This new work looks at supply chain management from an unusual four-point perspective: purchasing, operations, logistics, and integration of the first three areas. Most texts on the topic concentrate more narrowly.
The authors are all management faculty members. Joel Wisner came to UNLV in 1991; Keah-Choon Tan in 1998; and G. Keong Leon in 2001 to chair the department.
Wisner, who teaches in the MBA program, says he and Mike Mezja, another colleague who teaches the course, had used all the textbooks on the topic at one time or another. "I felt that none of them was covering the true idea of supply chain management, which is the collaboration with trading partners in the key business processes, including purchasing, quality, customer services, inventory, and transportation issues."
Rival textbooks focus mainly on purchasing and logistics, but Wisner believes there is much more students need to know and clearly others in the field agree with him. Arizona State University has adopted the text for its students.
A popular feature of the book will undoubtedly be the opportunity to play "The Beer Game," developed at MIT in the 1960s. The game takes students through the steps in ordering, stocking, and distributing beer, while dealing with realistic conditions such as a two-week transportation delay from order to receipt of the product. A typical game, um, class exercise can continue for 20 weeks.
