E-Logistics : Managing Your Digital Supply Chains for Competitive Advantage (Paperback)--by Yingli Wang [2016 Edition] Paperback

It may have a fancy-sounding name but the concept is simple, e-logistics is the electronic brains that helps the global supply chain function from end-to-end, passing information along the chain and assisting in the collection, recording and processing of value-added data.This book takes a practical, hands-on look at this developing sector with a mix of theoretical and real-world advice, enabling strategic and directed decisions to be taken about best-practice implementation and for seeing the overall “bigger picture”.It seemed to work! There is no one-size-fits-all approach between the different types of freight networks and business operations even though, of course, there will be degrees of commonality. The authors first look at each sector and area in its own right before drilling down into specific knowledge areas such as warehouse management, service chain automation and e-fulfilment. The strands of knowledge can be tied together and they may also be brought to life through the many case studies that accompany this book. The authors seek to look into the future and look at various emerging technologies and developing trends within this sector.It is unashamedly a specialist read that packs a lot of information into a relatively small package. Yet a lot of this knowledge could be of interest to the curious generalist, even though the price tag (as reasonable as it is for what you are getting) may just be out of their reach.Strange as it may sound, this book may possibly even be capable of making you a little jealous of people who can be working in some of these areas with the interesting challenges and competent solutions that may exist for them. It is a massive book, so there will be a lot to keep you engaged. Many won’t read every chapter, yet if you have the time and inclination to do you will come out at the other end a much more informed. If you want even more, there is the customary mass of references that really let you dig deeper into a given subject or point as required.The book is just like a good e-logistics network: well-connected, well-designed, efficient and perfectly operational.

e-Logistics: Managing Your Digital Supply Chains for Competitive Advantage, edited by Yingli Wang and Stephen Pettit, confirms for me a theory that I have increasingly held true: that every function in the modern competitive enterprise is more about the flow, usage, and capture of information than any other specialized capability. The editors of this book, as well as their team of contributing writers, understand that e-Logistics is not just about automating the supply chain, but maintaining the quality and integrity of supply chain data. It is also not about data for its own sake, but for the creation of competitive advantage and customer value.It is meaningful to point out that in the book’s extensive introduction, there is no mention of trucks or warehouses, ocean logistics or air freight. Instead, the editors discuss the intersection of the many major, high-level trends affecting commerce today: cloud computing, the Internet of Things, big data, predictive analytics, and globalization. Even when the discussion turns to more traditional logistics topics, the focus is on Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The capabilities of this technology make possible all of the transformational strategies applied in supply chain management: just in time delivery, collaborative forecasting, vendor managed inventory, cross docking, and global manufacturing and distribution.This book makes perfectly clear that each part of the organization must embrace overall corporate goals and objectives so completely that they do, in fact, become their own. This philosophy is the fulfillment of the movement to eliminate silos. If you were to remove the word logistics in this book and replace it with business, company, or enterprise, the knowledge in it would be no less true. It is a fascinating approach to logistics and an interesting bellwether about the direction of functional development.Given the importance of (and reliance on) technology to competition, solutions are elevated to a whole new height. The same is true of the need to achieve mastery of the value chain: where demand meets supply. The ‘flows’ that must take place to support the value chain, and which need to be seamlessly automated by solutions, are defined by Tim Hotze (a senior executive in the fields of integrated international transportation and supply chain management) as goods, information, payments, and ownership.As our solutions become more critical, successful implementation of them is essential. Business leaders have to evaluate and repair processes before selecting and implementing a solution. And once the processes are established, technology can not be allowed to constrain them. Hotze makes this clear as well:“With the rise and capability of advanced IT platforms it has been partially believed that the implementation of a new system will fix all inefficiencies and broken business processes. In most of the examples where companies with bad processes and insufficient business expertise implement an advanced IT platform, the platform itself will not solve the underlying issues but can become the scapegoat of a missing business foundation.” (p. 432-433)Woe to those that do not heed his advice, as they will be passed behind in today’s interconnected, data-centric competitive landscape.