The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Operations Management

The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Operations Management

Take a crash course in boosting operational efficiency! Whether a business manufactures trucks, delivers packages, or sells coffee, it lives and breathes on its operations. Without exception. Ensuring smooth, efficient processes is a challenging task--but the rewards are immense. The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Operations Management puts you on the fast track to bolstering and managing the effectiveness of your organization’s operations. Complete with exercises, self-tests, and an online final exam, this virtual immersion course in operations management teaches you how to: Evaluate and measure existing systems’ performance - Use quality management tools like Six Sigma and Lean Production - Design new, improved processes - Define, plan, and control costs of projectsTake this in-depth course on operations management and put your vision into action. This is the only book on the syllabus. Class begins now! Linda L. Brennan, Ph.D. , is a professor of management at Mercer University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in operations management, leadership, international business, and strategy. Brennan lives in Macon, Georgia. Linda L. Brennan, Ph.D. , is a professor of management at Mercer University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in operations management, leadership, international business, and strategy. Brennan lives in Macon, Georgia. THE McGRAW-HILL 36-Hour Course OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT By Linda L. Brennan The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Copyright © 2011 Linda Brennan All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-07-174383-9 Contents PrefaceAcknowledgmentsChapter 1 Managing for ResultsChapter 2 A Practical Approach to OperationsChapter 3 Desired ResultsChapter 4 Organizational PerformanceChapter 5 Quality Across the OrganizationChapter 6 Technology Across the Value ChainChapter 7 Process EffectivenessChapter 8 Process QualityChapter 9 Project Definition for ResultsChapter 10 Project PlanningChapter 11 Project ControlChapter 12 Individual EffectivenessNotesIndexInstructions for Accessing Online Final Exam and Chapter Quiz Answers Excerpt CHAPTER 1 MANAGING FOR RESULTS If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't much matter how you get there. —THE CHESHIRE CAT (PARAPHRASED FROM ALICE IN WONDERLAND BY LEWISCARROLL) When you think about operations, what picture comes to mind? If you're like mostpeople, you think of a manufacturing plant or assembly line. Occasionally, Iwill have a student who relates it to the context of surgery, as in "I'm havingan operation to remove a tumor tomorrow." While none of these ideas is wrong, the correct answer is much broader.Operations consist of whatever an organization does to make inputs becomeoutputs. It's that simple. Really. Whether the organization is a servicecompany, a government agency, a not-for-profit entity, or a publicly tradedcorporation, it obtains inputs. Operations transform these inputs by addingvalue to them (and sometimes wasted effort) and make them available to others asoutputs. Operations management is about managing for results—that is,desired outputs. After completing this chapter, you should be able to do the following: • Describe an operation as a transformation system • Explain the importance of operations management • Recognize opportunities for operational improvements • Identify sources of competitive advantage in an operation Throughout this book, you will find a practical, commonsense approach tomanaging for results. Common sense is logical, has an intuitive appeal, and isclear when you think about it. There is a practical connotation to common sense.Unfortunately, as the architect Frank Lloyd Wright noted, "There is nothing moreuncommon than common sense." Not sure you agree? Consider the case of the rolling suitcase. The idea is thatthe case is too heavy to carry through the airport, so you pull it on wheels.Yet somehow you are expected to lift it into an overhead compartment to stow itaway. (Not to mention that the people who pushed ahead of you to get on theplane first took more than their allotted amount of overhead space.) Why nothave bench seats with storage underneath? No one would get hurt, and all thosebags wouldn't impinge on your space. Isn't that common sense? Why do we have daylight savings time in fully electrified countries? Why do wehave a nine-month school year when children are no longer needed to work in thefields during the summer? Why do we still teach cursive writing in primaryeducation when very little is handwritten anymore? Because we have done thingsthis way for as long as anyone remembers. Operations are like that. You can do something over and over, because that ishow you have always done it, and you can make operations very complex. Or youcan use basic principles that are memorable and have an intuitive appeal tocover most situations. Once you understand these principles, they will seem likecommon sense. This is the essence of the 36-hour cours