Operations Management

Whether an organisation treats patients, makes clothes or cuts people's hair, its operations function plays a crucial role in helping the business meet its sales and profit targets, and achieve its long-term strategic objectives. A well-managed operations function will significantly contribute to the success of a business, while a poorly-managed one can lead to disaster! It is essential that managers understand the role of operations within their organisation. This new edition of Operations Management contains many new and innovative features such as: • 'Driving Business Performance' - how to use the ideas in each chapter to drive the performance of an organisation • 'Executive Insights' and 'In practice' - the key issues to consider when applying the concepts and ideas in practice • 'Exploring further' - resources suitable for executives such as TED talks, journal articles, books, films and websites at the end of each chapter And, additional executive-focused chapters on: • 'Analysing Operations' - how to analyse an operation before working out how to improve it • 'Corporate social responsibility' - managing operations to meet an organisation's social and environmental responsibilities Operations Management provides a comprehensive, postgraduate/executive-focused overview of the subject area that equally covers both service and manufacturing sectors to reflect student needs. Additional supporting materials are also available on the companion website at www.palgrave.com/business/om3e such as: self-check questions, bonus chapters and OM through film worksheets for students. Here lecturers will find PowerPoint slides, case study teaching notes and guidelines on teaching OM through film.

Table of Contents:
Managing Operations.- Operations Strategy.- Managing People.- Designing and Developing Services & Products.- Designing Service Delivery Systems.- Designing Manufacturing Processes.- Location and Layout.- Managing Capacity.- Operations Scheduling & Execution.- Managing Quality.- Managing Inventory.- Managing the Supply Chain.- Analysing Operations.- Improving Operations.- Corporate Social Responsibility.

About the Author :
Alex Hill is Principal Lecturer at Kingston University and Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford. Prior to moving into university education, he worked extensively in industry and researches and consults in a wide range of service and manufacturing organisations. Terry Hill is Emeritus Fellow at the University of Oxford and an Affiliate Professor at Ohio State University and Milan Polytechnic. He is a leading international figure in the field of operations management and operations strategy. Terry spent many years in operations management and continues to work as a consultant.

Review :
'This state-of-the-art textbook sets a new standard in clarity of exposition and elegance of design. Bristling with concepts and diagrams, insights and examples, critical reflections and study activities, it will be both a joy to use and a source of continuing inspiration for teachers and students alike. If only more business books were such a delight to read!' - Dr Jules Goddard, Fellow, Centre for Management Development, London Business School, UK 'For me, strategy is a combination of customer focus, effective leadership and delivering products and services to the customer smoothly - that is, how we operate the business. Operations is too often overlooked and yet is absolutely critical. This textbook is packed with tools and worked examples that will enable you to become a better strategist, through streamlining delivery to the customer.' - Dr Liz Mellon, Executive Director and Regional Managing Director India, Duke Corporate Education 'The book's concepts are based on a sound and well-proven theoretical platform, but the essence of the book is the concrete and easy-to-understand practical applications. It will help managers at all levels understand the importance and power of operational excellence.' - Professor Par Ahlstrom, Department of Management and Organization, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden 'At last! A different kind of textbook - lively and energetic, modern, fun to read, full of practical examples and colourful. It breaks the mould. With content and well-researched materials, this book will be of great value to all who read and learn from it.' - Gay Haskins, former Dean of Executive Education, SaId Business School, University of Oxford, UK 'I really like the depth and coverage of the new edition of Hill and Hill's Operations Management. The use of contemporary materials reflecting new/latest industrial practices and more recent theoretical developments.' - Yufeng Zhang, Lecturer in Operations Management, University of Birmingham, UK 'The structure of the book flows really nicely. The book adopts a very accessible approach and makes extensive use of visual representations of key concepts. Each chapter includes very good number of cases to support the conceptual discussions. The cases are not only just relevant but, as importantly, talk about recent practices seen in industry.' - Tolga Bektas, Senior Lecturer and Module Leader in Operations Management, School of Management, University of Southampton, UK 'Overall I like very much the overwhelming amount of case situations illustrating the concepts and practices; I also like the continued referring to the Order Winners / Order Qualifiers methodology of Terry Hill - that's his stronghold of course.' - Luc Chalmet, Academic Director, Operations & Supply Chain Excellence, Antwerp Management School, University of Antwerp, Belgium 'The reader-focused learning features, including the Executive Summary features and short cases, illustrate the importance of each topic and are really engaging and well-articulated.' - Luisa Huaccho Huatuco, Lecturer in Operations & Business Processes, University of Leeds, UK