No Boundaries: Moving Beyond the Supply Chain Management

"No Boundaries" is both an excellent concept from which to start to understand the concept of a supply chain and a good, thought-provoking book. While much of the world is struggling to get their organization out of functional, vertical silos, i.e., to function horizontally from customer needs to product development to supply management then to demand management to customer satisfaction, Jim Tompkins has already gone one very big step further. No Boundaries is an excellent conceptual framework for beginning to understand extending horizonal operations from your supplier's supplier to your customer's customer. It outlines the ideal as well as the issues which must be dealt with to get there. Six stages of supply chain evolution are defined (many firms have not yet completed step one), good both for now and the future. Highly recommended!

Some of our current Board members are not from backgrounds that allow them to easily understand the changes occurring in supply chains, and Jim Tompkins' book has helped bring them into the 21st Century.John C. Lucy, III, CEO Pallet Management Systems

The book gives a very high-level overview of SCM. There is a lot of jargon but it is an ideal starting point for understanding the concept of Supply chain management. Some of the chapters, especially the ones documenting the differences between SC Management and SC Synthesis, are well written. Not of much use for Supply chain professionals.

This book is well worth the short time it will take to read. For me as a Dane I did it in two days. James A. Tompkins uses very good examples to explain the difference between Supply Chain Management (SCM) and his idea Supply Chain Synthesis (SCS). It provides a good overview of SCS, and as consultant in Supply Chain (Something) and e-business I agree that SCM and the existing ERP-system do not solve the problem in the future. "No Boundaries" tells in an easy form, what is missing and I like the clear definition and explanation of the 8 core competencies of SCS. IT is a book I highly recommend procurement pros. A lot of them will probably not agree (yet) but I think (or hope) they will think. There is no "business as usual" anymore. We are still missing a system solution to the problem and the book does not give the answer either. This is the only missing link in the chain, and the only reason why I do not give the highest rank.