The Professor's Notes

I have many thoughts on digital textbooks, and you have all had an opportunity to read them here.   Apple has made their “big move” and I am both pleased to see digital moving forward, and also a bit concerned about what could become the “only” platform on campuses.

I actually presented a paper on the challenges of digital textbook pricing at the Western DSI (Decision Sciences Institute) conference in 2011.   You can read the paper here.  In that paper, I point out that by driving the logistics costs of moving, handling, and returning paper products out of the system, along with other costs such as maintaining a bookstore, one can drive the costs down to about (surprise!) $15.00 while maintaining the 2 year profits of the publisher. And by withdrawing the pressures of the resale market, the profits only go up from there.

First thoughts that led to that paper were written about here  and here.

Most recently I wrote about  consumer driven markets. Who should make the  choice? Digital textbooks are able separate the content from the medium, and allow flexibility–unless we are locked into a hardware platform.  I also wrote about this in this post.

I would welcome other thoughts on those posts and on the paper.

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Like so many this holiday season I have been doing most of my gift shopping online. I have had a few interesting experiences, mostly dealing with the shipping aspect of the order. I will be writing about mine soon, but wanted to hear what good or bad, or just “interesting” experiences you might have had.

Please, take a minute and leave your story in the comment section!

Thanks!

My friends Joe Tillman and Kate Vitasek have written a <A HREF=”http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20091201order_fulfillment_perfection/”> very timely article</A> discussing the “perfect order.” What they point out is that, while service providers may have “perfect order fulfillment” as their goal, you won’t get there if you don’t have as <B>your</B> measure of perfection the same measure as your customer.

They do use a very timely approach, expressing the perfect order in terms that would satsify Ralphie, from the Christmas movie classic “A Christmas Story.” The article is well worth your read.

For those not practicing the fine art of Ostrich-ing (hiding your head in the sand), you will note that the dollar is performing poorly against most (all?) international currencies at this time. Of course, the media is reporting this as yet another indicator that times are tough.

Alas, all is not as clear when assessing the economy. In fact, a “weak dollar” has some significant benefits–especially for the “average” American.  And, for those readers here for Supply Chain information, the impacts of the dollar are felt throughout. Read the rest of this entry »

 The alert reader has no doubt heard and read stories about the US Air Force’s selection of the next air refueling aircraft, or “Tanker.”  In what to many was a surprise move, the Air Force selected the Northrup Grumman/AEDS (Airbus) proposal rather than the Boeing proposal.  And, not surprisingly, Boeing has objected to losing what had been a “lock” for them for over 50 years.¹  What is surprising, however, are the arguments we are beginning to hear.

One would expect to read that Boeing lost the contract despite being the better aircraft.  That, somehow, the AF overlooked key performance characteristics of the aircraft.  That, perhaps, politics came in to play to select an inferior product.  But no. Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit, I am a water junky. I drink most likely gallons of water a day. I have all but abandoned sodas, and only drink coffee in the morning. Otherwise, it’s all water. Of course, having such a water addiction means that I, like most junkies, want my “fix” all the time. And I want my “fix” to be the purest possible. For me, this means a reliance on filters at home, and bottles of water when I am not home.

I tell myself this is healthy. This is a good thing. That I am keeping my body healthy. And yet, I can’t help but wonder about the efficiencies of a system that makes clean and pure water available to drink, out of half-liter bottles.

There are a number of concerns here, almost all of which touch on environmental issues, but are also at their heart “supply chain” issues. For instance, if we are shipping cases of water, we are moving tons, literally tons, of water by truck. Read the rest of this entry »

I presented my paper on Podcasting in Supply Chain Education. The paper received the “Teaching Innovation Award” for best paper in teaching innovations.

From the paper:

“Podcasting” has taken the technological and hobbyist worlds by storm, allowing for the creation of highly specialized audio (and now video) productions for delivery over the internet. This sort of capability has found its way into the classroom and into courseware, allowing professors to deliver a wide range of content to their students. (King, et al., 2006) This paper discusses the background of podcasting, the technology that enabled it, and how podcasting can be used to enhance supply chain courses with a “blended” or hybrid learning experience.

In addition to the podcast recording of the presentation, I am including the pdf of the paper, as well as the PowerPoint slides from the presentation.

Let me know what you think of it, and as always, leave comments, or send me a voice mail at the number listed in the contact section!

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I have posted this over at “Supply Chain Innovations Today” but wanted to cross-post here.

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DC Velocity has published a great article pointing out the way in which logistics (and by extension, supply chain management) comes through time and time again–and occasionally with a high profile effort. In this case, the author writes about the logistics efforts that were essential to the successful roll-out of the latest, and final, Harry Potter book.

I mention the author, Peter Bradley, focuses on the logistics necessary to deliver 12 million books in quantities large (and small) around the globe for a single, timed, opening. This of course goes beyond a simple planning and execution initiative. It required coordination, as Bradley mentions, between the publisher, and a network of transportation providers (carriers.) He writes:

Scholastic’s success was no act of magic. Rather, it was a carefully planned and executed distribution effort that required close collaboration among members of the company’s logistics team and a core group of carriers.

Planning for the rollout began in January, even before Scholastic had the finished manuscript. Internally at Scholastic, the project would require tight coordination among members of the logistics staff and their colleagues in sales, purchasing, customer service, and manufacturing. Yablin points to Ed Swart, director of operations, and Francine Colaneri, vice president of manufacturing and procurement, as key partners and team members.

The close collaboration also extended to Scholastic’s logistics partners: J.B. Hunt, Combined Express, Yellow Transportation, and ActivAir. J.B. Hunt, one of the nation’s largest truckload carriers, moved the majority of the books—all but about a million of the copies. Hunt operated in partnership with Combined Express, a Bensalem, Pa. based logistics and trucking company that specializes in publishing and retail shipping. Yellow Transportation, a major LTL carrier, handled domestic LTL shipments. ActivAir, an international forwarder that specializes in book and magazine distribution, managed international shipments to 32 destinations in 29 countries.

I would like to point out that contemporary to this initiative was the release of the much-touted iPhone. That release required a delivery between 4 and 6 pm local time, for a store opening of 6 in the evening. Another opportunity for logistics to shine.

Let’s not lose sight of the importance of collaboration across the supply chain for both of these products. In both cases, there was a line in the sand–a promised delivery date for large scale release. Satisfactorily meeting these dates required not only a close coordination of “in house” production but also coordination among all the suppliers that provide key elements to your product. In the case of the iPhone, there are many components that make up the phone, from numerous suppliers. According to their analysis (as reported in RFDesign)these suppliers include: South Korea’s Samsung (The processor core), German-based Infineon (providing the RF and broadband functions), and National Semiconductor (a single chip.) In addition, the most exciting part of the iPhone, the multi-touch screen, has many providers:

It is believed by iSuppli that the supplier for the touchscreen module in the model torn down by iSuppli was Balda, with its partner TPK Holding. It is believed by iSuppli that the iPhone LCD display itself is multi-sourced through Epson Imaging Devices, Sharp and Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology. The cost of the LCD used in the iPhone is estimated at $24.50, representing 9.8% of the 8 Gbyte version’s costs. source: RFDesign http://rfdesign.com/rfic/iphone-isuppli-components-0712/

Coordinating such a complex, and global, supply chain and ensuring pinpoint accuracy in delivery (both spatial and temporal) shows how a collaborative supply chain can truly deliver.

As many of you know, one of my research areas of interest is “Space Logistics” and “Interplanetary Supply Chain Management.” We presented three papers a conference in April, and one of them (lead-author by Mke M) looked at Submarines as an analogy to long duration space missions.

NASA has another on-going mission—NEEMO. This mission titled “NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations” is “testing concepts for future space exploration at an underwater laboratory off the coast of Florida. “ It’s a very interesting concept. Of course, NASAWatch, the blog dedicated to holding NASA to task, is concerned that NASA is ignoring this mission that they themselves have funded.

NASAWatch does point to a link for the underwater webcams. They are interesting to watch, and the descriptions of the various camera views are even somewhat humorous.

If anyone is interested in Space Logistics, shoot me a note.

Amazon.com: Why ERP? A Primer on SAP Implementation: Books: F. Robert Jacobs,David Clay Whybark:
“Why ERP? Because I didn’t have a choice as to read it or not. I’d rather take a bath in gasoline and light myself on fire than read this thing again.” (Reviewer’s comment)

Last posting, I put a story up about SAP releasing V 5 of their SCM software. I commented there on the need for software to support supply chain collaboration, among other things. It was pointed out to me by a colleague that the book, “Why ERP” presents an implementation of an SAP ERP system that failed. I have yet to read the book, but it is now high on my reading list (and I encourage those of you interested in these things to do as well.)

Hey, I make it easy for you–I am linking this posting to the Amazon site for this book. But not to get you to buy it, because if that was my goal I would have figured out a way to get a kickback. I wanted to actually link to the comments reviewing the book, like the one quoted above. It appears that this book is fairly common required reading, and that students don’t like it. Don’t believe me? Go read the comments!

This was doubly interesting to me, since it combined the ERP discussion with a discussion on evaluations by students. Over at the blog “Confessions of a Community College Dean” the Dean is trying to figure out ways to evaluate his faculty. This is often stymied by the fact that students’ evaluations are, well, sometimes less than constructive. Note, I say sometimes.

In these reviews of the book you will find there to be constructive critiques. These critiques say things like:

“Do not read this book if you are an expert on SAP or very familiar with ERP systems. This is little more than a text book put in the form of one large example.” (Hmmm one CASE example can be quite rich in individual exmplars used for discussion and study. But still, good critique.)

CAUTION: This book (actually a novel) is good only for those who do not know anything about ERP. Finish this quickly and move on to more detailed stuff like MISSION CRITICAL by Thomas Davenport. (again, the usefulness is challenged, but at least the commentator provides an alternative.)

and, Perhaps the best review:

This actually is a good read. It kept my interest for a full 2 hours, which is what is took to read it. The case study is real and on the mark. It illustrates that even if SAP is being widely adopted in your industry (in this case furniture), it may not be the right solution for you. In this instance, SAP (or the SAP implementation approach) was wrong because the company, whose business model was “make to order”, tried to cut time and costs by directly implementing a configuration which worked well for a company that has a very limited (few part numbers with minimal change) product line.

The author also did a realistic job in presenting the politics of the situation. The company president wanted an easy integration under a tight deadline. The IT geek wasn’t interested in the business model and wanted a showcase quick installation. The marketing guy wasn’t interested in the details and wanted to showcase the installation. The book’s hero is a healthy skeptic, who is trying to understand ERP, its benefits, and how it fit his company’s business.

Based the book’s title, I thought I was picking up another SAP marketing book. But it is not that at all. It’s objective and deals with business issues. No ABAP, idocs, and organization elements here.

My recommendations for anyone writing a review or a critique, including critiquing a course or an instructor? They are quite simple really:

1. Provide positive feedback if at all possible. What did you like, and why? The why is important because it helps to know how to develop future information in a way that worked well previously. Criticism need not be negative, or even pointing out weaknesses. Sometimes people need to be told the good things.

2. Be critical, with a positive attitude. Say things like “While I appreciate XXX, it didn’t work well, because…” Again, the because, or the why, is critical to helping the professor or author provide a fix for things later.

3. Understand the purpose of what you are critiquing. If you are critiquing a course, and the course is on advanced astrophysics, don’t criticize the lack of creative writing assignments. Alternatively, if you are in an MBA program, regardless of the quantitative rigour of the individual course, you should have an expectation that students will be expected to communicate clearly–after all, you are there to be better managers.

So, remember: criticism should be given with the intent of improvement, and while it may have been cathartic for the reviewer to write: “I wouldn’t even make paper airplanes with this book – because they would suck too. When millions of books were burned in WWII, why did they miss this one?” they certainly provided nothing to the discussion.

The Prof

Postscript: (In fact, the paper airplane comment was followed by a recommendation to read “The Goal” by Goldratt. An excellent book, but with a completely different message/intent. This reviewer apparently missed point number three.)