both academics and practitioners in the wide area of business management. The concept of sustainability is today at the heart of international policies and debate, and plays a key role in deep changes to the organizational models of companies operating in a wide range of sectors of economic activity. In particular, this book aims to gain a deeper understanding of how stakeholder engagement can contribute to value co-creation both in the company and along the supply chain, and what distinguishes the differing involvement of stakeholders, in particular between public involvement and stakeholder participation. Each chapter of this book presents different modalities of stakeholder involvement and develops the concept of value co-creation from organizational and marketing perspectives. This book is recommended reading for those interested in the fields of stakeholder engagement and theory, sustainability, business studies, and sustainable development.

Operations Management (OM) is a multi-faceted blend of myriad academic andpractical disciplines - from engineering and economics via mathematics and marketing, to systems and psychology. To capture the state of the art, the bookreviews contemporary and classic scholarship in one of the oldest business and management disciplines. To offer the reader a thought-provoking point of entry into the selected sources, the book curates its content as an imaginary exhibit, eachchapter a thematic OM 'gallery' (process; planning and control; people; strategy and measurement; technology) introduced by a description of some extraordinary artefacts, paintings, sculptures and architecture. The content has been curated around three principles intended to benefit the casual reader and both new and established OM scholars. First, it incorporates works that build on, or help to distinguish, fundamental tenets from more transitory fads. Second, the text makes significant efforts to try and balance the gravitational pull of the factory, (even though this may not offer an accurate representation of the majority of the field) and third, to try to keep managerial rather than technical/ analytical concerns to the fore. This concise book provides a useful overview of current and classic OM research. Written by a leading authority, it is intended to be a valuable and engaging resource for both students and scholars of business.

"As companies in growing numbers look to outsource functions not related to their core competencies, Bragg's work provides an excellent road map. Demonstrating a firm grasp of the topic, he intelligently walks the reader through the maze, analyzing all aspects of the process (including whether the function should or should not be outsourced). This is a must-read for both novices and veterans alike."
--Mary S. Schaeffer Editorial Director and Publisher Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow

"Steve Bragg's Outsourcing gives business decision-makers the insights needed to make the case for or against outsourcing. The first half provides a thorough discussion of all aspects, including evaluating risks and rewards, selecting, contracting, and terminating. The second half provides in-depth analysis of ten different types of outsourcing services, including janitorial, customer service, and accounting. This book provides practical advice that will benefit everyone regardless of the extent of their prior experience."
--Dr. Will Yancey, PHD, CPA Independent Consultant

"Once again, Steve Bragg has compiled a comprehensive, well-written book that will yield an excellent return on time invested by readers. This is a must-have guide in outsourcing for any manager, whether newly exposed or an expert. I came away with some great ideas from the book!"
--James A. Bologa Executive Vice President and CFO Daticon Inc.

"Use of carefully considered outsourcing can be a critical component of any corporate strategy. In Outsourcing, Steve Bragg has given an excellent overview of why and when outsourcing should be considered, some precautionary thoughts, and specifics of how to successfullyimplement and manage any outsourced functions. He has created an excellent guide to the use of outsourcing as a means to enhance corporate success in today's challenging business climate."
--Richard V. Souders President and CEO Premier Data Services

Firms in the clothing industry engage in global sourcing and operate in global markets. Their global production networks have often been subject to scrutiny as the power relationships between buyer firms in developed countries and supplier firms in developing countries raise issues concerned with "fast fashion," the role of brands, labor standards in developing countries, job losses among the most vulnerable workers in Europe and the US, and the growing differentiation within the bloc of developing countries between the least developed and fast developers, such as China and India.
This book analyses the way British, American and German firms in the clothing industry (manufacturing and retail) co-ordinate and govern their global production networks/value chains. It offers a multi-level study, concerned with processes of economic interaction between international, regional, and national economic institutions and actors. This combines an analysis of international/regional regulatory systems, global markets and conditions in the developing countries where suppliers are found, with a focus on the recent development of the clothing industry in three western countries. The analysis of firms' global networks focuses on the power relationships between western producers and retailers on the one hand and between buyer firms in developed and supplier firms in developing countries on the other, as well as their impact on labour.
Utilising over one hundred interviews in six countries on three continents, it follows the value chain from developed to developing countries and studies the many issues which confront students of globalization at the current time. The study combines theoretical perspectives from economic sociology, political economy and management and seeks to utilise the complementary strengths of the Varieties of Capitalism approach and that of Global Production Networks/Value Chains. It will appeal to advanced students and academics interested in processes of economic globalization and the way firms manage them, as well as to those looking for a study of the clothing industry which combines theoretical depth with broad empirical coverage.

In a context of global competition, the optimization of logistics systems is inescapable. Logistics Systems: Design and Optimization falls within this perspective and presents twelve chapters that well illustrate the variety and the complexity of logistics activities. Each chapter is written by recognized researchers who have been commissioned to survey a specific topic or emerging area of logistics. The first chapter, by Riopel, Langevin, and Campbell, develops a framework for the entire book. It classifies logistics decisions and highlights the relevant linkages to logistics decisions. The intricacy of these linkages demonstrates how thoroughly the decisions are interrelated and underscores the complexity of managing logistics activities. Each of the chapters focus on quantitative methods for the design and optimization of logistics systems.

This book focuses on how supply chain finance serves and improves industrial supply chain and financial activities of SMEs in China from innovative perspective. How does supply chain finance empower SMEs? What is the basis for granting credit to SMEs? What kind of supply chain finance model can most effectively support SMEs? To address the above questions, this book adopts positivism, uses an inductive method and carries out case studies through qualitative analysis. At the end of book, the author concludes although many successful cases of supply chain finance could be found, it needs further testing and revision in practice for more enterprises due to its limits.

Today, some suppliers have grown increasingly powerful and in certain cases, earn revenues that rival or even exceed that of their automaker clients. In the pre-globalisation period, automakers wielded absolute power over their significantly smaller suppliers. This book reveals the upending of this relationship, with the gradual shift in the balance of power from automakers to their suppliers in this era of globalisation. The book examines how suppliers in the global tyres, seats, constant velocity joints (hereafter 'CVJs'), braking systems and automotive semiconductor industries have evolved into powerful oligopolies through a mix of acquisition and organic growth strategies. It also highlights how joint ventures could be strategically deployed as springboards to acquisition, as they enable firms to familiarise themselves with their partners' markets and operations. Moreover, the book analyses the disruption stirred by the entry of well-resourced technology titans into this industry and their inevitable clash with the traditional incumbents. This book is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in learning more about the automakers' and now their suppliers' relentless quest to create market-dominating intelligent driving systems.

Most companies are continuously trying to reduce their supply-chain costs, time to market, and inventory. Optimizing Your Supply-Chain Performance: How to Assess and Improve Your Company's Strategy and Execution Capabilities presents the "how-to's" (and a few "how-NOT-to's"!) for conducting assessments of companies' supply chains as well as identifying areas for improvement. It covers techniques, tools, and methodologies for evaluating current working methods (current state) versus industry best practices and operational optimization. It identifies performance gaps and suggests planning and implementing improved ways of working (the future and ideal states). With a collection of approximately 40 case-in-point examples of supply-chain transformation across a wide array of industries including Fortune 1000 companies as well as foreign global leaders, this book provides a detailed guide for assessing and improving organizational strategy and execution-capabilities for: Inventory management Order fulfillment Sourcing and purchasing Manufacturing planning, scheduling, and execution Overall supply-chain effectiveness Business continuity planning Essentially, this book provides basic knowledge for assessing, improving, and optimizing the end-to-end supply chain, and the case-in-point examples assist in breaking down theories into simple, actionable improvement activities. The author stresses the importance of business continuity and provides grassroots approaches to identifying risks. Based on the author's vast experience out in the field, it gives professionals a new perspective and inspires them to seek world-class performance.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge approaches for decision-making in hierarchical organizations. It presents soft-computing-based techniques, including fuzzy sets, neural networks, genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization, and shows how these approaches can be effectively used to deal with problems typical of this kind of organization. After introducing the main classical approaches applied to multiple-level programming, the book describes a set of soft-computing techniques, demonstrating their advantages in providing more efficient solutions to hierarchical decision-making problems compared to the classical methods. Based on the book Fuzzy and Multi-Level Decision Making (Springer, 2001) by Lee E.S and Shih, H., this second edition has been expanded to include the most recent findings and methods and a broader spectrum of soft computing approaches. All the algorithms are presented in detail, together with a wealth of practical examples and solutions to real-world problems, providing students, researchers and professionals with a timely, practice-oriented reference guide to the area of interactive fuzzy decision making, multi-level programming and hierarchical optimization.

Reporting on cutting-edge research in production, distribution, and transportation, The Supply Chain in Manufacturing, Distribution, and Transportation: Modeling, Optimization, and Applications provides the understanding needed to tackle key problems within the supply chain. Viewing the supply chain as an integrated process with regard to tactical and operational planning, it details models to help you address the wide range of organizational issues that can adversely affect your supply chain. This compilation of scholarly research work from academia and industry considers high-level production schedules, product sourcing, network alignment, distribution center layouts, transportation operations with stochastic demand, inventory planning, and day-to-day operations planning. The book is divided into three sections: Industrial and Service Applications of the Supply Chain Analytic Probabilistic Models in Supply Chain Problems Optimization Models of Supply Chain Problems Because tactical and operational models rely on quality forecasts of demand, the text examines stochastic customer demand, coordination of supply chain functions, and solution algorithms. It reviews real-world business applications and case studies that illustrate the modeling solutions discussed.

Building from the previous two successful editions, The Procurement Models Handbook is an essential resource for everyone working in the procurement profession, including those selling directly to it. The authors provide the reader with a useful guide to the business models most frequently applied in the procurement and supply chain arena. Procurement and supply chain management are two of the highest contributors to corporate success in the modern world. This third edition is a new revised international version with additional tools that reflect the value of procurement in our globally-connected world. The authors have included over 50 well-established strategic and operational models that have a proven track record of delivering value over years of practice. Each model is presented pictorially, with explanatory commentary on its practical application to support. These models are designed to save unnecessary cost and deliver significant benefits for their user and have been carefully selected by the authors based on their originality and usefulness for practical application in the context of procurement and the supply chain. The Procurement Models Handbook is an invaluable and enduring source of reference for practitioners and business managers, as well as an essential learning support for business and procurement students.