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The best-selling textbook in purchasing and supply management through several editions, this book presents a practical framework for students to apply how firms actually manage the enterprise-wide functions of purchasing and supply in today's business environment. This edition represents a complete and thorough revision of the book, now explaining purchasing and supply management in the context of the supply chain, which. has begun to dominate the literature in the field. World Class Supply Management SM: The Key to Supply Chain Management, Seventh Edition, reflects that change in focus, right down to the title (formerly called, more traditionally, Purchasing and Supply Management; now with the subtitle that specifically references the book's increased focus on supply-chain issues). New chapters have been added to the beginning and end of the text, to frame the new discussion of supply chain issues. The book has also been thoroughly updated to reflect the realities of purchasing and supply management in the digital age. Key Features All-new Sections I and X focus on supply chain theory. Students come to understand the role of purchasing and supply managers in terms of the supply chain, the operative strategy in this business function today. New coverage of the Internet's impact on supply management (see, for example, Chapters 9, on e-procurement, and 16, on global supply management). Students learn about virtual management of inventory and virtual communication with suppliers using up-to-the-minute techniques and terminology. Chapter 1 explains the authors unique new approach to purchasing and supply management. Students receive a practical theoretical framework at the outset of the course that reflects the latest thinking and practice in the field. Chapters 2 through 4 explain the evolution of the corporate functions of supply and purchasing management in terms of the supply chain. Students learn the historical and pragmatic reasons why firms today operate in terms of a chain of supply and purchasing events and decisions. Thoroughly updated presentation of topics: outmoded frames of reference have been discarded to present purchasing and supply management in a contemporary context. For instance, the last edition's coverage of computer-based systems and EDI (6e, chapter 5) has been supplanted by wider considerations of e-procurement (7e, chapter 9). In Chapter 6, discussions of companies organization in the prior edition is now augmented by coverage of cross-functional teams in supply and purchasing decisions. Students benefit from learning how these business functions operate in twenty-first century settings. Increased global focus: the Seventh Edition spends more time on the increasingly complex challenges facing the transnational firm's purchasing and supply functions: a brand-new Chapter 16, on Global Supply Management, broadens the book's coverage of international issues and shows students that these business functions in particular are profoundly affected by the demands of doing business globally. New Foreword by Richard L. Pinkerton, a leading authority in the field, provides students with the practitioner's viewpoint in a managerial role they may choose to pursue in their future careers..