20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Supply Chain (Something) SCS, June 8, 2000
This review is from: No Boundaries : Moving Beyond Supply Chain Management (Hardcover)
This book is well worth the short time it will take to read. For me as a Dane I did it in two days. James A. Tompkins uses very good examples to explain the difference between Supply Chain Management (SCM) and his idea Supply Chain Synthesis (SCS). It provides a good overview of SCS, and as consultant in Supply Chain (Something) and e-business I agree that SCM and the existing ERP-system do not solve the problem in the future. "No Boundaries" tells in an easy form, what is missing and I like the clear definition and explanation of the 8 core competencies of SCS. IT is a book I highly recommend procurement pros. A lot of them will probably not agree (yet) but I think (or hope) they will think. There is no "business as usual" anymore. We are still missing a system solution to the problem and the book does not give the answer either. This is the only missing link in the chain, and the only reason why I do not give the highest rank.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fairly general overview, September 19, 2000
This review is from: No Boundaries : Moving Beyond Supply Chain Management (Hardcover)
The book gives a very high-level overview of SCM. There is a lot of jargon but it is an ideal starting point for understanding the concept of Supply chain management. Some of the chapters, especially the ones documenting the differences between SC Management and SC Synthesis, are well written. Not of much use for Supply chain professionals.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sounds good, but "where's the beef"?, February 21, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: No Boundaries : Moving Beyond Supply Chain Management (Hardcover)
As a professional in the area of Supply Chain Management (SCM), I was initially excited about reading the book. It appeared as though it was going to finally address some of the problems that SCM has run into in implementation.
The author does identify some real shortcomings in the SCM literature/practice. These extensions will primarily be useful to those companies who have begun implementing, in earnest, SCM.
Unfortunately, there are many problems with the book that become apparent under a thorough review...
Once started, it quickly became obvious that many of the criticisms about SCM are, more accurately, criticisms about the way SCM is implemented in the real world. Most of the Supply Chain Synthesis (SCS) concepts are from the SCM literature. However, those concepts do not seem to make it into practice in SCM. (It should be noted that the authors SCS DOES provide some extension to the SCM concept, though the extension is not as much as the author would like the reader to believe.)
However, to get some "benefit" out of the book, the reader often has to apply their own experience and interpretation. Once the reader begins to do this, then the book appears to provide some content. However, if you view the book from the perspective of someone who either doesn't know anything about SCM/SCS or is looking for solutions to Supply Chain problems, you quickly realize that there is little real substance.
In addition, the author tends to gloss over problems that organizations, who are trying to participate in the Supply Chain, run into. From stockholders/stakeholders who have concerns that are not necessarily conducive to SCS to saying things like "the company simply has to use good practices to solve their problems and good practices is what SCS is all about". The author does not detail what these "good practices" are and ignores the fact that if it were as easy to do as say, managers would not have a need to read books like this one.
The book also contains many excessive "buzzwords" and generalizations, and the author frequently uses "buzz" words and topics in the book without expanding on HOW they INTEGRATE into his SCS concept.
Finally, there are some inaccuracies in some of the ideas the author tries to integrate (especially with regards to the Theory of Constraints). Another notable problem is that the author frequently contradicts himself. The author spends much time describing the "ideal", but almost NO time describing how to achieve that ideal.
I almost had the feeling it was an advertisement for his consulting practice... "If you like the sound of the ideal and want to learn how to actually achieve it, then call us." I also thought it was interesting that Dr. Tompkins uses his own publishing company rather than getting published through a mainstream publisher in this genre such as Sage, McMillan, Irwin, etc.
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