Ashley McDonough has successfully broken down the principles of Operations and Supply Chain Management in a guide called Operations and Supply Chain Management Essentials You Always Wanted to Know. It is an in-depth book, which does more than explain the concepts. McDonough takes an example of the production of pairs of scissors through Planning, Control Systems, Procurement, Purchasing, Sourcing, and Manufacturing. The author then introduces us to principles of quality and brings us through the logistics of distribution of the scissors. There is wonderful continuity told in plain language while bringing us through an example from the first phase through logistics. Each concept is easily explained in non-technical language. The specific examples bring the concepts to life. One caution―this is not a quick read. To fully understand and appreciate it, the reader needs to pay close attention to how the examples illustrate each section. It is well worth the extra time, as the author carefully lays out the process from start to finish, and makes operations management and logistics quite understandable to the reader. The descriptions of Theory of Constraints (Chapter 4), Total Quality Management and Continuous Improvement (Chapter 5), and Logistics (Chapter 6) are excellent explanations of manufacturing, concerns, quality concepts, and logistics. Operations and Supply Chain Management Essentials You Always Wanted to Know by Ashley McDonough is a valuable book for anyone interested in first learning the concepts and also for those wanting an overview as well as explanations of specific concepts. It is excellent in its use of an example, specifically following a pair of scissors from start to finish. This makes it much easily understood by the reader. --Readers' Favorite

Operations and Supply Chain Management Essentials You Always Wanted to Know by Ashley McDonough is a valuable book for anyone interested in first learning the concepts and also for those wanting an overview as well as explanations of specific concepts. It is excellent in its use of examples. I think the book would be valuable for a junior level undergraduate class in SCM. Maybe a course that all business students should take to get a clear understanding of the concepts of the overall supply chain. The efforts to put together a relatively succinct text on OSCM is appreciated. --Wendy L. Tate, Co-Editor in Chief, Journal of Purchase and Supply Management

The book is nicely written and I will recommend this book as an useful reference text book. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of time and is looking for a quick point of reference to Operations and Supply Chain Management, this is THE book for them. This book is perfect for students at undergraduate and graduate courses. If you are a PhD student, you may want to resort to the classical books. --Rameshwar Dubey, Editor – Journal of Supply Chain Management System