Production/Operations Management [antikvár]

Preface to the Second Edition The area of production/operations management (POM) is often misunderstood by both students of and managers within a business. This misunderstanding is generated partly by the way the subject is presented and taught, and partly by the way the function is perceived and explained by production/operations managers to their fellow executives. There are many reasons why this situation exists and, as with any complex set of activities, there are several approaches to its resolution. However, part of the problem also lies in the changing field of study. Originally, the conceptual orientation and emphasis within POM was towards the management of the area. Later, specialist developments introduced a set of techniques which made useful, sometimes fundamental, contributions to help in the management of the production/operations task. From this developed a strong, often overriding impetus to teach and develop POM as a series of techniques involving detailed analysis and tactical considerations, and often not discriminating between the usefulness or relevance of one analysis to another. This developed into a technique-oriented approach, with an emphasis towards the quantitative perspective as a way to resolve POM issues. In turn, as this is based on substantial content, the approach usually includes explanations and mathematical derivations of the formulae and solutions proposed. The outcomes were significant. In the academic world POM became uninteresting and apparently lacked business relevance. Demand fell and growth in faculty resources, research and teaching did not match the general expansion experienced in business education at the undergraduate, postgraduate and post-experience levels. Within the manufacturing and service sectors of the economy the role became devalued. Consequently, the critical perspectives of this large and substantial function were not clearly recognized and were often inadequately presented. Typical results were unbalanced corporate argument, inappropriate allocation of key management resources to POM, and a failure to attract the necessary management talent into the area by matching task, responsibilities and contribution with appropriate status, influence and reward. xi