The Supply Chain Yearbook (2001 Edition)

John A. Woods and Edward J. Marien, Editors

McGraw-Hill, 2001

ISBN 0-07-137232-6

588 pages, $89.95

To order: Call (800) 842-3075 or visit www.bookstore.mcgraw-hill.com.

The editors of this just-released publication have followed through on an interesting concept: Assemble a wealth of articles on supply chain management from a wide range of sources and publish them in a single compendium. The result is the first edition of The Supply Chain Yearbook, an extensive publication with more than 50 different supply chain articles.

At first glance, the thought of assimilating all of this information may appear a bit intimidating. So to aid in the digestive process, the editors have arranged the articles into seven categories. They begin with a look at the current state of supply chain management (SCM) and then proceed to focus on key aspects of the SCM process—for example, planning, execution, and metrics. Finally, readers are offered a series of articles on the future of SCM.

The articles selected come from multiple and diverse sources, including specialized business magazines such as Purchasing and Logistics Management & Distribution Report, general business publications like Fortune and Harvard Business Review, and various academic and association journals. A number of the articles included originally appeared in Supply Chain Management Review. (Co-editor Edward J. Marien serves on SCMR's Editorial Advisory Board.)

The book achieves a nice balance between theory and practice. Many of the articles are targeted at supply chain executives and others charged with designing supply chain strategy. Others are more relevant to the operational people tasked with carrying out the strategy. Still others will resonate with supply chain professionals at all levels.

As a bonus, the yearbook includes a reference section that gives information on online resources, supply chain-related organizations, and a glossary of SCM terms. All and all, it's a laudable first effort, one that the editors plan to update every year.

CLOExpress.com

CLOExpress, a new Web site created by Norbridge Consulting, joins the growing pack of sites vying to be the online source for information and research on supply chain management.

The site mainly serves as a bare-bones directory—listing 600 key links in 35 categories of interest to logistics and supply chain professionals. Among the categories are daily news and information, professional development, logistics services, transportation modes, transportation B2B sites, and office tools and travel. Each of these categories is then further divided into subcategories. Like most directories, the site mainly acts as a compiler of information; the farthest CLOExpress goes toward evaluating these links is tagging "cool sites" with a pair of sunglasses.

The site packs that information onto one page, creating a design that is not very eye-catching and a little overwhelming at first. Yet the more one explores the site, the more powerful this simple directory seems. What the developers of CLOExpress have done is to provide users with a template of a Web page devoted to helpful bookmarks. The main value is exactly what the "Express" part of the site's name implies: It saves you time. The site assembles the same links that users might have put together for themselves if they had the time. It also contains helpful links that users might not have been aware of. The site then organizes all of these links into clear and logical categories that make it easy to find them again.

The most powerful part of the site is the customization or edit option. Registered users can easily add their own links and even their own new categories. They also can remove links from the front page. This makes the page a little bit more manageable and less cluttered. These customization features are free with registration. The information required to sign up is minimal, and the site promises to never sell or rent personal information to anyone.

Norbridge created CLOExpress in conjunction with the CEOExpress Company, which oversees a family of Web sites that includes CEOExpress, LawyerExpress, and JournalistExpress.

Who's Who in eCommerce Fulfillment? Armstrong's Guide to eFulfillment Service Providers, Second Edition

Armstrong & Associations, 2001

ISBN: 1-891645-08-0

167 pages, $225 (hard copy) or $595 (hard copy & diskette)

To order: Call (800) 525-3915 or visit www.3PLogistics.com.

When the first volume of Who's Who in eCommerce Fulfillment: Armstrong's Guide to eFulfillment Service Providers came out in early 2000, dot-com companies were still hot and e-fulfillment was the buzzword of the moment. The second edition of the guide, however, enters into a very different market.

For that reason, perhaps the most intriguing section of the guide is the last three pages, which list six companies that have gotten out of the e-fulfillment business. The surprise may be not that six have left the market but that 102 (according to Armstrong's count) still remain. This could indicate that despite the dot-com downturn, e-commerce fulfillment remains an important concern for many companies. And for those companies looking to outsource their e-fulfillment operations, this publication provides a good map for selecting the best provider for their needs.

Like all of the Armstrong offerings—including Who's Who in Logistics? and Who's Who in Logistics Websites?—the eCommerce Fulfillment guide is clearly organized and highly readable. The guide provides in-depth profiles of 57 e-fulfillment service providers and gives contact information for an additional 55 lesser-known providers.

The profiles include all of the basic information. They list service features and capabilities, interfaces and information systems used, and product-handling capabilities. Armstrong also provides details on the company's background, financial information, e-fulfillment center locations, and e-fulfillment customers. The profiles end with a brief comment from the editor and a news and case study section draws primarily from press releases and trade press articles.

The guide also includes a quick checklist of all the providers' service capabilities. This feature allows readers to quickly scan to find providers that fit their general needs.

Armstrong's guide seems to cover a wide range of providers from larger, well-known companies such as UPS Logistics and Exel to smaller providers that are focusing specifically on e-fulfillment, such as eSpeed Fulfillment. This range, coupled with the guide's reader-friendly format, makes Who's Who a helpful research tool for those beginning their search for an e-commerce fulfillment provider.

Annual Conference Proceedings

Council of Logistics Management, 2000

438 pages, $40 ($5 for shipping within the U.S., $15 for shipping outside the United States)

To order: Call (630) 574-0985 or visit www.clm1.org.

The Council of Logistics Management (CLM) has released the Annual Conference Proceedings from its 2000 conference, "redefininglogistics.com."

The proceedings obviously do not contain all of the more than 400 presentations given during the conference. Instead a representative sample of 31 appear in the book.

This collection of articles provides a good taste of the wide variety of issues covered at the conference. Article topics range from collaborative planning, to business-to-consumer e-commerce, to decision-support tactics, to logistics in the healthcare industry. In keeping with the conference theme, almost half of the presentations included in the book focus on technology or e-business issues. They address such things as e-procurement, home delivery, and connectivity issues.

Research findings and survey results also form a significant portion of the 2000 proceedings. The book presents the results of nine studies, including "The Ohio State University 2000 Survey of Career Patterns in Logistics," "Logistics Cost and Service 2000," "Trends and Issues in Logistics: Ninth Survey of the Giants of Shipping," and "The Use of Logistics Information Systems throughout the Supply Chain."