This book presents a range of cutting edge perspectives on subjects which are central to improving purchasing performance, including supply chain management, outsourcing and partnership, professional development, IT and e-commerce, and performance evaluation.

Strategic Sourcing Management examines procurement and supply management in detail, covering the three dimensions of competitiveness, effectiveness and efficiency. Written by Olivier Bruel, Professor Emeritus HEC Paris, and a team of contributing experts from academia, consulting and industry, the book is organised into four parts: strategic decisions; operational management of procurement and related supply chain; management of human resources and dedicated information systems; management of performance and change. This book has been written with a comprehensive global and coherent approach but the chapters are self-standing, enabling the reader to dip into different sections according to need. Strategic Sourcing Management considers both tactical and strategic perspectives that link with a corporate strategy and it includes dedicated chapters on how to set up a Strategic Sourcing function. The text is enriched with clear graphics and solid examples of best practice. Strategic Sourcing Management is a robust text based on both research and experience, so an essential reference for practitioners and academics working in or studying procurement and supply management. It is suitable for anyone involved in procurement and supply management at a senior level but also for general management enabling them to understand the mechanisms of value creation through Strategic Sourcing.

"This book is the outcome of the conference held in Caen (France) in September 1997, in preparation for the International Economic History Congress in Madrid (August 1998). This collection of essays provides, for the first time, a systematic overview of the productivity missions organised in the years following the Second World War, to investigate in situ the production and management techniques adduced to account for the American lead. Bringing together research workers from many countries (Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States), the volume addresses four successive themes. The first one concerns the part played by the United States and that country's action on the international scene. This, in turn, leads to the subsequent query: Did the productivity missions constitute tools for modernisation, or were they devices of domination? The second part considers three national experiences: the United Kingdom, France, and Japan. The third part examines a number of branches: iron and steel, electrical engineering, petrochemicals, and the tyre industry. The final part seeks to assess the impact of the missions. Ultimately, one needs must make a distinction between the rhetoric of productivity, on the one hand, and actual achievements, on the other; the missions were part of a wider process of Americanisation, wherein lies one of the keys to the economic miracles of the post-war era."--Page 4 of cover.

It has been conventional among co-management scientists to view social-ecological systems and actors and institutions found in these systems monolithically. Such a view is simplistic and conceals the complex nature of social-ecological systems and associated institutions and actors. In essence, a social-ecological system is a complex system comprised of multiple, diverse and dynamic social-ecological units, players and rules. This book entitled Co-managing complex social-ecological systems unveils the aforementioned complexity in which Lake Jipe wetland in Tanzania is the central case. This case depicts intra-, inter- and cross-scale interactions among multiple and dynamic institutions, actors and ecological systems at different dimensions of space and time. While some candidates of actors and institutions play separate roles, others play interdependent and linking roles across the multiple sectoral social-ecological units. The book introduces the layering concept of institutions and actors in three sectoral arrangements at Lake Jipe. It argues that not only do the institutions and actors found in social-ecological systems operate next to one another but it becomes clear that they also work interdependently. This concept extends the existing knowledge of co-management practitioners and scholars about the diversity and complexity of inter-linked human-environment systems that traverse the current monolithic view and conceptual boundaries. As such, the book avoids a simplistic approach that may end up in superficial treatment of complex environmental management problem and sheds light on how to study and approach intricate social-ecological systems using a model that recognises the diversities of these intricate systems.

Catalog of reports, decisions and opinions, testimonies and speeches.

This book comprehensively explores the many different forms of collaboration in government, both formal and informal, including strategic alliances, intergovernmental networks, and public-private partnerships. Contemporary US governmental and public organizations are changing to better cope after several decades of pressures to downsize, as well as to deliver new services with declining resources and, in many cases, decaying infrastructure. To meet these challenges, public managers are developing new networks, partnerships, collaborations, alliances and coalitions to deliver government services. Collaboration in Government is designed to help public organizations parse the new and emerging forms of public partnerships and to develop the skills needed to manage them. Each chapter offers examples of how each type has been used in real public organizations, providing the reader with an understanding of how these partnerships may be applied in a variety of contexts, as well as lessons that may be gleaned from the successes (and failures) of these collaborative models. This book will be of interest to public servants who collaborate in their daily work, as well as students of public administration and public policy.

Internationally, the mechanized excavation of tunnels has intensified in the last two decades, as the number of tunnels being constructed for subways and railway underpasses increases. The subject of mechanized tunnelling in urban areas has not previously received the attention that it deserves, despite there being specific hazards associated with the construction of tunnels in metropolitan areas, including poor ground conditions, water tables higher than the level of tunnels, and subsidence leading to damage to the existing structures on the surface. The application of technologies for achieving the stability of the tunnel and for minimizing surface settlement is described in this book. Accurate characterization of the ground; rigorous assessment and management of risk from design to maintenance; the correct choice of a tunnel boring machine and a plan for the advancement of the tunnel; specific excavation procedures and real-time monitoring of excavation parameters are all discussed in this thorough work.