Customer Reviews

Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operations

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4 star:		(2)
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While Handfield and Nichols book may be over-introductory, the better analytical book must be "Designing and Managing the Supply Chain" by Simchi-Levi (1999). Some researchers want more mathematics might jump to "Logic of Logistics" by Simchi-Levi directly. To fill the gap of those 3 books (Handfield vs. Simchi-Levi (SCM) vs. Simchi-Levi (Logic of Logistics), Chopra and Meindl compile almost every issues in Supply Chain Management (SCM) that you can find in publications in this single book. This book is the best compromise between tactics and strategics. Cases and analysis are presented with respect to the topic of each chapter. Only high school mathematics are more than enough to understand the analytical tools they proposed. Readers may opt for this book either the first book in SCM or supplementary book for your further research/study. Chopra and Medindl book is a good support to your "Design and Managing SCM" by Simchi-Levi and I think it can be substituted if you need only one book. Good for both practitioners and educators.

Although this book is written more for MBA students, the flow and texture of this book should be well-received by those who are not at post-graduate level. For practising managers, like me, I find a great deal of my knowledge gap is filled when reading this book. As the first reviewer mentioned, this book complements a rudimentary text and a more detailed one available in the market, perhaps I may add that it also compliments well with a latest supply chain textbook "Modeling The Supply Chain" which also pairs well with Chopra and Meindl's book because the former offers quite a good spectrum of case studies that supports the text. Some of the numerical exercises seem to come from live cases, too, which led me to appreciate that exercises built in this text are not neccessarily academic ones. I strongly recommend this to international practitioners and students alike since the cases that flow along with the textbook are of international genre.

I refered and used this book in 2 grad level courses. The first was a business school course on SCM (with an above average quantitative focus for a B-school course) and again for a fully quatitative SC Engineering course. While I was initially very impressed with the book, using this over 2 semesters has raised a few gripes.

For the qualitative issues on SCM {make no mistake, these 'fluff' aspects are very important} there is no other equal. Chopra and Meindl do an outstanding and comprehensive job. They also bring out the importance of using scientific, quantitative techniques for SCM. This however is where my gripes start.

Having brought out the importance of quantitative tools for use in SCM, they do only a moderate job on explaining these tools. For example, the chapter on forecasting (only the most simple and commonly used models are explained) is unnnecessarily complex and confusing. The topics covered are adequete but need revision. Treatment of inventory management also could be more detailed and better explained.

This is an excellent book but for more comprehensive learning (if you want an understanding of the quantitative aspects too), I think this book needs supplementing (say with course notes) or another book like "Modeling the Supply Chain" by Shapiro.

I found this book to be a great source of reference for managers. It is not really a good teaching source, as I thought it already starts with a fair amount of assumed previous knowledge and jargon.

The sections that are most well developed are the ones on inventory management and transportation logistics, where I found examples that were directly applicable to situations I encountered in a retail environment. The portion on forecasting was not as useful, and the part on e-business seemed somewhat contrived. Overall, this is the best reference I have found that does not require a heavy amount of mathematical familiarity.

We use this book for supply chain training to new entrants at our firm. It is quite a good supply chain basics book - covering the topic in all its breadth. the coverage is perhaps a slightly less strategic and more technical than our needs - but that is understandable given the background of one of the authors. However, to be fair, it is the best book that we have found on supply chain management to get the people up to speed on the basics.

I bout this book to refresh my knowledge in logistics, as it was recommended by a friend I did the try and I don't regret it at all. All logistics topics are seen in a very practical way that makes them very easy to apply in whatever process you could find. Its full of examples and notes that help you to build your own solution.

This is a great supply Chain Management Book, i actually read it from cover to cover and actually implemented most of the Equations and methods in the "Planning and Managing Inventories in a supply chain" chapter.

it helped me save money and improve customer satisfaction, i also improved my lead time and optimized my warehouses.

i compare it to ERP systems and the methods used in this book are in those ERP systems and is actually more sophisticated.

i had my Supply Chain and Planning Production managers study this book.

I can't emphasize how practical and useful this book is.

Ramez Q.
Operations Director at a furniture manufacturing company

Written by one of the leading minds in the field, Peter Meindl of I2 technologies has a lot to teach. This is an excellent text and as a fellow Dallas/Ft. Worth resident, I would enjoy meeting him. If you are an MBA student with a concentration in Operations Management, this text should be required.

Meindl, a management team member of I2, has helped develop I2 into the undisputed champion in enterprise software. While SAP may have the market share with their archaic DOS based application, I2 has windows functionality and everything that matters. They have raised the bar with their supply chain knowledge, leading solutions, and collaborative knowledge in supply chain strategy. This text will give you a big step forward in becoming a Supply Chain leader.