Irish firms must embrace Supply Chain Management (SCM) to remain competitive, a new book warns. ‘Perspectives on Supply Chain Management and Logistics’, edited by Edward Sweeney of the National Institute for Transport & Logistics (NITL), highlights the importance of SCM for all Irish businesses as it can play a vital role in improving service and cutting operating costs.

After over a decade of unprecedented growth in the Irish economy, recent months have demonstrated the relative fragility of the ‘Celtic Tiger’. Globalisation has forced businesses to compete, not just with rivals within the same country or region, but with similar companies across the globe. Customers are becoming more discerning and markets more sophisticated. Businesses in all sectors must innovate to meeting these ever-changing expectations.

Supply chain management (SCM), with its focus on achieving the service levels demanded by markets and on optimising total supply chain cost and investment, has a pivotal role to play in addressing these and other challenges.

Speaking at the launch, book’s editor, Mr Edward Sweeney, noted that, ‘against a background of increasingly rapid and at times discontinuous change companies need to consider the broader value of SCM in creating a differentiated business model that determines competitive advantage in the judgement of customers. Recent economic developments have sharpened the focus on the need for innovative thinking in this area’.

Prof. Brian Norton, President of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) commented that, ‘this new work is based on the unrivalled experience of the NITL in the supply chain logistics field. If Ireland’s aspiration of becoming a true knowledge economy is to be realised the management of global supply chains needs to be a key focus.’

The new book explores the subject in terms of its strategic and financial dimensions, both customer and supplier perspectives, as well as the new challenges being presented as a result of recent development in information and communications technology (ICT).

Edward Sweeney, Director of Learning at the booklaunch

Perspectives on Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Creating Competitive Organisations in the 21st Century is edited by Edward Sweeney and published by Blackhall Publishing. Edward Sweeney is Director of Learning at the National Institute for Transport and Logistics (NITL), based at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).