Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Surely the best novel of the 21st century to date, 11 Mar 2008
William Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL is quite simply a magnum opus. Utterly brilliant. I would go so far as to say that with it he must go into serious contention for the Nobel Prize. One review in the LA Times compared it to WAR AND PEACE. This is not hyperbole. In fact, Vollmann deliberately and cleverly draws up this comparison in the book himself, without ever saying it. He wants it to be compared. It should be.

What's it about? It's about the conflict between Stalinism and Nazism and the aftermath. The impossible choices that it left people. The bravery and heroism that can exist even in appalling regimes, and among those working for appalling regimes. It's about humanity, and what it's capable of. And if that's enough it's also about the nature of the creative process, how life becomes music, and what akes a work of art.

It's a vast, sprawling, huge work, something to take on a long journey (as I did) to get into it. But it's also hugely readable and gripping. If you could compare it to any author living it would be to Pynchon, but it's much more readable than Pynchon.

In a word, a masterpiece.

Masterpiece? I think so. , 02 Feb 2008
Where to begin?

This is an enormous, serious novel. If you are interested by the history of the first half of the 20th Century (as I am), a fan of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (as I am), and a lover of literary fiction (as I am) the this book is tailor-made for you. If you are none of those things, you should perhaps approach with caution.

Vollmann has taken a number of 20th Century lives (notably Shostakovich, the defeated Stalingrad general Paulus, the turncoat Russian Vlasov, the well-intentioned SS man Kurt Gerstein, and many others) and woven them into a fictionalised saga to explore the moral maze of Hitler's and Stalin's Europe.

But this is no airport novel. The writing style changes frequently, sometimes spare and straightforward, sometimes outrageously experimental, echoing the music of Shostakovich whose role - in what Vollmann calls "an imaginary love triangle" - is the heart and soul of the book (access to recordings of the symphonies, the cello sonata and the harrowing 8th quartet is highly recommended as an accompanying "soundtrack").

I find it difficult to find suitable comparisons for this book; what it reminded me of most was not literary, but sonic and visual: the aforementioned Shostakovich music, the films of Tarkovsky, the grainy black-and-white images of the 1970s TV series "The World At War". Whatever one tries to compare it to, there is no denying that this evocation of the Berlin-Moscow nightmare world of the 30s, 40s and 50s is a remarkable achievement by a young(ish) American writer, whose work I will be exploring further.

The word "masterpiece" is undoubtedly over-used, but I feel it is justified here.


Pure class, 14 Dec 2007
This book is superb. I've read countless WW2 fiction and this one easly comes in my top 5. Similar to Life and Fate (in my opinion this book is just a far better read)as it goes between characters in Russia and Germany.

I can't praise it enough. If you have any interest in WW2 then I promise this will take pride of place on your bookshelf.

Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Surely the best novel of the 21st century to date, 11 Mar 2008
William Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL is quite simply a magnum opus. Utterly brilliant. I would go so far as to say that with it he must go into serious contention for the Nobel Prize. One review in the LA Times compared it to WAR AND PEACE. This is not hyperbole. In fact, Vollmann deliberately and cleverly draws up this comparison in the book himself, without ever saying it. He wants it to be compared. It should be.

What's it about? It's about the conflict between Stalinism and Nazism and the aftermath. The impossible choices that it left people. The bravery and heroism that can exist even in appalling regimes, and among those working for appalling regimes. It's about humanity, and what it's capable of. And if that's enough it's also about the nature of the creative process, how life becomes music, and what akes a work of art.

It's a vast, sprawling, huge work, something to take on a long journey (as I did) to get into it. But it's also hugely readable and gripping. If you could compare it to any author living it would be to Pynchon, but it's much more readable than Pynchon.

In a word, a masterpiece.

Masterpiece? I think so. , 02 Feb 2008
Where to begin?

This is an enormous, serious novel. If you are interested by the history of the first half of the 20th Century (as I am), a fan of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (as I am), and a lover of literary fiction (as I am) the this book is tailor-made for you. If you are none of those things, you should perhaps approach with caution.

Vollmann has taken a number of 20th Century lives (notably Shostakovich, the defeated Stalingrad general Paulus, the turncoat Russian Vlasov, the well-intentioned SS man Kurt Gerstein, and many others) and woven them into a fictionalised saga to explore the moral maze of Hitler's and Stalin's Europe.

But this is no airport novel. The writing style changes frequently, sometimes spare and straightforward, sometimes outrageously experimental, echoing the music of Shostakovich whose role - in what Vollmann calls "an imaginary love triangle" - is the heart and soul of the book (access to recordings of the symphonies, the cello sonata and the harrowing 8th quartet is highly recommended as an accompanying "soundtrack").

I find it difficult to find suitable comparisons for this book; what it reminded me of most was not literary, but sonic and visual: the aforementioned Shostakovich music, the films of Tarkovsky, the grainy black-and-white images of the 1970s TV series "The World At War". Whatever one tries to compare it to, there is no denying that this evocation of the Berlin-Moscow nightmare world of the 30s, 40s and 50s is a remarkable achievement by a young(ish) American writer, whose work I will be exploring further.

The word "masterpiece" is undoubtedly over-used, but I feel it is justified here.


Pure class, 14 Dec 2007
This book is superb. I've read countless WW2 fiction and this one easly comes in my top 5. Similar to Life and Fate (in my opinion this book is just a far better read)as it goes between characters in Russia and Germany.

I can't praise it enough. If you have any interest in WW2 then I promise this will take pride of place on your bookshelf.

Despair is an expression of the total personality, 25 Oct 2006
doubt only of thought. Soren Kierkegaard

Frank Friedmaier, the protagonist of Georges Simenon's novel "Dirty Snow" seems to have no doubts about his life. In fact he seems to be more a creature of base animal instinct than of anything resembling thought. If he has doubts about anything they are not evident. But his words and deeds bespeak an unconscious despair so profound that the reader can feel it with every page.

Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). "Dirty Snow" is one of Simenon's hard novels and to call it noir is an understatement. "Dirty Snow" is darker than noir, devoid of any light or optimism. In the hands of Simenon it is an absorbing (entertaining seems an inapt word) look at the darker side of life.

Frank Friedmaier lives in his mother's brothel in a small apartment building. The brothel is in an unnamed city in occupied France during World War II. Frank divides his time between the brothel and a local bar inhabited by an assortment of shady characters that include low level criminals, women of `easy virtue', and the occasional German soldier. When he returns home at night he camps down with whichever one of his mother's employees suits his fancy. What follows may best be described as nasty, brutish, and short. There is no affection, not even feigned affection, just feral activity.

The book follows Frank's descent into increasingly lower levels of behavior. He decides the time has come to kill a man, lies in wait in some snow that had been dirtied by the day's activities, and then takes a knife to a German soldier and stabs him to death. He reveals his presence to a passing neighbor, the father of a young girl who Frank seems to like, just so that the neighbor will know that Frank has murdered the soldier. Frank is confident that the neighbor will keep the information to himself. Frank next plans a robbery. The robbery is successful but Frank soon finds himself in a German prison subject to repeated interrogations. By the end of the book Frank has completed a journey that has taken him on a journey through what Dante would have considered different layers of hel l.

The fascinating aspect of Dirty Snow for me lay in the narration. Simenon has pulled off a neat trick here. The narrator is Frank and we are privy to his innermost thoughts, such as they are. Yet it is the absence of thought and the inability to evince any feeling in a rational manner that grabs the reader. There are sections, particularly those involving the daughter of the neighbor who witnessed the killing, where you can almost sense that Frank would like to act on a normal level with normal emotions. He may come close but he always retreats. As Dirty Snow ends, in a courtyard in the prison, Simenon has Frank perform one simple act involving an article of clothing. It is an act that Frank has long observed of the other prisoners. His instinctive performance of that act brings Franks journey and the book to its inevitable end.

Dirty Snow is a fascinating, if dark, look at one small aspect of the human condition. I found it well worth reading. L. Fleisig

Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Surely the best novel of the 21st century to date, 11 Mar 2008
William Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL is quite simply a magnum opus. Utterly brilliant. I would go so far as to say that with it he must go into serious contention for the Nobel Prize. One review in the LA Times compared it to WAR AND PEACE. This is not hyperbole. In fact, Vollmann deliberately and cleverly draws up this comparison in the book himself, without ever saying it. He wants it to be compared. It should be.

What's it about? It's about the conflict between Stalinism and Nazism and the aftermath. The impossible choices that it left people. The bravery and heroism that can exist even in appalling regimes, and among those working for appalling regimes. It's about humanity, and what it's capable of. And if that's enough it's also about the nature of the creative process, how life becomes music, and what akes a work of art.

It's a vast, sprawling, huge work, something to take on a long journey (as I did) to get into it. But it's also hugely readable and gripping. If you could compare it to any author living it would be to Pynchon, but it's much more readable than Pynchon.

In a word, a masterpiece.

Masterpiece? I think so. , 02 Feb 2008
Where to begin?

This is an enormous, serious novel. If you are interested by the history of the first half of the 20th Century (as I am), a fan of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (as I am), and a lover of literary fiction (as I am) the this book is tailor-made for you. If you are none of those things, you should perhaps approach with caution.

Vollmann has taken a number of 20th Century lives (notably Shostakovich, the defeated Stalingrad general Paulus, the turncoat Russian Vlasov, the well-intentioned SS man Kurt Gerstein, and many others) and woven them into a fictionalised saga to explore the moral maze of Hitler's and Stalin's Europe.

But this is no airport novel. The writing style changes frequently, sometimes spare and straightforward, sometimes outrageously experimental, echoing the music of Shostakovich whose role - in what Vollmann calls "an imaginary love triangle" - is the heart and soul of the book (access to recordings of the symphonies, the cello sonata and the harrowing 8th quartet is highly recommended as an accompanying "soundtrack").

I find it difficult to find suitable comparisons for this book; what it reminded me of most was not literary, but sonic and visual: the aforementioned Shostakovich music, the films of Tarkovsky, the grainy black-and-white images of the 1970s TV series "The World At War". Whatever one tries to compare it to, there is no denying that this evocation of the Berlin-Moscow nightmare world of the 30s, 40s and 50s is a remarkable achievement by a young(ish) American writer, whose work I will be exploring further.

The word "masterpiece" is undoubtedly over-used, but I feel it is justified here.


Pure class, 14 Dec 2007
This book is superb. I've read countless WW2 fiction and this one easly comes in my top 5. Similar to Life and Fate (in my opinion this book is just a far better read)as it goes between characters in Russia and Germany.

I can't praise it enough. If you have any interest in WW2 then I promise this will take pride of place on your bookshelf.

Despair is an expression of the total personality, 25 Oct 2006
doubt only of thought. Soren Kierkegaard

Frank Friedmaier, the protagonist of Georges Simenon's novel "Dirty Snow" seems to have no doubts about his life. In fact he seems to be more a creature of base animal instinct than of anything resembling thought. If he has doubts about anything they are not evident. But his words and deeds bespeak an unconscious despair so profound that the reader can feel it with every page.

Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). "Dirty Snow" is one of Simenon's hard novels and to call it noir is an understatement. "Dirty Snow" is darker than noir, devoid of any light or optimism. In the hands of Simenon it is an absorbing (entertaining seems an inapt word) look at the darker side of life.

Frank Friedmaier lives in his mother's brothel in a small apartment building. The brothel is in an unnamed city in occupied France during World War II. Frank divides his time between the brothel and a local bar inhabited by an assortment of shady characters that include low level criminals, women of `easy virtue', and the occasional German soldier. When he returns home at night he camps down with whichever one of his mother's employees suits his fancy. What follows may best be described as nasty, brutish, and short. There is no affection, not even feigned affection, just feral activity.

The book follows Frank's descent into increasingly lower levels of behavior. He decides the time has come to kill a man, lies in wait in some snow that had been dirtied by the day's activities, and then takes a knife to a German soldier and stabs him to death. He reveals his presence to a passing neighbor, the father of a young girl who Frank seems to like, just so that the neighbor will know that Frank has murdered the soldier. Frank is confident that the neighbor will keep the information to himself. Frank next plans a robbery. The robbery is successful but Frank soon finds himself in a German prison subject to repeated interrogations. By the end of the book Frank has completed a journey that has taken him on a journey through what Dante would have considered different layers of hel l.

The fascinating aspect of Dirty Snow for me lay in the narration. Simenon has pulled off a neat trick here. The narrator is Frank and we are privy to his innermost thoughts, such as they are. Yet it is the absence of thought and the inability to evince any feeling in a rational manner that grabs the reader. There are sections, particularly those involving the daughter of the neighbor who witnessed the killing, where you can almost sense that Frank would like to act on a normal level with normal emotions. He may come close but he always retreats. As Dirty Snow ends, in a courtyard in the prison, Simenon has Frank perform one simple act involving an article of clothing. It is an act that Frank has long observed of the other prisoners. His instinctive performance of that act brings Franks journey and the book to its inevitable end.

Dirty Snow is a fascinating, if dark, look at one small aspect of the human condition. I found it well worth reading. L. Fleisig

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!, 09 Jul 1997
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared.

Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Surely the best novel of the 21st century to date, 11 Mar 2008
William Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL is quite simply a magnum opus. Utterly brilliant. I would go so far as to say that with it he must go into serious contention for the Nobel Prize. One review in the LA Times compared it to WAR AND PEACE. This is not hyperbole. In fact, Vollmann deliberately and cleverly draws up this comparison in the book himself, without ever saying it. He wants it to be compared. It should be.

What's it about? It's about the conflict between Stalinism and Nazism and the aftermath. The impossible choices that it left people. The bravery and heroism that can exist even in appalling regimes, and among those working for appalling regimes. It's about humanity, and what it's capable of. And if that's enough it's also about the nature of the creative process, how life becomes music, and what akes a work of art.

It's a vast, sprawling, huge work, something to take on a long journey (as I did) to get into it. But it's also hugely readable and gripping. If you could compare it to any author living it would be to Pynchon, but it's much more readable than Pynchon.

In a word, a masterpiece.

Masterpiece? I think so. , 02 Feb 2008
Where to begin?

This is an enormous, serious novel. If you are interested by the history of the first half of the 20th Century (as I am), a fan of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (as I am), and a lover of literary fiction (as I am) the this book is tailor-made for you. If you are none of those things, you should perhaps approach with caution.

Vollmann has taken a number of 20th Century lives (notably Shostakovich, the defeated Stalingrad general Paulus, the turncoat Russian Vlasov, the well-intentioned SS man Kurt Gerstein, and many others) and woven them into a fictionalised saga to explore the moral maze of Hitler's and Stalin's Europe.

But this is no airport novel. The writing style changes frequently, sometimes spare and straightforward, sometimes outrageously experimental, echoing the music of Shostakovich whose role - in what Vollmann calls "an imaginary love triangle" - is the heart and soul of the book (access to recordings of the symphonies, the cello sonata and the harrowing 8th quartet is highly recommended as an accompanying "soundtrack").

I find it difficult to find suitable comparisons for this book; what it reminded me of most was not literary, but sonic and visual: the aforementioned Shostakovich music, the films of Tarkovsky, the grainy black-and-white images of the 1970s TV series "The World At War". Whatever one tries to compare it to, there is no denying that this evocation of the Berlin-Moscow nightmare world of the 30s, 40s and 50s is a remarkable achievement by a young(ish) American writer, whose work I will be exploring further.

The word "masterpiece" is undoubtedly over-used, but I feel it is justified here.


Pure class, 14 Dec 2007
This book is superb. I've read countless WW2 fiction and this one easly comes in my top 5. Similar to Life and Fate (in my opinion this book is just a far better read)as it goes between characters in Russia and Germany.

I can't praise it enough. If you have any interest in WW2 then I promise this will take pride of place on your bookshelf.

Despair is an expression of the total personality, 25 Oct 2006
doubt only of thought. Soren Kierkegaard

Frank Friedmaier, the protagonist of Georges Simenon's novel "Dirty Snow" seems to have no doubts about his life. In fact he seems to be more a creature of base animal instinct than of anything resembling thought. If he has doubts about anything they are not evident. But his words and deeds bespeak an unconscious despair so profound that the reader can feel it with every page.

Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). "Dirty Snow" is one of Simenon's hard novels and to call it noir is an understatement. "Dirty Snow" is darker than noir, devoid of any light or optimism. In the hands of Simenon it is an absorbing (entertaining seems an inapt word) look at the darker side of life.

Frank Friedmaier lives in his mother's brothel in a small apartment building. The brothel is in an unnamed city in occupied France during World War II. Frank divides his time between the brothel and a local bar inhabited by an assortment of shady characters that include low level criminals, women of `easy virtue', and the occasional German soldier. When he returns home at night he camps down with whichever one of his mother's employees suits his fancy. What follows may best be described as nasty, brutish, and short. There is no affection, not even feigned affection, just feral activity.

The book follows Frank's descent into increasingly lower levels of behavior. He decides the time has come to kill a man, lies in wait in some snow that had been dirtied by the day's activities, and then takes a knife to a German soldier and stabs him to death. He reveals his presence to a passing neighbor, the father of a young girl who Frank seems to like, just so that the neighbor will know that Frank has murdered the soldier. Frank is confident that the neighbor will keep the information to himself. Frank next plans a robbery. The robbery is successful but Frank soon finds himself in a German prison subject to repeated interrogations. By the end of the book Frank has completed a journey that has taken him on a journey through what Dante would have considered different layers of hel l.

The fascinating aspect of Dirty Snow for me lay in the narration. Simenon has pulled off a neat trick here. The narrator is Frank and we are privy to his innermost thoughts, such as they are. Yet it is the absence of thought and the inability to evince any feeling in a rational manner that grabs the reader. There are sections, particularly those involving the daughter of the neighbor who witnessed the killing, where you can almost sense that Frank would like to act on a normal level with normal emotions. He may come close but he always retreats. As Dirty Snow ends, in a courtyard in the prison, Simenon has Frank perform one simple act involving an article of clothing. It is an act that Frank has long observed of the other prisoners. His instinctive performance of that act brings Franks journey and the book to its inevitable end.

Dirty Snow is a fascinating, if dark, look at one small aspect of the human condition. I found it well worth reading. L. Fleisig

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!, 09 Jul 1997
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared.

Such profound love for such broken people., 12 May 2007
My second Vollmann book after Bright and Risen Angels, which while spectacularly written and bleakly hilarious, was as the Author said, just a cartoon. This on the other hand is someething infinitely more humane and moving. The cover and the blurb imply something very lurid, perhaps pornographic, but the essence of the book is a profound love for people who are too damaged to function in mainstream society. We watch the central character's life disentegrate, as his rejection of the fundamental hypocracies required to keep society afloat leads to its inevitable conclusion. As he does so he collpases into a shadow world of prostitutes, pimps, addicts and lunatics, each of whom are described and bought to tender and luminous life, to expose the fragility and nobility at the core of each one. He brings an emotional honesty to each of his characters that make just about all other novels seem sham in comparison, and reminds us that most of our own lives are grounded in a complicity of fictions that leaves much of what we really are unsaid and unlived. On top of this his prose is as good as it gets.

Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Surely the best novel of the 21st century to date, 11 Mar 2008
William Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL is quite simply a magnum opus. Utterly brilliant. I would go so far as to say that with it he must go into serious contention for the Nobel Prize. One review in the LA Times compared it to WAR AND PEACE. This is not hyperbole. In fact, Vollmann deliberately and cleverly draws up this comparison in the book himself, without ever saying it. He wants it to be compared. It should be.

What's it about? It's about the conflict between Stalinism and Nazism and the aftermath. The impossible choices that it left people. The bravery and heroism that can exist even in appalling regimes, and among those working for appalling regimes. It's about humanity, and what it's capable of. And if that's enough it's also about the nature of the creative process, how life becomes music, and what akes a work of art.

It's a vast, sprawling, huge work, something to take on a long journey (as I did) to get into it. But it's also hugely readable and gripping. If you could compare it to any author living it would be to Pynchon, but it's much more readable than Pynchon.

In a word, a masterpiece.

Masterpiece? I think so. , 02 Feb 2008
Where to begin?

This is an enormous, serious novel. If you are interested by the history of the first half of the 20th Century (as I am), a fan of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (as I am), and a lover of literary fiction (as I am) the this book is tailor-made for you. If you are none of those things, you should perhaps approach with caution.

Vollmann has taken a number of 20th Century lives (notably Shostakovich, the defeated Stalingrad general Paulus, the turncoat Russian Vlasov, the well-intentioned SS man Kurt Gerstein, and many others) and woven them into a fictionalised saga to explore the moral maze of Hitler's and Stalin's Europe.

But this is no airport novel. The writing style changes frequently, sometimes spare and straightforward, sometimes outrageously experimental, echoing the music of Shostakovich whose role - in what Vollmann calls "an imaginary love triangle" - is the heart and soul of the book (access to recordings of the symphonies, the cello sonata and the harrowing 8th quartet is highly recommended as an accompanying "soundtrack").

I find it difficult to find suitable comparisons for this book; what it reminded me of most was not literary, but sonic and visual: the aforementioned Shostakovich music, the films of Tarkovsky, the grainy black-and-white images of the 1970s TV series "The World At War". Whatever one tries to compare it to, there is no denying that this evocation of the Berlin-Moscow nightmare world of the 30s, 40s and 50s is a remarkable achievement by a young(ish) American writer, whose work I will be exploring further.

The word "masterpiece" is undoubtedly over-used, but I feel it is justified here.


Pure class, 14 Dec 2007
This book is superb. I've read countless WW2 fiction and this one easly comes in my top 5. Similar to Life and Fate (in my opinion this book is just a far better read)as it goes between characters in Russia and Germany.

I can't praise it enough. If you have any interest in WW2 then I promise this will take pride of place on your bookshelf.

Despair is an expression of the total personality, 25 Oct 2006
doubt only of thought. Soren Kierkegaard

Frank Friedmaier, the protagonist of Georges Simenon's novel "Dirty Snow" seems to have no doubts about his life. In fact he seems to be more a creature of base animal instinct than of anything resembling thought. If he has doubts about anything they are not evident. But his words and deeds bespeak an unconscious despair so profound that the reader can feel it with every page.

Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). "Dirty Snow" is one of Simenon's hard novels and to call it noir is an understatement. "Dirty Snow" is darker than noir, devoid of any light or optimism. In the hands of Simenon it is an absorbing (entertaining seems an inapt word) look at the darker side of life.

Frank Friedmaier lives in his mother's brothel in a small apartment building. The brothel is in an unnamed city in occupied France during World War II. Frank divides his time between the brothel and a local bar inhabited by an assortment of shady characters that include low level criminals, women of `easy virtue', and the occasional German soldier. When he returns home at night he camps down with whichever one of his mother's employees suits his fancy. What follows may best be described as nasty, brutish, and short. There is no affection, not even feigned affection, just feral activity.

The book follows Frank's descent into increasingly lower levels of behavior. He decides the time has come to kill a man, lies in wait in some snow that had been dirtied by the day's activities, and then takes a knife to a German soldier and stabs him to death. He reveals his presence to a passing neighbor, the father of a young girl who Frank seems to like, just so that the neighbor will know that Frank has murdered the soldier. Frank is confident that the neighbor will keep the information to himself. Frank next plans a robbery. The robbery is successful but Frank soon finds himself in a German prison subject to repeated interrogations. By the end of the book Frank has completed a journey that has taken him on a journey through what Dante would have considered different layers of hel l.

The fascinating aspect of Dirty Snow for me lay in the narration. Simenon has pulled off a neat trick here. The narrator is Frank and we are privy to his innermost thoughts, such as they are. Yet it is the absence of thought and the inability to evince any feeling in a rational manner that grabs the reader. There are sections, particularly those involving the daughter of the neighbor who witnessed the killing, where you can almost sense that Frank would like to act on a normal level with normal emotions. He may come close but he always retreats. As Dirty Snow ends, in a courtyard in the prison, Simenon has Frank perform one simple act involving an article of clothing. It is an act that Frank has long observed of the other prisoners. His instinctive performance of that act brings Franks journey and the book to its inevitable end.

Dirty Snow is a fascinating, if dark, look at one small aspect of the human condition. I found it well worth reading. L. Fleisig

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!, 09 Jul 1997
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared.

Such profound love for such broken people., 12 May 2007
My second Vollmann book after Bright and Risen Angels, which while spectacularly written and bleakly hilarious, was as the Author said, just a cartoon. This on the other hand is someething infinitely more humane and moving. The cover and the blurb imply something very lurid, perhaps pornographic, but the essence of the book is a profound love for people who are too damaged to function in mainstream society. We watch the central character's life disentegrate, as his rejection of the fundamental hypocracies required to keep society afloat leads to its inevitable conclusion. As he does so he collpases into a shadow world of prostitutes, pimps, addicts and lunatics, each of whom are described and bought to tender and luminous life, to expose the fragility and nobility at the core of each one. He brings an emotional honesty to each of his characters that make just about all other novels seem sham in comparison, and reminds us that most of our own lives are grounded in a complicity of fictions that leaves much of what we really are unsaid and unlived. On top of this his prose is as good as it gets.

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!, 09 Jul 1997
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared.

Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Surely the best novel of the 21st century to date, 11 Mar 2008
William Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL is quite simply a magnum opus. Utterly brilliant. I would go so far as to say that with it he must go into serious contention for the Nobel Prize. One review in the LA Times compared it to WAR AND PEACE. This is not hyperbole. In fact, Vollmann deliberately and cleverly draws up this comparison in the book himself, without ever saying it. He wants it to be compared. It should be.

What's it about? It's about the conflict between Stalinism and Nazism and the aftermath. The impossible choices that it left people. The bravery and heroism that can exist even in appalling regimes, and among those working for appalling regimes. It's about humanity, and what it's capable of. And if that's enough it's also about the nature of the creative process, how life becomes music, and what akes a work of art.

It's a vast, sprawling, huge work, something to take on a long journey (as I did) to get into it. But it's also hugely readable and gripping. If you could compare it to any author living it would be to Pynchon, but it's much more readable than Pynchon.

In a word, a masterpiece.

Masterpiece? I think so. , 02 Feb 2008
Where to begin?

This is an enormous, serious novel. If you are interested by the history of the first half of the 20th Century (as I am), a fan of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (as I am), and a lover of literary fiction (as I am) the this book is tailor-made for you. If you are none of those things, you should perhaps approach with caution.

Vollmann has taken a number of 20th Century lives (notably Shostakovich, the defeated Stalingrad general Paulus, the turncoat Russian Vlasov, the well-intentioned SS man Kurt Gerstein, and many others) and woven them into a fictionalised saga to explore the moral maze of Hitler's and Stalin's Europe.

But this is no airport novel. The writing style changes frequently, sometimes spare and straightforward, sometimes outrageously experimental, echoing the music of Shostakovich whose role - in what Vollmann calls "an imaginary love triangle" - is the heart and soul of the book (access to recordings of the symphonies, the cello sonata and the harrowing 8th quartet is highly recommended as an accompanying "soundtrack").

I find it difficult to find suitable comparisons for this book; what it reminded me of most was not literary, but sonic and visual: the aforementioned Shostakovich music, the films of Tarkovsky, the grainy black-and-white images of the 1970s TV series "The World At War". Whatever one tries to compare it to, there is no denying that this evocation of the Berlin-Moscow nightmare world of the 30s, 40s and 50s is a remarkable achievement by a young(ish) American writer, whose work I will be exploring further.

The word "masterpiece" is undoubtedly over-used, but I feel it is justified here.


Pure class, 14 Dec 2007
This book is superb. I've read countless WW2 fiction and this one easly comes in my top 5. Similar to Life and Fate (in my opinion this book is just a far better read)as it goes between characters in Russia and Germany.

I can't praise it enough. If you have any interest in WW2 then I promise this will take pride of place on your bookshelf.

Despair is an expression of the total personality, 25 Oct 2006
doubt only of thought. Soren Kierkegaard

Frank Friedmaier, the protagonist of Georges Simenon's novel "Dirty Snow" seems to have no doubts about his life. In fact he seems to be more a creature of base animal instinct than of anything resembling thought. If he has doubts about anything they are not evident. But his words and deeds bespeak an unconscious despair so profound that the reader can feel it with every page.

Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). "Dirty Snow" is one of Simenon's hard novels and to call it noir is an understatement. "Dirty Snow" is darker than noir, devoid of any light or optimism. In the hands of Simenon it is an absorbing (entertaining seems an inapt word) look at the darker side of life.

Frank Friedmaier lives in his mother's brothel in a small apartment building. The brothel is in an unnamed city in occupied France during World War II. Frank divides his time between the brothel and a local bar inhabited by an assortment of shady characters that include low level criminals, women of `easy virtue', and the occasional German soldier. When he returns home at night he camps down with whichever one of his mother's employees suits his fancy. What follows may best be described as nasty, brutish, and short. There is no affection, not even feigned affection, just feral activity.

The book follows Frank's descent into increasingly lower levels of behavior. He decides the time has come to kill a man, lies in wait in some snow that had been dirtied by the day's activities, and then takes a knife to a German soldier and stabs him to death. He reveals his presence to a passing neighbor, the father of a young girl who Frank seems to like, just so that the neighbor will know that Frank has murdered the soldier. Frank is confident that the neighbor will keep the information to himself. Frank next plans a robbery. The robbery is successful but Frank soon finds himself in a German prison subject to repeated interrogations. By the end of the book Frank has completed a journey that has taken him on a journey through what Dante would have considered different layers of hel l.

The fascinating aspect of Dirty Snow for me lay in the narration. Simenon has pulled off a neat trick here. The narrator is Frank and we are privy to his innermost thoughts, such as they are. Yet it is the absence of thought and the inability to evince any feeling in a rational manner that grabs the reader. There are sections, particularly those involving the daughter of the neighbor who witnessed the killing, where you can almost sense that Frank would like to act on a normal level with normal emotions. He may come close but he always retreats. As Dirty Snow ends, in a courtyard in the prison, Simenon has Frank perform one simple act involving an article of clothing. It is an act that Frank has long observed of the other prisoners. His instinctive performance of that act brings Franks journey and the book to its inevitable end.

Dirty Snow is a fascinating, if dark, look at one small aspect of the human condition. I found it well worth reading. L. Fleisig

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!, 09 Jul 1997
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared.

Such profound love for such broken people., 12 May 2007
My second Vollmann book after Bright and Risen Angels, which while spectacularly written and bleakly hilarious, was as the Author said, just a cartoon. This on the other hand is someething infinitely more humane and moving. The cover and the blurb imply something very lurid, perhaps pornographic, but the essence of the book is a profound love for people who are too damaged to function in mainstream society. We watch the central character's life disentegrate, as his rejection of the fundamental hypocracies required to keep society afloat leads to its inevitable conclusion. As he does so he collpases into a shadow world of prostitutes, pimps, addicts and lunatics, each of whom are described and bought to tender and luminous life, to expose the fragility and nobility at the core of each one. He brings an emotional honesty to each of his characters that make just about all other novels seem sham in comparison, and reminds us that most of our own lives are grounded in a complicity of fictions that leaves much of what we really are unsaid and unlived. On top of this his prose is as good as it gets.

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!, 09 Jul 1997
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared.

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!, 09 Jul 1997
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared.

Comprehensive coverage of MPC in theory and practice, 09 Jun 2007

It remains for others better qualified than I am to determine whether or not this book is "the definitive guide for professionals" but I do consider it to be one of the most informative and one of the most valuable I have read thus far. The comments which follow focus on the Fifth Edition (2005) in which the co-authors (Thomas E. Vollman, William L. Berry, D. Clay Whybark, and F. Robert Jacobs) update, supplement, or delete material from previous editions as well as add new concepts "in response to changing needs." They also explain that they revised the basic organization of their book "in response to changes in the environment in which manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems operate."

For example, the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the continuing decentralization of decision-making to the factory floor. The environment has also become more complicated by the proliferation of globalization initiatives. As a result, the authors note, "the interconnectedness of manufacturing firms has increased substantially. The implication of this is that companies are now often integrated as customers of their suppliers and integrated with customers whom they supply in complicated ways. This has created the need to manage some very complex supply chains or networks." Vollman, Berry, Whybark, and Jacobs produced this Fifth Edition in response to changes such as these.

Of special interest to me is the material provided in Chapter 4, "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Integrated Systems." For various reasons that the authors cite, it is highly desirable, in fact imperative that decision-making be centralized if the given system is to take full advantage of economies of scale. Redundant transactions must be minimized, if not eliminated. With regard to knowledge management, information must be captured at the source, with any process of transactions fully documented. (Many senior-level executives express the same exasperation: "If only we knew what we know!") In fact, all processes must efficiently support the data needs of the ERP system. Hence the importance of communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration at all levels and within all areas of the given supply chain. Moreover, a set of performance measures must be formulated in coordination with appropriate policies, procedures, and objectives. Economies of scale can also be achieved if fewer software and hardware platforms are needed during ERP implementation.

Credit the authors with their effective use of various reader-friendly devices as they present their material. For example, check out the Brief Contents and Contents pages that offer an uncommonly specific explanation of what is covered in each chapter. (The latter is the most detailed I have as yet encountered in a business book.) Also, the recurring sections (e.g. Company Examples, Concluding Principles, and References) at the conclusion of most chapters. Many readers will probably refer to the Contents more often than to the Index.

Although this volume will probably be most valuable to those enrolled in business courses and especially if preparing for certification by the Association for Operations Management, I think it will also be of interest and value to those about to embark upon or are now involved in process improvement initiatives. Some of the best opportunities to eliminate waste while increasing efficiency and productivity can be found within a supply chain.

Surely the best novel of the 21st century to date, 11 Mar 2008
William Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL is quite simply a magnum opus. Utterly brilliant. I would go so far as to say that with it he must go into serious contention for the Nobel Prize. One review in the LA Times compared it to WAR AND PEACE. This is not hyperbole. In fact, Vollmann deliberately and cleverly draws up this comparison in the book himself, without ever saying it. He wants it to be compared. It should be.

What's it about? It's about the conflict between Stalinism and Nazism and the aftermath. The impossible choices that it left people. The bravery and heroism that can exist even in appalling regimes, and among those working for appalling regimes. It's about humanity, and what it's capable of. And if that's enough it's also about the nature of the creative process, how life becomes music, and what akes a work of art.

It's a vast, sprawling, huge work, something to take on a long journey (as I did) to get into it. But it's also hugely readable and gripping. If you could compare it to any author living it would be to Pynchon, but it's much more readable than Pynchon.

In a word, a masterpiece.

Masterpiece? I think so. , 02 Feb 2008
Where to begin?

This is an enormous, serious novel. If you are interested by the history of the first half of the 20th Century (as I am), a fan of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich (as I am), and a lover of literary fiction (as I am) the this book is tailor-made for you. If you are none of those things, you should perhaps approach with caution.

Vollmann has taken a number of 20th Century lives (notably Shostakovich, the defeated Stalingrad general Paulus, the turncoat Russian Vlasov, the well-intentioned SS man Kurt Gerstein, and many others) and woven them into a fictionalised saga to explore the moral maze of Hitler's and Stalin's Europe.

But this is no airport novel. The writing style changes frequently, sometimes spare and straightforward, sometimes outrageously experimental, echoing the music of Shostakovich whose role - in what Vollmann calls "an imaginary love triangle" - is the heart and soul of the book (access to recordings of the symphonies, the cello sonata and the harrowing 8th quartet is highly recommended as an accompanying "soundtrack").

I find it difficult to find suitable comparisons for this book; what it reminded me of most was not literary, but sonic and visual: the aforementioned Shostakovich music, the films of Tarkovsky, the grainy black-and-white images of the 1970s TV series "The World At War". Whatever one tries to compare it to, there is no denying that this evocation of the Berlin-Moscow nightmare world of the 30s, 40s and 50s is a remarkable achievement by a young(ish) American writer, whose work I will be exploring further.

The word "masterpiece" is undoubtedly over-used, but I feel it is justified here.


Pure class, 14 Dec 2007
This book is superb. I've read countless WW2 fiction and this one easly comes in my top 5. Similar to Life and Fate (in my opinion this book is just a far better read)as it goes between characters in Russia and Germany.

I can't praise it enough. If you have any interest in WW2 then I promise this will take pride of place on your bookshelf.

Despair is an expression of the total personality, 25 Oct 2006
doubt only of thought. Soren Kierkegaard

Frank Friedmaier, the protagonist of Georges Simenon's novel "Dirty Snow" seems to have no doubts about his life. In fact he seems to be more a creature of base animal instinct than of anything resembling thought. If he has doubts about anything they are not evident. But his words and deeds bespeak an unconscious despair so profound that the reader can feel it with every page.

Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). "Dirty Snow" is one of Simenon's hard novels and to call it noir is an understatement. "Dirty Snow" is darker than noir, devoid of any light or optimism. In the hands of Simenon it is an absorbing (entertaining seems an inapt word) look at the darker side of life.

Frank Friedmaier lives in his mother's brothel in a small apartment building. The brothel is in an unnamed city in occupied France during World War II. Frank divides his time between the brothel and a local bar inhabited by an assortment of shady characters that include low level criminals, women of `easy virtue', and the occasional German soldier. When he returns home at night he camps down with whichever one of his mother's employees suits his fancy. What follows may best be described as nasty, brutish, and short. There is no affection, not even feigned affection, just feral activity.

The book follows Frank's descent into increasingly lower levels of behavior. He decides the time has come to kill a man, lies in wait in some snow that had been dirtied by the day's activities, and then takes a knife to a German soldier and stabs him to death. He reveals his presence to a passing neighbor, the father of a young girl who Frank seems to like, just so that the neighbor will know that Frank has murdered the soldier. Frank is confident that the neighbor will keep the information to himself. Frank next plans a robbery. The robbery is successful but Frank soon finds himself in a German prison subject to repeated interrogations. By the end of the book Frank has completed a journey that has taken him on a journey through what Dante would have considered different layers of hel l.

The fascinating aspect of Dirty Snow for me lay in the narration. Simenon has pulled off a neat trick here. The narrator is Frank and we are privy to his innermost thoughts, such as they are. Yet it is the absence of thought and the inability to evince any feeling in a rational manner that grabs the reader. There are sections, particularly those involving the daughter of the neighbor who witnessed the killing, where you can almost sense that Frank would like to act on a normal level with normal emotions. He may come close but he always retreats. As Dirty Snow ends, in a courtyard in the prison, Simenon has Frank perform one simple act involving an article of clothing. It is an act that Frank has long observed of the other prisoners. His instinctive performance of that act brings Franks journey and the book to its inevitable end.

Dirty Snow is a fascinating, if dark, look at one small aspect of the human condition. I found it well worth reading. L. Fleisig

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic", 08 Jul 1998
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "i