Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 272 pages
- Published by: Kaplan Publishing September 4, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1419596810
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1419596810
-
Book Dimensions:
9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 1.2 pounds
Product Description
The rise of Wal-Mart, Dell, IKEA, IBM, UPS, and FedEx has changed the way consumers and businesses function in America.
Chain Reaction takes a look at the successes of these companies and shows how these very different businesses have all come to the same basic plan, leading them to become dominant in their industry.
In
Chain Reaction, Robert Malone argues that success in business is based upon an aggressive and intelligent supply chain strategy. He contends that the most effective business logistics today allow a business to manufacture, distribute, and sell on demand, and he shows in detail how superpower companies have mastered the strategy. This is a change from the historical “push” strategy – manufacturing and marketing as many products as possible and pushing them to the wholesaler, retailer and consumer to a “pull” strategy. This new demand-driven and synchronized supply chain is tailored for the new and aggressive business practice of the future.
It's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the companies profiled in the book, as well as anyone who loves to know how things work.
About The Author
Robert A. Malone is the logistics editor for Forbes.com and has written columns for
Inbound Logistics and an online column for
Managing Automation for ten years. He co-founded the Variflex Corporation, where he created “a variable speed goods and people mover,” designed the movement of people and baggage for six airports, performed studies on the interaction of people and traffic at business activity centers, did a study for the US Postal Service that pre-dated electronic tracking and package modularization, and designed ATMs and bank branches for Citibank.
Reader ReviewsRather than being a series of case studies in logistics, the author shares his insights about the history and development of logistics. Robert Malone divides the book's twenty chapters into 3 parts. The first seven chapters talk about the changing scale of the world. Huge ships that won't even get through the Panama Canal, tiny iPods that hold thousands of song and are made from parts made around the globe. How things are getting faster, impossibly complex, and require computers, much like the way the B-2 bomber can't be flown without computers translating what the pilot wants to keep the flying and control surfaces where they need to be. Malone talks about real innovation rather than the kind of chewing the fat daydreaming most people consider its hallmark. I enjoyed his discussion of automation and communication. He has a great take on automation being in the seeing and thinking rather than in the machines. It is the same with communications, it is what is being transmitted and why rather than in the medium. Then he takes us to the creation and evolution of the supply chain. The sheer volume and complexity of today's supply chains is amazing. It has led to revolutions in manufacturing, retailing, and in shipping, air, trucking, and warehousing. The discussion of how competition within the logistics industry has not only led to the aggressive adoption of cost lowering technologies, but has also driven companies to create revolutionary approaches to logistics. The last section is more about what is missing (for one thing, Malone thinks global infrastructure is quite poor, especially in the U.S.), what is needed to get it right, and why we need to think about getting good infrastructure into the developing world (more equity, more business as a secondary benefit). An interesting book. However, most of the writing is in short two and three paragraph articles that can get seem a bit unconnected at times.
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