Managers face an infinite range of situations and problems that involve bringing materials and information together to produce and deliver goods and services to customers. In Hopp’s solid, practical introduction to manufacturing and supply chain dynamics, managers learn how to use the scientific approach—to understand “why” systems behave the way they do—as an effective way to deal with almost any scenario they may face.

Written in a reader-friendly style, the text includes useful examples from manufacturers as well as service providers, presents the key concepts that underlie the behavior of operations systems in a largely nonmathematical way, contains illustrations and analogies to everyday life, links theory to practice, and reinforces the learning process with end-of-chapter “Questions for Thought.”

Table of Contents

• 0. STRATEGIC FOUNDATIONS
  Starting with Strategy / Setting Our Goals / Defining Our Terms / Structuring Our Study
• I: STATION SCIENCE
  • 1. Capacity
  • 2. Variability
  • 3. Batching
• II: LINE SCIENCE
  • 4. Flows
  • 5. Buffering
  • 6. Push/Pull
• III: NETWORK SCIENCE
  • 7. Inventory
  • 8. Risk
  • 9. Coordination
• Appendix A: Summary of Notation
• Appendix B: Supply Chain Science Principles