Acknowledgments

No book is written without the help, assistance, and vision provided by many persons other than its authors, and this one is no exception. The editorial team at Pearson/FT Press, spearheaded by Jeanne Glasser and her outstanding development group, played an integral role in our manuscript’s genesis, development, and eventual publication. For his phenomenal feedback and guidance, we are also deeply indebted to our editorial intern Ryan Croy of the University of Tennessee, who took on this project as though it were his own. His insights and assistance with revisions were invaluable, and we never could have completed the project without him. We additionally drew much inspiration for many of the key ideas herein from our academic and professional colleagues. At the great risk of forgetting someone important, it seems necessary to single out at least the following short list of key contributors: Fazleena Badurdeen, David Ecklund, Stan Griffis, I.S. Jawahir, Douglas Lambert, Robert Martichenko, Diane Mollenkopf, Fred Moody, Mark Moon, Ken Petersen, Shay Scott, Ted Stank, Hannah Stolze, and LaDonna Thornton. We also thank the members of the University of Tennessee Supply Chain Forum, who provided a key venue to test-drive our ideas and predictions. The Global Supply Chain Forum at The Ohio State University provided the critical foundational framework upon which we could explore the transformational forces. Two additional research centers, the Center for Operational Excellence at The Ohio State University and the Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing at the University of Kentucky, provided expertise, research funding, and company access that were essential to the book’s completion. Our departmental colleagues at the University of Tennessee and The Ohio State University, respectively, foster dynamic learning environments that nurtured the development of ideas presented in this book. We can only hope the others we’ve undoubtedly omitted will forgive us until we regain the energy to write another book, and in the meantime know they were, indeed, appreciated.