The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management: Understanding the Supply Chain

May look boring but helped me when starting my new career in the supply and logistics industry and not over complicated so easy to understand.

Complete and interesting, I used a lot to update my basic knowledge in the role.

Informative but could have expanded on some of the topics to enrich understanding.

technically laborious. good level book though

Very interesting, simple and clearily understandable book.

was not that useful but well explained

The last time I had cause to read “The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management” it was in its 2nd edition and I was at university (Logistics and Supply chain Management). As I now turn to the new, 5th edition one thing that struck me was that it reads a lot like a briefing from The Economist - very far from the text book I remember.The book’s still structured to cater for students, or people who had previously very little exposure to the subject, with a didactic logic that runs all the way through the text, not just the contents page. It therefore suceeds in avoiding making implicit assumptions or feeling laboured. I can confirm this especially with reference to the multichannel fulfilment chapter which is new, to both me and the book as well as the main reason for my interest.I have worked predominantly at the procurement end of the supply chain for the last ten years, so revisiting parts of the book with which I’d previously been familiar was interesting. Interesting, (content aside) to see how the book met the challenge of catering for a different type of reader: a reader now looking for clarification of ideas of which only a vague grasp remained. The book scores well in this regard. To a significant degree this was due to the presence and presentation of the various diagrams, schematics and photographs: as well as being instructive in their own right they are valuable for navigation purposes.Handbooks should be easy to use; this handbook is very easy to use. As a result, people who are: looking for a concept refresh, want to double check specifics or are logistics novices won’t be disappointed.

This latest edition is a substantial volume which on first impression might cause a reader some concern. However, the authors have successfully focussed on its role as a handbook, recognising it is unlikely to be digested cover to cover.The edition is helpfully divided into six logical sections, each covering a key subject area. Additionally the chapters are well structured with a clear introduction to the topics covered, the subject matter itself, and a closing summary to remind the reader of the key points.The contents section provides an indication of how the edition is structured. In addition to setting out what the authors hope to achieve, the introduction section includes a useful discussion section on the scope and definition of logistics and the supply chain and provides some good historical context demonstrating how and why the discipline of logistics is still relatively new.The content of each chapter is generally constrained to an appropriate level of detail, giving the reader sufficient background to act as a platform for any further research if needed. The authors have achieved the correct balance between depth of each subject and overall readability.The index is sufficiently comprehensive to enable easy referencing to precise topics, including constituent sub-topics where relevant. This supports the books useability as a handbook and an excellent source of reference material. Excellent.