We want to welcome you to both an exciting and tactical discipline: operations management. This manual on Fundamentals of operations management is an effective tool to understand one of the main functions of any organisation: the creation of goods and services. That is, to understand what resources are needed to generate the goods and services of an organisation in a global and highly competitive environment, while also incorporating new technologies. In this manual, along with the classic fundamentals of operations management, we will look forward towards what is coming and how it will impact process improvement in companies. The main goal of this book is to equip the reader with the fundamental concepts in operations management. To do this, it will present the main qualitative and quantitative models for managing operations both in public and private companies. As the reader will see, the chapters are structured with an easy-to-follow and rigorous thematic thread that will make each and every step understandable. All this book has been designed with a distance learning student or a self-taught reader, such as an entrepreneur, in mind. We aim to facilitate the learning of a discipline that for years has been considered complicated and specifically focused on certain professions, and to highlight its relevance and future opportunities. We strive for the reader to enjoy learning from this manual and to discover an exciting discipline with many career opportunities. The book combines both theory and practical exercises with real life cases whose examples will allow the learner to understand the day-to-day and the myriad of challenges and opportunities faced by operations management. The manual covers classic management topics such as process design, inventories, demand forecasting, etc., as well as newer concepts such as digitisation of the supply chain. As for the way the content is conveyed, we have opted for a simple language that facilitates understanding, while also being rigorous and precise. The methodology used is distance learning, which means that this manual is mainly intended for self-learning, and consequently, its structure is designed to promote the understanding of its contents. To achieve this goal: 1. The text is divided into eight chapters that present a logical and coherent sequence to understanding what operations management consists of: Chapter I “Operations in the Current Environment” defines what operations are in a company, teaching the reader about the evolution of this discipline in a global environment. The chapter shows the importance of the company’s competitiveness generators, and explains key concepts such as the value chain, the extended network, and digitisation, which are crucial in current production processes and serve as an introduction to other concepts that will be explained in further detail in the following chapters, which are aimed to teaching how to achieve a right tactical decision-making in operations management. Chapter II “Managing Operations” addresses the main topics in the day-to-day of operations management in order to get the reader in the context of the type of decisions that must be made in matters related to the supply chain, inventory management costs, planning the necessary materials, project management, among others, and understand the implications of such decisions in the proper functioning of the company. After having defined what operations are (Chapter I) and the types of decisions that need to be made for a successful operation (Chapter II), Chapter III, “Tools to Support Decision Making in Operations”, aims to provide the necessary tools to support decision-making in two main categories: quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitative techniques include decision trees, linear programming, transportation modelling, queuing models, learning curves, simulations, and sales forecasting. On the other hand, qualitative techniques include concepts such as judgment based on experience, customer surveys, and the Delphi method. By understanding these techniques, readers will be able to delve into key concepts in the following chapters in order to properly plan resources to respond to anticipated demand while avoiding cost overruns and waste and aligning with the company’s production capacity. Chapter IV, “Aggregate Planning,” addresses medium-term production planning, which typically spans between 6 and 18 months. Its main objective is to meet demand, which requires determining the production quantity, inventory levels, and the amount of work or labour force needed by the company, whether in-house or outsourced. To achieve this, it is necessary to develop an Aggregate Production Plan, which is essential for an efficient production. As determining the inventory level is one of the key factors in Aggregate Planning, this manual devotes two chapters to inventory management: Chapter V, “Inventory Management: Independent Demand” and Chapter VI, “Inventory Management: Dependant Demand”. In both chapters, inventory management and being able to determine the optimal quantity of supplies that should be ordered are critical factors for the company’s costs and productivity. Therefore, calculating the optimal order quantity is the central focus of both chapters. The decision to divide inventory management into two chapters is mainly due to the methods used to determine the optimal order quantities, which differ for materials with dependent and independent demand. For the latter case, classic or traditional methods (Chapter V) are not valid (initial assumptions change), and more complex systems, such as MRP (Material Requirements Planning), studied in Chapter VI of this manual, are required. In addition, inventory management has become a critical factor for a company’s competitiveness in today’s globalized world. The emergence of philosophies or approaches that practically eliminate inventory, such as the Just-In-Time (JIT) or Lean Manufacturing systems, cannot be overlooked, so they have their space in Chapter VI. Chapter VII, “Operational Scheduling,” constitutes the final link in operations management. Operational scheduling or short-term planning translates medium to long-term plans into short-term decisions aimed at allocating human resources, machines, and materials in the workplace to plan the most optimal work sequence possible. In short, it translates the Master Production Schedule (Chapter IV) and MRP (Chapter VI) into work sequences and specific assignments of people, materials, and machines to the work centres. Usually, assignments are made on a weekly, daily, and even hourly basis. The last chapter (Chapter VIII), “Quality in the Age of Planned Obsolescence”, tackles the concept of quality from the perspective of operations management and how it has evolved towards process improvement theories while addressing the phenomenon of planned obsolescence, waste generation, and the ethical commitment of operations management to preserve the environment. 2. Each chapter is structured as follows: · The title that identifies it. · A descriptive content section of its main sections. · The educational goals to be achieved after studying it, · Keywords. · An outline that orderly structures the content. · A summary that presents the most important contents and ideas of the chapter The text itself is complemented by graphics, examples, diagrams, and practical situations that occur in our business reality and highlight the application of theoretical concepts. · Glossary of terms · A series of self-assessment questionnaires for every chapter that aims to evaluate the reader’s degree of understanding of its contents (in the online portion of the manual). · Recommended readings (in the online portion of the manual) to reinforce the contents learned through articles, manuals or a combination of both that will allow the reader to establish their learning of all the key issues. Some chapters are also reinforced with videos found on the Internet that contain practical application cases of the studied contents. As can be seen, this book concludes with an extensive bibliography made up of manuals related to Operations Management. Finally, it is our wish that the reader enjoys the manual and that it opens the doors to new and interesting opportunities for them. Dr. Mª Teresa Nogueras Lozano Dr. Eva Ballesté-Morillas

Davis, Fundamentals of Operations Management,fits the one semester course at either the undergrad or MBA market. The 1st Canadian edition addresses the increasing trend toward briefer, less quantitative and more managerial on issues that confront managers today and does so within a Canadian and global perspective. Davis also serves customers in search of a brief conceptual overview to support their own lecture notes, additional readings and/or case material.

The plain language guide to getting things running smoothly in the world of business Operations management is all about efficiency, and Operations Management For Dummies is all about efficiently teaching you what you need to know about this business hot topic. This book tracks typical operations management MBA courses, and it will help you un-muddle concepts like process mapping, bottlenecks, Lean Production, and supply chain management. Learn to step into a business, see what needs improving, and plug in the latest tools and ideas to shape things up in any industry. This latest edition covers, you guessed it, digital transformation. Technology is completely upending operations management, and Dummies walks you through the latest, so you can stay at the front of the pack. Other new stuff inside: supply chain traceability, ethical sourcing and carbon footprint, business resiliency, and modularizing the supply chain. It’s all here! Optimize operations and increase revenue with strategies and ideas that make businesses run better and cheaper Get easy-to-understand explanations of complex topics and theories in operations management Learn how operations management is affected by digital transformation and sustainability concerns Evaluate, design, improve, and scale all sorts of processes, regardless of business size or area of operation Businesses can't operate successfully without effective operations and supply management. That makes Operations Management For Dummies a must—for MBA students and business professionals alike.

This Seventh Edition of Robert Lussier’s bestselling Management Fundamentals presents essential management themes through a three-pronged approach focused on concepts, applications, and skill building. Through a variety of applications, Lussier challenges millennials to think critically and apply concepts to their own experiences. Proven skill-building exercises, behavioral models, self-assessments, and individual and group exercises help students to develop their personal and professional skills. Fully updated throughout with 97% new references and over 1,200 new company examples, the Seventh Edition features 50% new cases, new self-assessments, and new applications and new coverage of current topics mandated by the AACSB.

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.

This text is an introduction to Operations Management. Three themes are woven throughout the book: optimization or trying to do the best we can, managing tradeoffs between conflicting objectives, and dealing with uncertainty. After a brief introduction, the text reviews the fundamentals of probability including commonly used discrete and continuous distributions and functions of a random variable. The next major section, beginning in Chapter 7, examines optimization. The key fundamentals of optimization—inputs, decision variables, objective(s), and constraints—are introduced. Optimization is applied to linear regression, basic inventory modeling, and the newsvendor problem, which incorporates uncertain demand. Linear programming is then introduced. We show that the newsvendor problem can be cast as a network flow linear programming problem. Linear programming is then applied to the problem of redistributing empty rental vehicles (e.g., bicycles) at the end of a day and the problem of assigning students to seminars. Several chapters deal with location models as examples of both simple optimization problems and integer programming problems. The next major section focuses on queueing theory including single-and multi-server queues. This section also introduces a numerical method for solving for key performance metrics for a common class of queueing problems as well as simulation modeling. Finally, the text ends with a discussion of decision theory that again integrates notions of optimization, tradeoffs, and uncertainty analysis. The text is designed for anyone with a modest mathematical background. As such, it should be readily accessible to engineering students, economics, statistics, and mathematics majors, as well as many business students.

Samson/Daft/ Donnet's Fundamentals of Management is a robust foundation text providing a balance of broad, theoretical content with accessible language for students. This sixth edition features a new author on the team and contains updates to content based on recent research. Along with current management theory and practice, the text integrates coverage of innovation, entrepreneurship, agile workplaces, social media and new technology throughout. The book is rich with experiential exercises, self-assessment activities, challenges and cases for students to engage with, developing multiple skills. Examples within the text are both local and global, with a new focus on a 'skills approach', and each part of the text concludes with a contemporary continuing case study, focussing on car company, Toyota, as it faces managerial challenges and opportunities in the region The text covers the four key management functions: Planning, Organising, Leading, and Controlling, conveying to students the elements of a manager's working day.

In recent times, Cloud Computing has emerged as an important topic in the realm of Information Technology. Cloud Computing has gained eminence due to the growing usage of the Internet among people. This book is especially intended for readers who have no prior knowledge of the subject. Some topics in this book are unique and based on published information that is current and timely and is helpful for research scholars as well as specialists working in areas related to cloud computing. This book is suitable as an introductory text for one semester course in Cloud Computing for undergraduate and postgraduate science courses in Computer Science and Information Technology.