I’ve got myself a new hobby: collecting definitions of SCM from various sources.
One sunny day, I shall auction the whole collection on eBay.
And retire.
Árni
Entries from December 2007
The value of the multiple definitions of SCM
December 20, 2007 · 2 Comments
Categories: Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management
Open access journals
December 18, 2007 · No Comments
Open access journals are (still) quite debated in SCM. First of all, there aren’t many. Second, they don’t (yet) figure on any rankings. Third, there are so many variations that most people are afraid of OA journals being of lower quality. Lower quality to what? There are heaps of academic journals in the D/E categories of rankings, no matter that they’ve been peer reviewed… (BTW, many OA journals are peer reviewed, though not necessarily “open peer reviewed“.)
Another question is the one of rankings vs. outreach - who is your audience, how many people do you want to reach with your article, and ultimately, how often do you want to be cited? Yes, outreach can even translate to citations…
On that note, I would like to welcome a new open access journal, “The Open Transportation Journal“. Most of it is as you know it from printed journals, with an editorial board, detailed notes to contributors, and an ISSN number (ISSN 1874-4478). But, there is no subscription fee - instead, a “publication fee” for authors(!) - while it is automatically indexed in e.g. Google Scholar. Outreach, here we go. Peer review? I don’t know…
Gyöngyi
Categories: Academic journals · Call for papers · Supply Chain Management
SCM rocks!
December 17, 2007 · 3 Comments
Having received the latest news from the “Kulturmanagement network“, I’m all for the “M” in SCM to be changed to “music”. As the Dec issue of this newsletter points out, no cultural event exists without logistics :-) In fact, no event does, as Nina Modig’s series of publications on event logistics will highlight. One of the issues we all remember from Nofoma 2007 and LRN 2007 was the food - or lack of it 
But back to cultural administration*, one of the most interesting insights was to see its very definition looking at processes (in terms of material flows, locational questions…) rather than events, which the authors linked to a call for including logistics in the toolbox for cultural administrators. New are thus a bachelors, and a masters programme in “cultural engineering” in Magdeburg that combines cultural administration and knowledge management with indeed, logistics.
Gyöngyi
* Kulturmanagement stands for “cultural administration”; one of these lovely concepts that is so difficult to translate to other languages. Just see our debate on SCM in different languages…
Categories: Education & Management Development · Socks and sandals
Easy and cheap to repair?
December 12, 2007 · No Comments
Manufacturing ’strategies’ and -approaches such as flexible specialisation, lean and agile are very often explained relative to the good old mass-production and Henry Ford’s model T.
In essence, from push to pull.
At the same time, we may ask whether today’s products are inteded to bye easy and cheap to repair, which was one of the cornerstones in Ford’s ideas?
It happens that things go break down, sometimes of reasons that are beyond the control of the user/consumer.
What do you do when a 14 month old mobile phone breaks down? Or when a service light starts blinking in your car? Or when a wheel falls of your kids toy car? Do you safe old stuff for spare parts?
What happened to products that are easy and cheap to repair?
Árni
Categories: Product return · Reverse Logistics · Service management · Socks and sandals
Finding Nemo on a marine highway
December 11, 2007 · No Comments
Try to search for “transport” or “transportation” in more general databases and you’re up for a nice surprise, the biology section. For example, “transport” can refer to cells and their membranes, even distinguishing between “active” and “passive” transport, “carrier-assisted” transport, “over-land” vs. deep sea transport. The best is yet to come: a “marine highway” meaning the preferred paths for different species to move in the ocean. Just like in the beginning of “Finding Nemo” when father and son want to cross the street
Gyöngyi
Categories: Socks and sandals
Top of the class
December 9, 2007 · No Comments
The results of the new PISA study were officially announced a week ago; with not too many changes. What is almost more interesting than the study itself is the debate around it. While some just talk about “adding cash” to educational systems, others refer to different sorts of educational reforms. Yet, according to a previous McKinsey report, quality of teaching and teachers(!), supporting students lagging behind are factors that seem to correlate with results in comparative studies such as the PISA one - while sheer spending on education does not. But what makes SCM education “good”? It would be nice to more studies on SCM education as well. For the first time, the NOFOMA Educators’ Day has a call for papers… with an abstract deadline on Jan 15, 2008. (see the wall) Who will be at the top of the SCM class?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Call for papers · Education & Management Development
Why manuscripts are rejected
December 7, 2007 · 1 Comment
1. What’s the point? A manuscript without a point is like a dog without a bone. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of hitting readers over the head with the point of the manuscript, as in the standard “purpose statement” in the introduction section. As a reader, I prefer to have to read and reflect and infer the point. Still, whether it’s blatant or subtle, the manuscript must have a point to make.
Categories: Academic journals · Academic publications
Executive briefings on SCM
December 5, 2007 · No Comments
For managers who want to have a quick insight or update into “contemporary issues in supply chain management”, here you find a number of Executive Briefings at the Manchester Business School (UK) homepage.
Árni
Categories: Supply Chain Management · supply chain
SCM in various languages
December 4, 2007 · 4 Comments
SCM
Danish: Ledelse af forsyningskæder or styring af forsyningskæder
Icelandic: Stjórnun aðfangakeðjunnar
Supply chain
Finnish: Toimitusketju
Swedish: försörjningskedja
Russian: цепочка поставок/ сеть поставщиков; cepochka postavok/ set’ postavshikov
We still don’t have podcast here on Interorganisational, but Dog House Boogie may add the appropriate tones to these concepts. If Seasick Steve is too loud, try Richard Hawley. 
Árni
Edited: Title of this entry was changed from SCM in Danish and Icelandic to SCM in various languages. Thanks to Gyöngyi for comments.
Categories: Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management · supply chain
Listen to SCM
December 4, 2007 · 2 Comments
After posting so much about webinars, online games etc. in SCM education, here’s some more on podcasts. Stephan Brady had a presentation on the topic at the Supply Chain Management Educators’ Conference (aka the CSCMP Educators), and funnily, someone made a podcast of his presentation on podcasts (which he calls “personal on demand broadcasting”). Here’s the link; and if you follow it you’ll find the slides as well as the original paper with it. (It does help to see the slides while listening to the podcast.) After listening to logistics, it’s nice to have a go at SCM
Gyöngyi
Categories: Education & Management Development · Supply Chain Management
