Customer Reviews

2007 Fall list: Supply Chain Excellence: A Handbook for Dramatic Improvement Using the SCOR Model

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is an excellent guide, tutorial and provides detailed instructions on optimizing the use of the SCOR Model within any company. It provides not only a step-by-step process for completing a successfull project, it has a built-in timeline to assist you in accurately projecting when a project will begin to reap the benefits of reshaping your supply chain(s). Utilizing the process steps as outlined will result in a project portfolio of recommended improvements which will be easy to prioritize based on the rating system included in the process. This book is a must-have for those attempting to improve supply chain performance and capitalize on your ROI. It works regardless if your company sells products OR services. It is written in easy-to-understand language and will reduce your trial and error attempts at improving your company's bottom line. Peter Bolstorff is internationally recognized for his knowledge in supply chain analysis and improvements, and his book only exemplifies that his reputation is well-founded and, is one of the best ways to improve supply chain performance. If you're looking to improve your supply chain performance, DON'T PASS IT UP!

I would not call this a handbook; because a handbook is in my opinion supposed to fully educate you on how to complete a project. This book does supply information, but in a way that the reader is left with more questions and this is where Supply Chain Excellence, owned by Peter Bolstoff, a consulting firm looks to obtain new business. Also this book pushes you to think you need ProccessWizard, which is not true, most of what is in it, that I have found, you can build yourself or use Microsoft's Visio software.
But if you have knowledge of Supply Chain Performance and an understanding of Lean Manufacturing and six sigma you can fill in the gaps without having to invite SCE to clear up your confusion.

While the SCOR Model has achieved some level of maturity, there has been few or no literature on its implementation practices....until now!! This book provides practical insights using a hypothetical company and provides you with a no-nonsense approach to implementing a BPR project using the SCOR model. Although the authors have included a suggested timeline, do use that only as a guide because if you are really considering implementing SCOR, you will definitely need to buffer in more time than recommended. What I find most useful is the authors' emphasis on gaining support within the organization and the teaming roles that is so critical to project success. This book is highly recommended for those looking for a proven path to implementing SCOR. Some of the tools suggested will require prior knowledge e.g. fishbone analysis, brainstorming, etc. These are powerful tools for problem solving so if you are not familiar with them, it pays to read additional literature on these great quality probem solving tools.

For those familiar with the SCOR model, you'll be amazed at the level of detail and depth the authors have devoted to the AS IS and TO BE process and information analysis. It makes the very high level SCOR Project Roadmap outlined by the Supply Chain Council look like a pre-school book!

This book does a decent job of explaining SCOR methodology to the novices. Please do not expect to immideately start using the SCOR model after reading this book - that needs a lot of experience and judgement. Besides the slightly dry writing style, I do not have quibbles with the style. On the content side - I do believe the title promises more that what it will deliver to most people.

I purchased this book to better understand the SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) model. I started to read the book cover to cover, but stopped to scan the book after chapter 3. The book is basically a project plan and a case study for implementing Supply Chain Operations. I found very little to educate the novice in the details of SCOR. As for the "how" approach, any good project manager would be able to come up with a project plan as described within the book. If you already understand SCOR and want an off the shelf project plan, then this book may be helpful. However, I did not find it very useful in understanding the underlying processes.

SCOR is an acronym for the Supply Chain Operations Reference business model that was developed by the Supply Chain Council. (For more information about SCC, please visit http://www.supply-chain.org/index.ww.) In this volume, Peter Bolstorff and Robert Rosenbaum explain what the SCOR model is, how to use it most effectively, and why it can help any organization (regardless of size or nature) to improve its supply chain management. When reading this volume, it is important to keep in mind that effective management of any supply chain model depends upon active and collaborative engagement in the process by (literally) everyone involved, at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise.

Many readers will especially appreciate the format that Bolstorff and Robert Rosenbaum selected within which to present their material. After two introductory chapters in which they discuss the supply chain operations reference model and then suggest how to build organizational support for supply chain improvement, they focus on the implementation of a four-phase process during a recommended seventeen-week timeframe and devote a separate chapter to each of the seventeen weeks.

Phase I: Discover the Opportunity (Week One)
Phase II: Analyze Basis of Competition (Weeks Two-Four)
Phase III: Design Material Flow (Weeks Five-Eleven)
Phase IV: Work and Information Flow Analysis and Design (Weeks Twelve-Seventeen)

Bolstorff and Rosenbaum then provide six appendices which facilitate review of the key points later: SCOR Model Overview, Fowler's Business Context Summary, Fowler's Supply Chain Improvement Project Charter, Partial List of SCOR Model Leading Practices (Sorted by Business Area), SCOR Version 5.0 Quick Reference Guide, and SCOR and Six Sigma DMAIC [i.e. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control].

Note: Fowlers, Inc. is a billion-dollar conglomerate with worldwide leadership in three businesses: food processing, optical technology products, and business services. "Fundamental to the success is the Fowlers mission to continually exceed customer expectations. The company and its employees believe that if they go beyond what customers require, those customers will return again and again."

For me, some of the most valuable material in this book is provided in Chapter 17 (Week Fifteen) when Bolstorff and Rosenbaum explain how to determine how the given business should work by reviewing the Sample SCOR Level 3 Baseline Blueprint (see Table 16-3 on Page 181), adjusting SCOR Level Three processes between "swim lanes" (i.e. dividers used to organize and separate process steps by groups, organizations or roles; used to delineate ownership of the processes), incorporating transaction language for the specific technology application that will be used, conducting logical business transaction tests, and calculating productivity improvements based on the changes.

This is by no means an "easy read" and will be especially challenging to those who have only limited (if any) prior experience with the design and implementation of a large organization's supply chain for. Credit Bolstorff and Rosenbaum with making brilliant use of an extended case study of Fowlers. I certainly appreciated this approach because it enabled me to gain a much better understanding of how the exemplary organization navigated its way through the eight steps of the SCOR project lifecycle which begins with educating everyone within the given enterprise about supply chain improvement to gain their support and concludes with implementing whatever changes (i.e. improvements) may be necessary to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Those who share my high regard for this volume may also be interested in Thomas Stallkamp's SCORE! in which he explains how (then) Chrysler Motors used a proprietary goal and measurement system (Supplier Cost Reduction Effort) in the 1990s. At that time, Stallkamp was responsible for Chrysler's procurement and supply activities. "Although it took some time to get started, by 1992, the SCORE approach had been incorporated into a supply-management philosophy called the Extended Enterprise of the firm. Because their destiny and fortunes were directly linked to Chrysler's, the idea was to build a virtual team atmosphere in which all parties focused on reducing the cost of developing and producing vehicles. The construction supply-side suggestions worked to reduce both the supplier's costs and those of Chrysler." In this book, Stallkamp traces with meticulous the process by which SCORE was formulated and then implemented as a proprietary goal and measurement system.

Definitely a very good overview of the SCOR model (Supply Chain Chain Operations Reference). I have used this book as a base reference for Kaizen processes I have championed, with SCOR as a structural foundation.

My only reservation is that the book reviews how the overall process works from a project perspective without digging into the metrics. An experienced practitioner can get around this through experience and other resources however it would have been nice to have. To offset this the auther goes into the "whys" and the "whats" instead of the "hows" and does an extremely good job at his targeted subject material.

I would most definitely purchase and use this book again, and recommend it to others looking to use SCOR processes to improve their balanced scorecards.

This book is a very good cookbook for the Supply Chain practitioner seeking to understand how to use the SCOR model to achieve a complete understanding of their Supply Chain Network and create a roadmap for dramatic improvement.

I wanted to understand the SCOR model and how it integrated with Lean Six Sigma...I was not disappointed...The book contains many roadmaps, working templates and other useful information which will enable a person who is familiar with basic supply chain terminology and process improvement methods to build teams to improve their supply chain...I especially like the roadmaps which contain information describing how to sequentially deploy SCOR methods using a phased timeline...This book is one I can recommend to Lean Six Sigma people to understand how our consulting methodology can effectively integrate within the SCOR framework.

This book is a must-have reference for anyone involved with supply chain management; whether academic or professional. The central focus of the text is the Supply-Chain Council's Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model and how to improve any supply chain through its use. As advertised, the book does a masterful job of taking the reader through a step-by-step approach to a SCOR project. Best of all, this second edition incorporates the experiences and learnings of another 30+ projects over the first edition. Readers gain the benefit of the authors' vast experiences in such projects, as they share their best pratices and pitfalls-to-watch-for. The book will easily return its value may times over!