Operations Management For Dummies

Can’t really criticize a book, but as for the quality of the content, it’s exactly what I was thinking it is

Great book to refresh your operations management knowledge

I have worked with operational and financial data in various contexts for many years. This book is designed to provide an over view of operations management and cover a wide variety of topics related to this sprawling topic. I thought that the book was both a decent reminder for someone who has experience in the space as well as an overview that someone new could use. It is organized by chapter so you can just drop in as well. The equations were not too dense and it was sprinkled with useful analogies. Like most dummies books, it has key tips to remember and risks, and the stories are off to the side if you want to go a bit deeper. Many of the concepts are more relevant than ever with the pandemic and they discuss the bullwhip effect, trade disruptions, and cyber risks at a high level. The one area that I think this book should have added is reverse logistics or returns - with the increase in online shopping, returns are a powerful force eating into profits and require a giant process and plan almost as big as the effort to get it to the consumer in the first place. I had a physical copy of the book I bought but maybe this is already getting added to the online version. Well written, simple and worth your time if you want to brush up on this topic or if you are getting exposed to this topic broadly as a beginner. But of course it isn’t for supply chain / operations / quality experts because it doesn’t go too deeply on any one topic.

Good one

Soll keine Fachbibliothek ersetzen, hilft aber ungemein beim Quereinstieg.

Someone once told me that thé "For Dummies" series of books has no substance and that I should look for other materials. I disagree, this series have the perfect balance between general and in depth knowledge. I've been using processes for 8 years now as a qehs manager , but I learnt a lot in this book dedicated to operations management, it gives me another angle of looking at them, other metrics than the usual quality KPIs. A lot of things are not mentioned here like contract management, the increasingly importance of ethics and CSR in operations, but there is enough in that book to make anyone get familiar with the operations management reflexes.

Valuable resource

As an almost complete beginner to the subject yet with some crossover and related competencies to draw on, I found this new recent edition to be well worth the purchase price and technically challenging in a good way. The Andersons and Parker come across as old hands and cover so many bases that it would be hard put to imagine not succeeding with any operational venture if you disciplined yourself to their compiled way of becoming a "smooth operator." Minus the chapters on Lean/ Quality Management; Supply Chain Management and Project Management (including Agile and Risk Responses) often covered in many business trainings, such as a MBA, then really it is only the two chapters at start that set out the fundamentals of Operations Management in a technical language requiring some extra absorption due to the mathematical formulae involved. However, the level of detail in other aspects also acts as a reference source of techniques, processes and methods so well are these explained, for example, on Earned Value and Critical Path Analyses. The history of OM is reinforced throughout: from Roman logistics, Smith's division of labour, interchangeable parts, scientific planning and mass production, statistical quality control, Lean/ TPS/TQM, supply chain management, computerised supply chain coordination and electronic commerce. These subject areas so much define the 21st century large-scale corporate machine it would seem remiss not to be clued-up more!