Page 16 - Logistics News August 2016

book review

A balanced approach
to SC management

Transportation is a vital function in supply chain
management (SCM), and is the link between customers,

suppliers, factories, warehouses and the individual
participants in a supply chain. These supply chains can
be local, regional or international, and can also involve a

combination of these broad categories.

Title: Supply Chain Management: A balanced approach
Editors: Hannie Badenhorst-Weiss, Ernest van Biljon, Marcus Ambe
Consulting editor: WMJ Hugo
Publisher: Van Schaik
Edition: 2nd edition
Copyright: © 2017

ISBN: 9780627031113
Pages: 384
Price: R499.00 including VAT
Availability: November 2016
from all academic booksellers and from online retailers
Will also be available in eBook

Reviewed by: Beverley Waugh
Email: bev.waugh1@gmail.com

THE RESPECTIVE modes of transport each to have a thorough knowledge of the transportation
play their unique role in supporting the logistics system in terms of the framework within which it
supply chain. Transportation adds value to the operates, and the various cost characteristics and
organisation by creating place and time utility for customer service impacts, as well as to understand
the products that are transported. Place utility is the roles of the different modes under given
achieved when the right product is available at circumstances and within the logistics management
the right place, and time utility seeks to ensure the environment.
product is available at the right time. These utilities
are important in overall customer satisfaction – one This and many other logistics topics are covered
of the main focus areas of SCM. by a new South African book on supply chain
management.
As transport plays such a crucial role in supply
chain operations it affects the cost of operation of Supply Chain Management: A balanced approach,
each of the intermediate activities and eventually
the entire cost structure of a supply chain. This is 2nd edition aims to identify the strategic impact and
especially true of international supply chains, which evolutionary direction of supply chain management
often stretch between continents. in a global market environment and to emphasise
the changes in processes and management thinking
South Africa, with its export-led growth strategy, required to introduce supply chain management in
is a great distance from its markets, for example South African organisations.
those in Europe and the Far East. Any cost, service
or operational inefficiency in the transportation This book is divided into five sections and
components of a supply chain affects the cost and covers topics such as supply chain strategies,
marketability of such products and therefore the organisations, optimisation, performance
competitiveness of the products or services sold. improvement, customer service, quality and
inventory management, total cost of ownership,
To ensure that the transportation function of the investment recovery, e-commerce, negotiations,
supply chain is managed effectively, it is necessary transport and distribution management, the retail
supply chain, and global supply chain management.

14 August 2016 | Logistics News