Somber slate blue has vanished and has been replaced by a bright two-tone cover, enriched with a photograph of several commodities encountered in the supply trade: materials, components, and an invoice. This latest edition of the classic textbook Purchasing and Materials Management has not only a shiny new cover but updated material, language, and cases, reflecting the evolution of the purchasing function. The book lost its original author, Bill England, who passed away during the production of the tenth edition. His successors are keeping alive his championing of the purchasing profession, however, with continued publication of this procurement overview.

Leenders' and Fearon's well-established text is one of the leading pedagogical tools for the teaching of introductory purchasing classes at the undergraduate level. It presents a general survey of the role, responsibilities, tasks, and issues that affect the purchasing function and discusses similarities and differences among public and private-sector purchasing, as well as material versus service or equipment acquisition. The book is intended to acquaint the student or reader with the scope of the purchasing profession and the opportunities and challenges it presents.

The tenth...