Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 18 (2012) 60
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Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pursup
Book reviews
Managing Project Supply Chains. R. Basu. Gower Publishing
Limited (2011). £26.50/Website price: £23.85, 168 pp., Paperback,
ISBN: 978-1-4094-2515-1
This book by Ron Basu is part of a book series on Advances in
Project Management which provides relatively short guides to
various project management themes. As the title suggests this
particular contribution focuses on the relevance of supply chain
management to project management. The author is a prolific
author of management books and has a split role between
academia (Henley Business School, UK and SKEMA, France) and
consultancy. The book does have a certain amount of academic
emphasis, with references in many parts of the book, but would
appear to be written primarily for practitioners.
I was interested in this book because much of my own
research concerns issues to do with purchasing and supplier
involvement in projects; more specifically new product develop-
ment projects. Also, although the book focuses on supply chain
management, many parts consider purchasing and supply man-
agement – or procurement – so it is relevant to a purchasing
management audience. There is also little doubt in my mind that
this is an area where there is a need for more contributions, as
many companies work within a project environment, yet it is
arguably still the case that the majority of both purchasing and
supply chain management books tend to assume, or at least focus
on, high volume/mass production environments.
The title of the last chapter sums up the book: it is about
making it happen in a company rather than being particularly
thought-provoking. The author includes some real life examples,
doi:10.1016/j.pursup.2012.02.001
such as Heathrow Terminal 5. The book is quite focused on a UK
context and could have discussed more examples from interna-
tional contexts. Perhaps, given the author’s background, it is not
surprising that there is much emphasis on quality management,
especially Six Sigma.
Practitioners may find the book useful if seeking to further
their understanding of the relevance of supply chain management
within a project environment. However, as the book is quite short
it can only go so far in integrating these two management
responsibilities. Many well-known project management princi-
ples and techniques are explained and the model of (project)
supply chain management captures some generally accepted
features of supply chain management. Yet, from a purchasing
and supply management perspective the text can only serve as an
introduction and readers familiar with the purchasing literature
will notice that the book does not build on many purchasing
(procurement) specific sources in its treatment of this subject.
The book does not claim to focus on purchasing, so this cannot be
taken as a criticism, however, there could have been scope to
integrate more purchasing related concepts.
Thomas Johnsen n
Audencia Nantes School of Management, 8 route de la Joneliere,
BP 31222, 44412 Nantes
Cedex 3, France
E-mail address: tjohnsen@audencia.com
Received 3 February 2012
n
Tel.: þ33 2 4037 4653.