Operations Management

This book is intended for a course in operations management offered by business schools and management departments at universities. It should be appropriate for graduate level management programmes at some engineering colleges and operations specialization students as well. In particular, the syllabus of the core course in operations management for Masters in Management Studies at the University of Mumbai has been covered together with some programmes at other universities in India and Europe. The aim is to provide the basic concepts with absolute clarity and develop solid understanding of the essential analytical tools necessary to solve operations management problems. Since the text addresses the set syllabi of universities, students would fi nd it useful for revisions during the examination period. In this text, Indian and European case studies, research and literature reviews have been utilized to present various qualitative and quantitative aspects of modern operations management in a comprehensive yet balanced manner. The mathematical treatment has been kept focused and limited as required for the basic, core courses, and instead, managerial implications, current management discussions and relevant examples have been incorporated. Moreover, the needs of students from non-engineering background have been taken into consideration by including some additional topics. The stress is on building the understanding and interest of the students, along with defi nite relevance in modern industries, besides enabling to gain better credit in examinations. There are several facets of this book that set it apart from others in the fi eld, the most important being that the book focuses on students, rather than researchers and staff members. We have observed that during the course of studies many students are clueless and sometimes even panicky because the operations management books available in the market are either too abstruse, heavy, overly quantitative or even meant only for staff members. Hence, for those looking for quick grasp, implementation, enjoyable studies and yet professionalism, there is a gap in the market that this book intends to fi ll. Furthermore, the operations management fi eld is expected to rise considerably and people from all backgrounds, not only engineering, will be required for a variety of jobs in both manufacturing and service sectors. Such personnel need requisite understanding of some typical topics in operations and again this book would serve their needs adequately. It has been a passionate aim to have the latest formulations in the book and our Indo-European experiences, research and support from colleagues across the world would humbly epitomize the same. This book provides the modern, state-of-the-art knowledge of the fi eld and hopes to fulfi l the requirements of the academic audience.