Posts inspired by books I have read
The book is a collection of excellent articles by various researchers in supply chain risk from mostly Germany and Austria. To make up for yesterday’s perhaps overly harsh critique of just one article from this book, this is a full and proper content review.
Should an editor care? I believe he should. The editor of this book doesn’t, I simply cannot avoid saying it, and I will explain why. While many of the articles/chapters maintain an excellent academic standard, one of the chapters does not at all hold up to any standard. In fact, it is so bad it makes me wonder how this could have slipped by editorial control?
Another book by someone from the ISCRIM gang? No, not this time, or perhaps, yes, after all, since several of the ISCRIM members have contributed to it. The book serves a twofold purpose: 1) Understanding and assessing risk in the supply chain, and 2) Decision making and risk mitigation in the supply chain.
This book shows you how everyone is involved in the supply chain itself, often on several levels at the same time, how the chain is exposed to an infinite number of constantly changing threats; how weak links in the chain represent threats and vulnerabilities, to profitability, continuity, safety and health; and how these threats can be mananged, reduces and eliminated.
Unbeknown to me – or perhaps I really should have known better – there appears to be a large body of supply chain risk research written in German, as I just recently discovered.
The chapter on transportation hazards in the Handbook of Transportation Engineering uses the risk definition by Kaplan and Garrick. It is is concise and to the point and boosts an impressive reference list for further in-depth study.
The key issue is to not make your supply chain one type only, but to keep it open-ended, such that the appropriate supply chain constellation can be matched to the according customer or supplier or product.
This is a handbook indeed, allowing the reader to focus on one area of investigation at the time, while never leaving the whole chain out of sight. My interest in it stems from the fact that it contains a chapter on risk management.
This book is clear and concise, to the point, and constantly switching between risk management in general, supply chain risk, and business continuity, always seeing the whole picture
What is comes down to is that virtual teams have six challenges: Distance, Time, Technology, Culture, Trust and Leadership. Jill Nemiro and her co-editors have put together a 764-page monster of a book. It’s not a handbook, it’s a handbrick.
The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter uses the term Creative Destruction to describe the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation. One of the ways an economy moves forward is by destroying the old in order to create new opportunities.
DeLoach has a refreshing new approach to risk management that is is cross-functional, integrated and adaptable in the face of constant change, simply because traditional risk management approaches are no longer adequate
Christopher advocates establishing a supply chain risk profile, with the purpose to establish where the greatest vulnerabilities lie and where the “greatest” risks are, based on the view that risk is the product of probability and impact.
I first heard of the late Per Bak and his sandpile theories when I some time back read an article by Koubatis and Schönberger (1995) on Risk management of complex critical systems. Per Bak’s “sandpile” model is as relevant to business and society as Adam Smith’s legendary “invisible hand”.
This book describes six reasons why firms seek to establish cooperative networks: 1) Certainty 2) Flexibility 3) Capacity 4) Speed 5) Skills and Competence 6) Intelligence. Five degrees of networks can be discerned: 1) Equal-partner network 2) Unilateral agreements 3) Dominated network 4) Virtual corporation, and 5) Strategic alliance.
I must admit that I knew very little, if anything, about Virtual Enterprise Networks when I started this adventure some months back, but I can now say that I am fascinated by the concept
This book is a welcome addition to the field of cost-benefit analysis in transportation. It contains individual contributions from 20 or so respected academics, each describing a separate field of study. I have seldom seen a fuller and more holistic approach to cost and benefits in transportation research.
This is an excellent book. Despite being compiled from different contributions, the overall style is clear and concise, with objectives stated at the beginning of each chapter. Although at times heavily US and homeland security oriented, this book still manages to capture me, the international audience, to the full.
A VEN is a way for businesses to achieve virtual scale, enabling it to operate as if it possesses more resources and capacity than it actually has within its own physical organizations.
I am currently writing a book chapter for the book Managing Risk in Virtual Enterprise Networks: Implementing Supply Chain Principles, which is about risks in Virtual Enterprise Networks (VENs).
