As an educator, I have had opportunity to discuss, argue, and learn from a wonderful group of smart people. This has included: students, industry professionals, academic colleagues, and conference attendees. I thank them all for the small and large bits of information I gathered from these encounters.
For the last 15 years, I have taught the Supply Chain course at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and want to give a big thanks to the hundreds of students who attended those classes and helped me assemble the ideas, concepts, and tools presented in this book. My biggest gratitude is to my three amazing NJIT doctoral students, Sevilay Onal, Jingran Zhang, and Wen Zhu, with whom I researched and discovered the inner workings of the fulfillment machine.
Finally, a big thanks to my wife and son, Rajyasri and Rohit, for their patience and support.