Fundamentals Of Operations Management

Covering topics in the field such as business process reengineering, services, interdisciplinary links, and the importance of processes, the main focus is on concepts and operations management applications.

Operations management and logistics lies at the heart of every organization, whether manufacturing or services, large or small, public or private, multinational or SMB. It is thus essential for all managers and business school graduates to master the fundamental concepts of operations management and logistics and to be capable of choosing and applying the best methods for the situation throughout their career. This textbook aims to present the essentials of operations management and logistics and to explain them in sufficient detail for the reader to apply them. The authors have deliberately stayed away from the latest trends in OML, not only because they will soon be outmoded anyway, but also because they are all rooted in the same timeless set of principles that can be applied to a variety of different contexts. A good manager should thus be like a chef who first masters the basics of his craft and can then combine them to make any recipe. Finally, though much space is devoted to the quantitative tools essential to operational system design and logistics management, these tools are always subordinate to the management decisions they are meant to support. The central theme running through all the chapters is the need to make choices. In logistics and operations management, there is rarely a simple, clearly marked path. Every decision the manager makes involves give and take. In fact, a good subtitle for this book could have been "The Art of Compromise".

(Black & White version) Fundamentals of Business was created for Virginia Tech's MGT 1104 Foundations of Business through a collaboration between the Pamplin College of Business and Virginia Tech Libraries. This book is freely available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/70961 It is licensed with a Creative Commons-NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 license.

This book addresses a growing demand for a brief treatment of operations management. At less than 500 pages, it comprehensively covers the essential topics for active learners.Chapter topics include competing with operations, process management, managing project processes, managing technology, quality, capacity, location and layout, supply chain management, forecasting, inventory management, aggregate planning and scheduling, resource planning, and lean systems.For project managers and other business personnel who need to manage and improve processes.

Davis' balanced Canadian and global perspective offers a broad and relatively non-quantitative overview of the field of operations management. Appealing to a variety of business majors, the text addresses the increasing trend towards a more managerial focus on the operations issues that confront managers today. While maintaining this "big picture" perspective, Davis is reflective of the Canadian economy by incorporating the role of the automotive industry, balancing service and manufacturing, emphasizing ISO 9000 standards in quality control, and leveraging examples from both small to medium sized businesses as well as larger corporations. The combination of features within Davis 2CE also offers a solid foundation of Operations practices to a variety of non-OM business majors.