Operations Management for Business Excellence

In a context of heightened global disruption, accelerating digital transformation, and increasing sustainability imperatives, the fifth edition of Operations Management for Business Excellence provides a contemporary and analytically grounded framework for understanding how operations and supply chain management contribute to long-term organisational performance.

The text integrates foundational principles of operations and supply chain management with recent developments in automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, connected systems, and real-time analytics. It examines how these technologies are reshaping operational decision-making, blurring traditional boundaries between planning and execution, and raising new questions concerning governance, ethics, and the role of human judgement in technology-enabled systems. Each chapter combines conceptual clarity with applied examples, linking operations strategy to practical challenges such as warehouse design in the era of Industry 5.0, omnichannel logistics, returns management, and supply network resilience. A consistent five-pillar strategic framework – adaptability, customer-driven innovation, continuous competitive recalibration, proactive risk management, and workforce empowerment – provides a structured lens through which advanced supply chain concepts are analysed.

Written for undergraduate and postgraduate students, executives, and practitioners, the book balances analytical rigour with accessibility. It encourages critical evaluation of how organisations can design effective, resilient, and responsible operations, positioning operations management as a discipline that integrates people, technology, and sustainability to create enduring value.

David Gardiner is a seasoned academic and business consultant with nearly 60 years of experience in operations and supply chain management. He has lectured extensively at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels, covering a wide range of subjects including operations strategy, forecasting and demand management, capacity planning, revenue management, Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), process and product design, service design, constraint-based scheduling, inventory systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean Thinking, and project management.

Hendrik Reefke is an academic in operations and supply chain management and serves as the Director of the full-time MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and the MSc in Procurement and Supply Chain Management at Cranfield University, School of Management, UK. Before joining Cranfield, he held academic positions at the University of Auckland, where he was affiliated with the New Zealand Centre for Supply Chain Management, and he has also been a visiting academic in Germany. Prior to entering academia, he gained professional experience in project management and in the automotive sector.