Modeling the Supply Chain or Crossing Currents

Modeling the Supply Chain

Author: Jeremy F Shapiro

With an emphasis on modeling techniques, Jeremy Shapiro's MODELING THE SUPPLY CHAIN is the perfect tool for courses in supply chain management or for professional managers who seek better analytical tools for managing their supply chains, information technologists who are responsible for developing and/or maintaining such tools, and consultants who conduct supply chain studies using models. Shapiro examines in detail the roles of data, models, and modeling systems in helping companies improve the management of their supply chains. The focus is on optimization models based on linear and mixed integer programming. The complementary role played by descriptive models in developing data inputs for optimization models is thoroughly reviewed. Using numerous applications, Shapiro clearly illustrates that when properly implemented, these methodologies can create accurate and comprehensive models of great practical value. The book also shows how competitive advantage in supply chain management can be most fully realized by developing and applying optimization modeling systems.

Booknews

With an emphasis on data, models, and modeling systems, this text teaches professionals and students how to analyze supply chain planning problems. It overviews IT developments related to improving supply chain performance, introduces fundamentals of optimization modeling, explains design principles for supply chain network optimization systems, and presents a methodology for scheduling problems that combines optimization methods with heuristics. It also offers examples of modeling applications to strategic, tactical, and operational supply chain planning problems. The author is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO SUPPLY-CHAIN MANAGEMENT. 1. Supply-Chain Management, Integrated Planning, and Models. 2. Information Technology. PART II: MODELING AND SOLUTION METHODS. 3. Fundamentals of Modeling: Linear Programming. 4. Fundamentals of Modeling: Mixed Integer Programming. 5. Unified Optimization Methodology for Operational Planning . 6. The Supply-Chain Decision Database. PART III: APPLICATIONS. 7. Strategic and Tactical Supply Chain Planning: State-of-the-Art Modeling Applications . 8. Strategic and Tactical Supply-Chain Planning: Advanced Modeling Applications. 9. Integration of Financial and Physical Supply-Chains. 10. Operational Supply-Chain Planning. 11. Inventory Management. PART IV: THE FUTURE. 12. Organizational Adaptation to Supply-Chain Modeling Systems.

Interesting book: Economia direttiva e strategia aziendale

Crossing Currents: Continuity and Change in Latin America

Author: Michael B Whiteford

Designed to expose readers to some of the most important critical thinking by anthropologists across a wide range of issues, this anthology combines a variety of works that examine Latin American cultures from a number of different perspectives. Very accessible and perceptive, it covers a wide range of topics -- beginning with a general overview of Latin America (observations about size of land mass, geography, population size and growth rates) and then highlighting some of the cultural characteristics that permit us to talk about "Latin America" -- balancing the incredible cultural diversity with some of the overriding features that give at least the appearance of "similarity."