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Dr. David Taylor为我翻译的中文版写的前言：
Foreword to the Chinese Edition
It is a great honor for me to have this book published in China. I believe
that China, with its great natural resources and its vast pool of dedicated
workers, stands poised to become the manufacturing giant of the twenty-first
century. My respect for this transformation is tinged with regret because I
would have preferred to see the United States retain its position of
preeminence in the production of physical goods. But America appears ready
to abdicate this role in favor of what it calls a "service economy,"
entrusting the creation of actual, material wealth to other nations.
Meanwhile, China clearly stands ready to take on this role, a role that will
naturally bring wealth and power to the Chinese people.
This historic opportunity for China carries within it new social and
economic challenges. The advantage of inexpensive labor, while profound, is
rarely lasting. International success in manufacturing inevitably raises a
nation's standard of living, thereby increasing the cost of labor and
undermining the advantage that led to success in the first place. As other
Asian nations have discovered, the only way to translate this early
advantage into a lasting dominance is to study, refine, and ultimately
reinvent the methods of the manufacturing process itself. This is how the
Japanese parlayed their initial cost advantage into global supremacy in many
industries once dominated by American manufacturers.
But merely replicating Japanese methods won't be sufficient for China to
duplicate its neighbor's success because the basis of competition has
changed from factory operations to supply chain management. If China is
truly to establish global superiority in manufacturing, it will have to
expand its expertise beyond the four walls of the factory to coordinate the
movement of raw materials, intermediate assemblies, and finished goods
across the entire supply chain. World trade has become a vast global dance
of incredible intricacy and delicate balance. Mastering this dance is the
new key to success in the competition for manufacturing supremacy.
There is no great mystery to managing supply chains. Success hinges not on
profound insights but on careful planning and exacting execution. This book
-- Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide -- provides you with all the basic
techniques you need to make even the most complex supply chain function with
precision, economy and flexibility. Indeed, trying to go beyond these basics
too quickly can do more harm than good. One of the most common failures in
supply chain management is to concentrate on advanced techniques while
ignoring the fundamentals of coordinating the movement of demand, supply and
cash across the chain. To be sure, advanced techniques can provide an extra
edge over a close competitor. But if a company -- or a nation -- hasn't
mastered the fundamentals, it isn't even in the competition, and all the
clever techniques in the world won't get it there.
Other than concentrating on the fundamentals and focusing on execution, I
would pass on one more suggestion for gaining competitive advantage from
supply chain management. Read the chapters on measurement with special care,
and apply the methods explained in these chapters throughout the supply
chain. Supply chain managers in the United States and Europe are fond of
quoting individual measures of performance such as inventory turns and
velocity, but different companies favor different measures, and the measures
come in and out of favor with the changing of the seasons. I have yet to see
a company adopt a systematic approach to measurement as proposed in this
book, applying multiple measures to each aspect of performance and tracking
these measures throughout the chain. Yet, as any good engineer can tell you,
you can't improve what you can't measure. The surest way to achieve
sustainable excellence in supply chain management is to choose your measures
carefully, adopt a balanced set of targets that recognizes the inevitable
tradeoffs between these measures, and then pursue those targets
relentlessly.
Speaking of pursuing targets, I'd like to acknowledge the remarkable efforts
of two individuals who made this Chinese edition possible. Michael Shen,
purchasing manager for a Vishay plant in China, and Michael Wang, senior
manager for logistics at the Chinese headquarters of 3M corporation, both
hold MBA degrees from the University of Strathclyde. When Shen and Wang
discovered this book, they immediately contacted me about doing a Chinese
edition. Unfortunately, my publisher had no interest in the project, nor
would they even consider granting rights to the book unless they were
approached by a Chinese publisher who would bear the costs of translation,
production and distribution. Undeterred, Shen and Wang translated the book
themselves, reworked the illustrations from my initial drawings, and found a
publisher to take on the finished work. They didn't do this for their own
gain: They will get no money for their efforts, and they certainly didn't
need a translation for their own use. They did it because they are
passionate about promoting advanced supply chain management in China. I am
deeply impressed by their perseverance. It is just this spirit of
individuals taking initiative to promote the welfare of the whole that will
make China an unstoppable force in the global supply chain management.
David A. Taylor, PhD
Half Moon Bay, California
January 10, 2006 |
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发表于 2006-7-14 14:19
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