Ask HN: How to self study management, especially supply chain management?
I graduated in international business and logistics 14 years ago, worked at a freight forwarder, customs broker, ocean carrier, and a manufacturer. Broadly, this topic can be broken up into 3 overlapping concerns:
- Operations (product, plant, human/physical resources)
- Supply Chain (production, network inflows/outflows)
- Logistics (warehousing, transportation)All care about having reliable partners, quality, efficiency, and timing (procurement, production, and fulfillment).
I recommend you do a combination of lightweight textbooks for a high level overview, (like Wiley "for dummies") and a few case study style books that provide history and deep context (like "The Goal" and "Lean Thinking" by James Womack). These last two books are classics dealing with physical production. However, don't overlook service operations like healthcare and military which are good examples where the end customers primary concern is strategic procurement and distribution. I don't have any recommendations for these industries but maybe someone else.