Operations Management For Dummies

A plain-English guide to improving business operations and increasing efficiency Operations management is a critical skill for all current and aspiring business leaders. Now, Operations Management For Dummies takes the guesswork out of this often-intimidating subject. Whether you are a professional just promoted into your first operations management job who needs to learn operations fast or your aim is to score your highest in an undergraduate or MBA operations management class, the plain-English, step-by-step information in Operations Management For Dummies gives you the critical toolkit for operations success. Operations Management 101 — find out how to represent processes in a diagram and get the lowdown on the operations management vocabulary used to measure those processes It's a risky business — discover the risks that may threaten your operations, from determining how much demand there will be for your product or service to making forecasts of future demand Put the "I" in improvement — get the scoop on continuous improvement — a concept that relates to building and sustaining effective and profitable organizations Make things happen — take an in-depth look at project management as it relates to operations management to better understand the life cycle of projects (and why many projects fail) Go global — explore how companies decide what parts or services to outsource and when and where to outsource them Succeed in startups — learn how to successfully cope with the special operations challenge of startup growth Open the book and find: How to design a process to meet organizational goals Basic process flow terms The scoop on demand forecasting, capacity planning, and inventory management The basics behind aggregate planning Tips to design and manage your supply chain How to scale operations as a product travels through the normal life cycle curve Ways to estimate a project's timing and cost Learn to: Make sense of complex topics Understand key concepts in operations management Score your highest in your operations management course

Introduction 1 Part I: Getting Started with Operations Management 5 Chapter 1: Discovering the Fundamentals of Operations Management 7 Chapter 2: Defining and Evaluating Processes 19 Chapter 3: Designing Processes to Meet Goals 33 Chapter 4: Dealing with Shared Resources, Batches, and Rework 49 Chapter 5: Designing Your Process to Match Your Product or Service 67 Part II: Managing Variability and Risk 83 Chapter 6: Forecasting Demand 85 Chapter 7: Planning Capacity 99 Chapter 8: Managing Inventory 121 Chapter 9: Planning for Successful Operations 145 Chapter 10: Managing the Supply Chain 161 Part III: Improving Operations 177 Chapter 11: Becoming Lean 179 Chapter 12: Managing Quality 197 Chapter 13: Creating a Quality Organization 221 Part IV: Managing Projects 239 Chapter 14: Using Communication and Leadership Skills When Managing Projects 241 Chapter 15: Estimating and Scheduling Projects 255 Chapter 16: Responding to Risks That Threaten Your Project 277 Part V: Scaling and Globalizing Your Operations 297 Chapter 17: Considering Outsourcing 299 Chapter 18: Scaling Operations throughout the Product Life Cycle 313 Part VI: The Part of Tens 331 Chapter 19: Ten Pivotal Operations Management Developments 333 Chapter 20: Ten Mistakes That New Operations Managers Make 339 Chapter 21: Ten Traits of World–Class Operations 345 Index 351

Mary Ann Anderson is a consultant in supply chain management and operations strategy. Dr. Edward Anderson is Associate Professor of Operations Management at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. Dr. Geoffrey Parker is Professor of Management Science at the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University.