Monday, April 1, 2013

Supply Chain Book Discussion

It looks like Spring may have finally arrived here in Georgia and hopefully we can say goodbye to the chilly, rainy weather we've had over the past several months! To me, Spring is a time for renewal and with that I would like to introduce an idea I discovered while reading a Wall Street Journal article - the Online Book Discussion Group.

Much has been written about the need to attract talented and skilled workers to the supply chain industry. Certification programs are popping up and numerous conferences are trying to address some of these needs. But for those that are interested in perhaps a less formal approach in keeping up with new thoughts and concepts concerning our industry, I would like to introduce an online book discussion group devoted to the supply chain industry.

Perhaps you do not have time to participate as much as you like? that's ok, the discussion will run on Twitter using hash tags. If 140 characters is not enough for your comments, no problem, we will be using a new Facebook page as well as Transport Intelligence's LinkedIn page for those that have additional thoughts. All of these will be linked together so you will not miss any of the discussion. Plus, after the discussion is complete, a complete transcript will be compiled and sent to those folks interested.

Sound intriguing? I hope so. The more the merrier. But first, we will need to decide the first book for our discussion. Some thoughts are below:

  • Logistics Clusters: Delivering Value and Driving Growth by Yossi Sheffi

  • The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson

  • Operations Rules: Delivering Customer Value through Flexible Operations by David Simchi-Levi

Other suggestions welcomed as well. The top three suggestions will be posted here on the blog as well as on Transport Intelligence's LinkedIn site for a vote on April 19th and the one with the most votes will be annouced via Twitter on April 26 so be sure to follow me on Twitter to find out what the top vote is.

Once the book is announced, an agenda and instructions including hashtags etc. will be posted on the blog with the first discussions to begin the week of May 13.