Operations Management for Business Excellence : Building Sustainable Supply Chains

All businesses strive for excellence in today’s technology-based environment in which customers want solutions at the touch of a button. This highly regarded textbook provides in-depth coverage of the principles of operations and supply chain management and explains how to design, implement, and maintain processes for sustainable competitive advantage. This text offers a unique combination of theory and practice with a strategic, results-driven approach.

Now in its fourth edition, Operations Management for Business Excellence has been updated to reflect major advances and future trends in supply chain management. A new chapter on advanced supply chain concepts covers novel logistics technology, information systems, customer proximity, sustainability, and the use of multiple sales channels. As a platform for discussion, the exploration of future trends includes self-driving vehicles, automation and robotics, and omnichannel retailing. Features include:

• A host of international case studies and examples to demonstrate how theory translates to practice, including Airbus, Hewlett Packard, Puma, and Toyota.
• A consistent structure to aid learning and retention: Each chapter begins with a detailed set of learning objectives and finishes with a chapter summary, a set of discussion questions and a list of key terms.

Fully comprehensive with an emphasis on the practical, this textbook should be core reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of operations management and supply chain management. It would also appeal to executives who desire an understanding of how to achieve and maintain ‘excellence’ in business. Online resources include lecture slides, a glossary, test questions, downloadable figures, and a bonus chapter on project management.

David Gardiner has a lifetime of practical experience as a business consultant in operation management while employed by IBM and Gardiner Consulting Group. He was a contract lecturer at the University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand, for 25 years and currently teaches under contract at Massey University, New Zealand.

Hendrik Reefke lectures across a variety of topics in supply chain management and is deputy director for the MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Cranfield University, School of Management, UK. His research has been published in internationally leading academic journals, refereed conferences and books.