About our authors

Stephen N. Chapman, PhD CPIM-F, CSCP, is a retired (emeritus) faculty member from the Poole College of Management, North Carolina State University. He has also served on the faculties at The University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has also had visiting faculty positions with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. Prior to his academic career he held managerial positions in materials management at Northern Telecom and NSK Bearing Company. He was also a senior consultant with Deloitte Consulting. He holds an undergraduate degree and an MBA from the University of Michigan and a PhD from the Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University. He also currently serves as chair of the CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional) Certification Committee for ASCM (the Association for Supply Chain Management).

Ann K. Gatewood has worked in the operations and supply chain industry for 36 years. She specializes in delivering quality adult education and training materials in the areas of business processes, ERP, operations and supply chain management, lean manufacturing, strategic planning, change management and performance measurement. In addition, she has successfully managed ERP system implementations for numerous organizations in a variety of industries around the world, as well as authoring and delivering customized ERP courses. She has served on the ASCM/APICS certification committee for 23 years, and holds the CPIM-F, CIRM, CSCP-F and CLTD-F certifications. She brings current, real-world experience to the book, including best practices in the areas of supply chain management.