Businesses today range from a traditional manufacturer of corrugated paper containers (cardboard boxes to you and me), such as General Packaging Corporation, to one running an online auction of banner space on Web pages, like WebmasterBids. Imagine selling, through a virtual auction, a virtual commodity (Web page advertising space) that may even be purchased by companies wishing to advertise their virtual services. Boxes are traditional products that have been around for years and will be needed for years to come. Both have value. Imagine selling either of those “products” anywhere in the world and purchasing materials, information, and employee talent from anywhere in the world as well.

Virtual products and services that are now commonplace could barely be imagined 10 years ago. An online auction of anything would have seemed unlikely. An auction of advertising banner space on Web sites would have seemed ridiculous. Will online auctions exist in 10 years? That's hard to say. You can bet, however, that we'll still be using cardboard boxes.

In addition to the added pressures and capabilities resulting from technological progress, many other pressures exert forces on business. Pressures vary in different industries, but globalization of businesses is a prominent issue for many. As businesses increasingly expand to international markets, increase their use of product and service suppliers from around the world, and form alliances and relationships with businesses from other countries, the U.S. business landscape disappears. “Market share” as defined by the percentage of the U.S. market a company has is meaningless.

The vast range of products and services makes it impossible to come up with a general model that perfectly represents operations in all businesses. A model is important, however, to understand operations and its role in businesses. An effective model helps relate operations activities to business goals. Such a model is critical if operations concepts are to be integrated into the firm's success, and not treated as independent entities. The Resource/Profit Model, shown in Exhibit 1.3, provides a framework for placing operations management in the larger business context.

EXHIBIT 1.3 Resource/Profit Model

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The elements in the model are parallel to the chapters in this text. The purpose of the model is to identify how topics relate; it doesn't limit the sequence of coverage of chapters to the order in the model.