Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide

Rating:
Summary: Taylor delivers again.
Review: A decade ago, I came across one of David Taylor's books on object technology. At the time, I had written and consulted on the topic extensively. However, reading his first "manager's guide" I felt like I imagine Salieri felt when he first encountered Mozart. The clarity of Taylor's writing (not to be confused with another David Taylor who has also written on Supply Chains) and the beautifully illustrated format put it clearly above the competition. For years, I have recommended his work to my clients and students. Now, with Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide, he's done it again.

As the title indicates, the book is written for a manager rather than a practitioner, and it delivers. Taylor, whose consulting work gives him extensive insights regarding the needs and knowledge of managers, has applied that wisdom to deliver another outstanding reference. In particular, I enjoyed his coverage of business modeling and the significance of collaboration. In my opinion, these sections alone would justify the purchase. Combine them with thorough discussions of management, measurement, and how the software components fit together, and the result is a valuable standalone tutorial and desk reference.

Unless you are an established authority on supply chains - the type of person who doesn't need to buy a book on the topic before giving a keynote, for example - you can't help but enjoy and learn something from this one.

Rating:
Summary: Another Tremendous Synthesis of a Complex Subject
Review: Many years ago, I picked up Taylor's _Object Technolog: A Manager's Guide_. I choose it, not because I didn't have the techical background to read the deep engineering treatments of the same topic, but because I wanted to save myself the time of ponderously sifting through arcane details to identify the key issues and important problems. With the invaluable map provided by that book, I was able to explore the details relevant to my circumstances much more efficiently. It was such a good map, that I kept copies in my briefcase to give to clients who needed the same type of conceptual guidance to wrap their heads around what was something of a revolution at the time.

_Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide_ is the same type of indispensable guide for navigating the world of supply chains. In the interests of full disclosure, I was one of the editorial reviewers of this book and Taylor was kind enough to take some of my suggestions. However, I read through several iterations and could have begged off at any point, but every iteration delivered new value. I've helped architect supply chain management software and have a fairly extensive background in the mathematic techniques used in supply chain analysis, so there weren't many individual facts in the book that I didn't already know. It was the orchestration of these facts and the conceptual synthesis that kept me reading every revision.

Even though I knew the facts, the book helped me see relationships that I'd missed and develop a higher level understanding of the challenges. This process inspired several good software product ideas. Moreover, I suddenly understood how I should be explaining these concepts to my clients. No doubt, copies of this book will also find their way into my briefcase for distribution.

This book won't improve on expert-level knowledge. In fact, I was amused to see one of the other reviewers here, who appeared to be such an expert, confuse Taylor with another author of the same name who focuses on detailed supply chain methdologies. But experts would do well to use it as an example of how to explain the topic to the very large audience of non-experts who need to understand how to improve the execution of supply chains they particpate in every single day. Of course, members of this vast pool of supply chain participants can just go directly to the source and read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Lucid analysis of complex subject
Review: This book tackles the breath of supply chain issues, from fulfillment to forecasting, and integrates them into a comprehensible whole. I particularly liked the use of a matrix that showed design, planning and operations on one axis, and supply side, demand side, and overall performance on the other axis. Taylor devotes an entire section of the book to measuring and improving supply chains. This information alone was worth the purchase price.
But the book also does something I didn't think possible. It made areas like logistics new and interesting. Part of this happened because it was written in a clear and lucid style rarely found in business books. Part of it happened because of the book's structure. Taylor provides a high-level outline (something he calls "fast track" which accompanies every paragraph) and illustrates most of the concepts (there must be hundreds of easy-to- understand diagrams). You can dive in where you want and get the information you need.
While there are a lot of books on aspects of supply chains, I haven't found anything that pulled so many critical concepts together. This is a source book I expect to keep on my bookshelf to return to again and again.