Description
This book is targeted toward an academic as well as a practitioner audience. On the academic side, it should be appropriate for MBA students, engineering master’s students, and senior undergraduate students interested in supply chain management and logistics. It should also serve as a suitable reference for both concepts as well as providing a methodology for practitioners in consulting and industry.
New To This Edition
The sixth edition has focused on allowing students to learn more as they study with the book.
We have tightened the link between examples in the book and associated spreadsheets and have added exercises and cases in several chapters. We have also added changes based on specific reviewer feedback that we believe significantly improve the book and its use by faculty and students.
– We have added several new mini-cases throughout the book. New cases appear in Chapters 2, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, and 16. Information in other cases has been updated to be current.
– For all numerical examples discussed in the book, we have developed spreadsheets that students can use to understand the concept. These spreadsheets are referred to in the book and allow the student to try different “what-if” analyses. These spreadsheets are available at www.pearsonhighered.com/chopra along with basic guidance on how they may be used.
– In Chapters 8 and 9, we have created a flow that allows faculty to teach the chapters without using Solver if they so desire. For faculty that wants to continue using Solver, all material in the chapters has been even more tightly linked to the associated spreadsheets. We have also added a couple of new mini-cases to give students a chance to apply the concepts in the chapters.
– In Chapter 11, we have added several new exercises as well as a mini-case.
– In Chapter 12, we have added several new exercises.
– In Chapter 13, we have tried to make the flow of material easier to follow. Given the more advanced concepts, we have tightened the linkage to the associated spreadsheets. We have also added a mini-case.
– In Chapter 14, we have added discussion of the Mumbai dabbawalas, a responsive distribution network. We have tightened the linkage of examples to associated spreadsheets and added a couple of mini-cases.
– Chapter 15 has had a very significant revision, with an enhanced discussion of successful third parties as well as the impact of incentives and the sharing of risk and reward in the supply chain.
– Chapter 16 has a new mini-case.
– Information Technology in a Supply Chain (Chapter 17 from the Fifth Edition) has been updated and placed online at www.pearsonhighered.com/chopra.
– Chapter 17, on sustainability, has been further developed, with a new section related to the pricing of sustainability.
– We have continued to add current examples throughout the book, with a particular focus on bringing in more global examples.
The book has grown from a course on supply chain management taught to second-year MBA students at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. The goal of this class was not only to cover high-level supply chain strategy and concepts, but also to give students a solid understanding of the analytical tools necessary to solve supply chain problems.
With this class goal in mind, our objective was to create a book that would develop an understanding of the following key areas and their interrelationships:
– The strategic role of a supply chain
– The key strategic drivers of supply chain performance
– Analytic methodologies for supply chain analysis
Our first objective in this book is for the reader to learn the strategic importance of good supply chain design, planning, and operation for every firm. The reader will be able to understand how good supply chain management can be a competitive advantage, whereas weaknesses in the supply chain can hurt the performance of a firm. We use many examples to illustrate this idea and develop a framework for supply chain strategy.