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Despite significant achievements, the
discipline of supply chain management is still unable to satisfactorily handle
many practical real-world challenges. The authors of Networks Against
Time claim that a unified supply chain network analytics framework is
needed which should be able to handle optimization and competitive behavior
while also maintain relevance to many industrial sectors in which perishable
products are prominent, from healthcare to food and from fashion apparel to
technology.
This
Brief provides a wide range of critical supply chain problems which are
modeled as generalized networks. Guidelines are provided to determine the arc
multipliers that capture perish ability of the product whether food,
radioisotopes, or even highly perishable blood in healthcare over space and
time. Through case studies the authors portray the application of the models
and algorithms to real-world sectors which illustrate the power of the
framework in practice. The models and algorithms are fully described along with
the input and output data in the case studies. This level of transparency is
useful pedagogically as well as for future research and for applications in
practice.
Researchers
and practitioners in mathematics, in operations research and management
science, operations management, as well as in economics and computer science
will find this book useful to gain a broader appreciation of the richness of
network supply chain structures, processes, and applications. This book can
also be used by advanced undergraduate students and graduate students in the
disciplines noted above to familiarize themselves with methodologies and supply
chain network models and applications.

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1. Introduction and Scope.- 2. Blood Supply Chains.- 3. Medical Nuclear Supply Chains.- 4. Food Supply Chains.- 5. Pharmaceutical Supply Chains.- 6. Fast Fashion Apparel Supply Chains.- References.

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The structure of the book is very straightforward since all the chapters from 2 to 6 start by introducing the focus supply chain then unfold with the formulation of the model, the computational approach for its solution and the case study. The repetitive structure helps the reader to easily understand and connect the various parts of the book. Furthermore, each of these chapters ends with additional notes and links to other works about the supply chain at issue, as well as a rich and updated list of references, so that the content of the chapter can be related to and compared with the current state of the art. The level of mathematical formulation is adequate and all the presented formulas are explained in detail. Also, complete input and output data about case studies are presented.

In my opinion, this book is a valid contribution to the discipline of supply chain management in the time-sensitive product field because it provides a systematic and analytic framework of analysis which actually lacks in the existing literature.

-Anna Corinna Cagliano, Production Planning & Control

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