Supply Chain Management - A Guide to Best Practice

Supply Chain Management - A Guide to Best Practice

Andrew Cox, Paul Ireland, Chris Lansdale, Joe Sanderson and Glyn Watson

Financial Times Prentice Hall, L120

This book, which seeks to explain purchasing and best practice to executives, has been put together by staff at the Centre

In essence, the book's main tenet is that supply chain management (SCM) is not applicable to many companies, especially for indirect spend. It seems to work well where there is high volume and regular demand relative to the supply market, with many suppliers. In other words, it works where the buyer is more able to predict requirements.

The authors emphasise that other ways of working with suppliers are also valid, and that in many cases SCM has actually been shown not to work. It also stresses that the variables of supply and demand create power and leverage. Unless we understand the opportunities and obstacles these create, it is impossible to start implementing SCM, even where appropriate.

Supply Chain Management is well laid-- out, with main lessons from each chapter, models to illustrate key theories and case studies to give examples. It clearly sets out the choices an organisation has when dealing with suppliers, and it has confirmed the views and approaches that I try to take in their purchasing decisions and strategies.

The message is to look at the market, gain knowledge, understand the balance of power between buyer and supplier and the importance of requirements, work with internal requirements, and then put in place the most appropriate sourcing strategy. It is helpful to have a number of models to work with, but I also don't think what the book is suggesting is rocket science.

Rather, it is a measured approach to understanding supply markets, and a plea to avoid practising the jargon where it simply isn't appropriate.