New Features:

New Chapter: Chapter 5 relates operational performance to the overall financial performance of the firm. It discusses the link between process effectiveness and corporate balance sheets and income statements. This material provides a powerful motivation for the micro analysis discussed in this book—students want to know that they are studying issues of importance at all managerial levels of the firm.

New Chapter: Chapter 10 is dedicated to the Toyota Production System and lean operations. It provides an expanded version of the material that was in Chapter 8 of the 1 st edition. Responding to market feedback, the authors decided that this material is sufficiently important to merit an entire chapter. However, the principles guiding the Toyota Production System are discussed in most of the other chapters as well. This chapter repeats, summarizes and reinforces these concepts to solidify a student's understanding.

Expanded quality chapter: Chapter 9 expands upon the first edition's quality management chapter and places an emphasis on six-sigma process improvement and robust design, hence the change in the chapter title to “Quality Management, Statistical Process Control, and Six Sigma Capacity.”

Streamlined chapter: Chapter 12, “Make-To-Order and Quick Response with Reactive Capacity” has been streamlined. The technical discussion on the mismatch cost formula has been placed in the appendix, making this chapter more accessible to students.

Updated examples: Examples in all chapters have been updated to improve the presentation of the material and to correct typos from the first edition.

Additional end-of-chapter problems: Additional practice problems have been added to each chapter, providing students with additional material for self-learning.

Retained Features:

Feature: The book instructs students to perform sophisticated analyses of operations problems while requiring them to provide strategic “big picture” solutions as a result of their analyses.
Benefit: Students remained focused on the ultimate goal of the book—making good business decisions that improve operations—rather than on the analytical techniques used to achieve the goal.

Feature: The book examines business processes within the context of supply chain management.
Benefit: The supply chain has become a preferred framework to discuss operations; and the discipline itself now has sharpened its focus on processes, making this a cutting edge book, likely to be warmly received in the better MBA programs.

Feature: The conceptual material in each chapter is discussed within the context of a specific authentic or disguised company. Likewise, the book employs real-world examples to illustrate important operations concepts.
Benefit: This treatment ties techniques to real operations problems, offering both greater interest and greater realism to students. Students understand and relate to the importance of large business concerns and the products they deliver, which makes for a more compelling, motivational discussion for students.

Feature: The treatment is concise and free of irrelevant detail.
Benefit: Students can get the essentials down, without having to read through pages of extraneous material; instructors can assign other materials, along with the text, without fear of the cost of materials to students becoming exorbitant.

Feature: Examples of analytical techniques are presented in a step-by-step fashion and underscored with a summary exhibit; Key notation and equations and solved practice problems appear at the end of every chapter.
Benefit: Concepts are reinforced repeatedly throughout each chapter.