It’s course planning time. So here we go again, looking at an overwhelming number of SCM-related books. It’s not all that easy to sort out the good ones - SCM is such a hot topic that it could be included in book titles even if not at all in the content of a book.
Searching for them, here are my ”hits”:
McGraw-Hill: 22 for “supply chain”, 7 for “logistics”, 51 for “operations”
Pearson/Prentice Hall: 73 for “supply chain”, 79 for “logistics”, 132 for “operations”
Oxford University Press: - for “supply chain”, 2 for “logistics”, 9 for “operations”
And this without covering e.g. purchasing or other related areas that do not mention either keyword in their book titles. And not to speak of the problem to find a book on the right level (BSc, MSc vs MBA, PhD) and “our” audience (speak non-US geographical area).
But now it struck me - we are talking about “demand management”, push and pull philosophies etc. Yet when it comes to publishing houses they will storm our doors to get their newest books across - in April/May. By then all decisions have been made for the next year. Someone should tell them 
Any suggestions for good course books in the meantime?
Gyöngyi
4 responses so far ↓
Arni // March 2, 2007 at 8:02 am
What if core text books were replaced by journal articles?
I have found this article by Hau L. Lee and Corey Billington (1992) on “Managing Supply Chain Inventory: Pitfalls and Opportunities” (MIT Sloan Management Review) very useful to use in classes at all levels. Even more useful than most textbook chapters on the subject.
The article is well written and provides a logical causal explanation students can learn from when working on projects and submitting written assignments on other subjects as well.
We could also raise the issue of why “books”?
In the era of podcast, mp3’s and blogging, why can’t we just buy individual chapters, just as we are able to buy individual songs in a mp3 format?
Just follow the trend these textbooks are implying, and become more pull-oriented.
Make-to-order.
Time-to-market.
Postponement.
Ehhmm.
Árni
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