Essential Operations Management

Citation

Karjalainen, K. (2012), "Essential Operations Management", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 256-258. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443571211208650

The objective and desire in preparing this new operations management textbook has undoubtedly been to create something that differs from the competition in several aspects, and the authors have succeeded well in it. The book stands out from the crowd, both in terms of contents and style. In the following, a brief description of the contents is provided, followed by an overall evaluation of the textbook and its suitability for different audiences. The book is divided into 12 chapters, categorized into four parts.

Part 1: introduction

Chapter 1: managing operations

The first chapter of the book aims to give a really practical account of what are the tasks of people who work as operations managers and what all can be seen to fall under operations management. In addition the traditional transformation process explanation, differences between providing services vs products and factors differentiating operations are introduced. There are loads of useful tables to provide students with examples of, e.g. transformation processes and different types of services.

Chapter 2: operations strategy

This textbook takes a somewhat different approach than most competing textbooks in similar chapters. The focus of the chapter is largely on overall strategy, moving from corporate to functional and BU strategies rather than explicitly focusing on operations from the start. Later in the chapter, order winners and qualifiers are then discussed, along with how to develop and implement operations strategy.

Part 2: designing and delivering services and products

Chapter 3: designing services and products

This chapter goes into significant detail on how to design products, what factors to take into account, how to listen to markets, etc. than most OM textbooks. The discussion on techniques for improving design (e.g. standardization, value analysis, taguchi, simultaneous engineering) is excellent in my opinion and something most competing textbooks do not offer.

Chapter 4: delivering services

The discussion on characteristics of services provided is detailed and goes beyond the traditional “intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability”. Plenty of informative frameworks with examples of service types and aspects of service operations are delivered that clearly illustrate basic concepts to students. Overall, I believe the chapter offers a more detailed discussion on service operations than many comparable textbooks. There are interesting insights included such as success factors of self‐service operations.

Chapter 5: making products

The different manufacturing process types are covered within this chapter. As an instructor, I would have hoped to see the traditional volume‐variety matrix with process types mapped on included in the chapter, but the basic version is not depicted graphically, although several variations are presented.

Chapter 6: location and layout

This chapter offers a detailed discussion on background factors influencing location decisions such as country and city selection, covering various overall economic issues as well as very site specific factors. Limited space is given to quantitative approaches. There is a good section on detailed layout design involving, e.g. trip and frequency charts, as well as relationship charts.

Part 3: managing operations

Chapter 7: managing capacity

The chapter provides a nice linkage between capacity unit of measurement and process types discussed earlier. Detailed worked examples explaining how to interpret results on efficiency and utilization calculations for both manufacturing and services are provided. The chapter also contains the basic capacity management strategies one expects to find in an OM textbook.

Chapter 8: scheduling and executing operations

This chapter has a somewhat different content than often encountered under the heading of scheduling in an OM textbook. The chapter covers a multitude of overall scheduling and resourcing issues such as project management, material requirements planning and ERP. Just‐in‐time and Lean are briefly introduced as well.

Chapter 9: managing inventory

This chapter presents the various types of inventory and functions of inventory, relating the latter again to manufacturing process types. Pareto and EOQ calculations are offered, and lastly a discussion on different approaches to inventory management.

Chapter 10: managing quality

The first part of the chapter incorporates definitions as well as the quality philosophies of Deming, Juran and Crosby. Then, quality management is explained clearly through a six‐step process and several techniques are introduced for management of quality. No detailed statistical quality control calculations and methods are introduced, however.

Chapter 11: managing the supply chain

The discussion starts by going through the make vs buy decision, factors impacting it and the pros and cons of both approaches. The chapter then moves on to how to manage supply chains, including aspects of supplier relationships, CSR and integration and coordination in a supply chain.

Part 4: improving operations

This part only has one chapter, which discusses both the motivation for improvement as well as how to make it happen in practice. Both incremental and breakthrough approaches to improvement are introduced. Several tools and techniques are presented, such as benchmarking, mapping approaches, and re‐engineering.

Throughout the textbook, there are some excellent full spread tables and frameworks, such as the business implications of alternative manufacturing processes in Chapter 5, the capacity‐related implications of service delivery system choice in Chapter 7 or the evolution of managing quality in Chapter 10. The refreshing use of colours and full spread pictures with highlighted points sets it apart from most textbooks in terms of appearance. The list of figures provided after the index is useful as it allows readers to quickly find the frameworks they are after. Within the different sections in each paragraph, key ideas are highlighted in simple sentences in separate coloured boxes for students. This is likely to provide a good revision aid come exam time. As customary, definitions of terminology used are also provided in the side columns. Each chapter ends with a longer case study, and shorter cases are scattered around the chapters.

Overall, the book can be described to have a qualitative approach to OM teaching, as very few quantitative techniques are offered. Both manufacturing and service issues are covered in the different chapters. As the book guides the reader through the underlying issues and factors of each OM topic and decision, it is very suitable for undergraduate courses and students with limited prior knowledge on the topic. The discussions provided should help students understand various issues on their own as well, if, as it sometimes happens, they do not show up to listen to us explain them during lectures. In certain chapters, the book also provides more linkages to general management issues and, e.g. marketing and R&D than most competing textbooks. I feel it would also be a very suitable textbook for non‐business school students taking OM courses as part of a joint degree. It could also be used in MBA classes where the focus is on discussing the variety of factors to consider in managing operations and linking them to overall strategic business decisions.