Tapping the Supply Chain Opportunity
Family owned Edwards Brothers, a book manufacturer based in Ann Arbor, Mich., saw the opportunities for a distinctive supply chain value proposition by managing the book manufacturing life cycle needs of their customers’ titles early in the era of emerging digital printing. In July 2004, Book Business (then called BookTech Magazine), reported that “in addition to conventional production, Edwards Brothers has developed customized printing solutions to meet the unique challenges of several customers. These include remote digital printing operations in the warehouses of Rowman and Littlefield, The University of Chicago Press, The National Academies Press and an overseas location in the United Kingdom in partnership with the National Book Network.” Since then Edwards has opened a facility at Houghton-Mifflin’s K-12 warehouse.
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.