Operations Management: A Value-Driven Approach

Studying for APICS CIRM (Certification in Integrated Resource Management), I have accumulated a shelf full of books about enterprise management. "Operations Management: A Value-Driven Approach" rises above all the others. It is large book, almost 1000 pages. It covers all the operations management bases (and all the acronyms), including just-in-time, total quality, demand and supply chain, inventory and materials including MRP and MRPII, planning and scheduling, and so forth. It is a well organized and clearly written textbook, with good examples and problems throughout.The best, however, is this book's point of view: Delivering VALUE to customers and stakeholders is the raison d'etre for the enterprise. If it doesn't do this well - compared to customer expectations and the competition - it won't survive. Moreover, delivering value is dynamic. The enterprise must constantly improve and its processes, products and services, to respond to the constantly changing needs of its customers. This book brilliantly applies this value-delivery critera throughout, putting techniques and frameworks such as JIT and TQM in proper perspective. Published in 1996, this book is becoming a bit dated in this age of the World Wide Web and virtual marketplaces. (A suggestion: revise and expand the book to cover e-Commerce, including business-to-consumer and business-to-business, to maintain, in my opinion, it solid 5-star rating.) Still, "Operations Management" does a good job anticipating new technologies and marketplaces, and the fact that the enterprise must constantly respond to these changes. This book is a classic. It deserves to be read by every serious student - and every practicing manager - of operations.