New Features:

New Chapter 5: The first new chapter is about project management—a topic that is taught in many operations courses but was previously absent from the book.

New Chapter 18: The second new chapter is about sustainable operation, a topic of rapidly growing interest in academia and in practice.

New Chapter 19: The final chapter is on business model innovation. Just like the chapter on lean operations and the Toyota Production System was added as a capstone chapter for the first half of the book in the second edition, for the third edition we wanted to bring together a set of ideas that enable companies to build new business models using the lessons of matching supply with demand.

Updated examples: Examples in all chapters have been updated to improve the presentation of the material.

Additional end-of-chapter problems: Additional practice problems have been added to each chapter, providing students with additional material for self-learning.

Retained Features:

Focus on analyses of operations problems: The book instructs students to perform sophisticated analyses of operations problems while requiring them to provide strategic “big picture” solutions as a result of their analyses. Students remained focused on the ultimate goal of the book—making good business decisions that improve operations—rather than on the analytical techniques used to achieve the goal.

Business Processes: The book examines business processes within the context of supply chain management. The supply chain has become a preferred framework to discuss operations; and the discipline itself now has sharpened its focus on processes, making this a cutting edge book, likely to be warmly received in the better MBA programs.

Conceptual Material: The conceptual material in each chapter is discussed within the context of a specific authentic or disguised company. Likewise, the book employs real-world examples to illustrate important operations concepts. This treatment ties techniques to real operations problems, offering both greater interest and greater realism to students. Students understand and relate to the importance of large business concerns and the products they deliver, which makes for a more compelling, motivational discussion for students.

Concise: The treatment is concise and free of irrelevant detail. Students can get the essentials down, without having to read through pages of extraneous material; instructors can assign other materials, along with the text, without fear of the cost of materials to students becoming exorbitant.

Examples: Examples of analytical techniques are presented in a step-by-step fashion and underscored with a summary exhibit; key notation and equations and solved practice problems appear at the end of every chapter. Concepts are reinforced repeatedly throughout each chapter.