10: Achieving World-Class Operations Management
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer these questions:
- Why is production and operations management important in both manufacturing and service firms?
- What types of production processes do manufacturers and service firms use?
- How do organizations decide where to put their production facilities? What choices must be made in designing the facility?
- Why are resource-planning tasks such as inventory management and supplier relations critical to production?
- How do operations managers schedule and control production?
- How can quality-management and lean-manufacturing techniques help firms improve production and operations management?
- What roles do technology and automation play in manufacturing and service-industry operations management?
- What key trends are affecting the way companies manage production and operations?