When I first began to plan this book, I thought that I would begin the preface with the words “The purpose of this little book is…” While I never lost my belief that small is beautiful, I discovered that it is impossible to put together an idea of Supply Chain Management field as vast as manufacturing domain between the covers of a truly “moderate” book and still hope that it will be reasonably comprehensive. I have long felt that a modern book on the subject one that would be useful as a primary reference and, more importantly, as a reference in a industrial studies should incorporate modern supply chain management strategies, different types and usability of same.

By no coincidence, it is precisely these topics rather than the traditional study of domain specific supply chain management and total quality management that have been the subject of my own research in Supply Chain Management. I also feel that a basic supply chain management theory should contain at least introductions to the actual implementation of SCM.

Almost two years have passed, and some 1 megabytes of disk space have been filled, resulting in about 200 pages of print. Naively perhaps, I still hope that the reader approaches this overgrown volume as though it were a moderate book: it must not be expected, despite my efforts to make it comprehensive, to be exhaustive, especially in the sections dealing with applications flows; I have preferred to discuss just enough problems to highlight various facets of this topic.

The book is organized in ten chapters, covering major subject areas. The order of presentation of the areas is somewhat arbitrary. It is based on the order in which I have chosen to explain the field, and may easily be criticized by those partial to a different order. I hope, this book may provide reader very clear visualization of concept.