SCM or Supply Chain Management is one of those fashionable buzzwords of the Information Technology Services business that are much bandied about, but rarely, properly understood. If you want to change all that, Janat Shah's book* is the place to start.
A mechanical engineer from IIT Mumbai and a Fellow of IIM Ahmedabad, Shah has been visiting scholar at the MIT Sloan Institute of Management and a visiting faculty at the Logistics Institute of the National University of Singapore. He is now a professor ( production and operations management) at IIM, Bangalore as well as special professor, Nottingham University Business School (UK).
His book is a smooth and seamless mix of concept and application, hard core information and lucid explanation -- with a dozen illustrative case studies.
I found the book can be read at two levels: For those fastidious few who are unhappy unless every concept is reduced to a graph or a formula, Shah provides that aplenty. If maths put you off, you can skip the numbers and still derive benefit because every section, from outsourcing to inventory management to network design, is embellished with little boxes of interviews of leading players in that area from Bharti Airtel to Titan.
And when it comes to the case studies, Shah has not succumbed to the temptation of so many Indian experts and produced a book aimed at a vaguely defined international reader. This is a book by an Indian -- for Indian readers -- and the case studies are ones we can relate to and understand: Subhiksha, Marico, Kurlon....
I am no expert on SCM nor need I write an exam on the subject; but I nevertheless found my understanding my concepts and understanding, sharpened and improved after a quick read of Shah's book. And at the asking price it's great value for lay reader and student alike. For instructors, the Pearson website offers registered users, chapter by chapter power point slides and a teacher's guide:
https://peicamp.in/JanatShah/book-details.asp?bookid=4029
*SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: TEXT AND CASES; By Janat Shah, large paperback; Rs 375; Pearson Education, Delhi, India
(Anand Parthasarathy; Bangalore June 10 2009)