A Supplement to: Production and Operations Management: An Applied Modern Approach

Chapter 1: Introduction to Operations Management

Lewis, Bill, "The Wealth of a Nation," WSJ, June 7, 1996. [A comparison of US productivity with that of Japan and Germany, and the implications for the relative standards of living.]

Farrell, Christopher, Michael Mandel, and Joseph Weber, "Riding High," Business Week, October 9, 1995, pp.134-146. [Relative national productivities and factors affecting them.]

Allen, Oliver E., "This Great Mental Revolution," Audacity, Summer, 1996, pp. 52-61. [A brief biography of Frederick Taylor and his contributions in a modern light.]


Chapter 2: Operations Strategy

Elstrom, Peter, "This Cat Keeps on Purring," Business Week, Jan. 20, 1997, pp. 82-84. [How Caterpillar Inc. has achieved success by focusing on flexibility and exploiting the technologies it knows to make new products.]

Ryan, Michael, "They Call Their Boss a Hero," Parade Magazine, Sept. 8, 1996. [Inspiring story of Aaron Feuerstein, owner of Malden Mills, and how his philosophy of treating workers with compassion raised his company from a disastrous fire, and created tremendous worker loyalty.]

Melcher, Richard A. and Greg Burns, "How eagle Became Extinct," Business Week, Mar. 4, 1996, pp. 68-69. [How incompatibility of products resulted in breakdown of diversification strategy at Anheuser Busch.]

Chapter 4: Forecasting

Verity, John W., "Clearing the Cobwebs from the Stockroom," Business Week, Oct. 21, 1996, p. 140. [ How closer information links between manufacturers and customers can be used to improve demand forecasting and reduce inventory levels.]

Sebastian, Pamela, "Business Bulletin" Column, WSJ Sep. 26, 1996. [Examples of how historical weather information is used to improve demand forecasts for winter products.]

Chapter 5: Product Design

Schiller, Zachary, Greg Burns, and Karen Lowry Miller, ""Make It Simple," Business Week, Sep. 9, 1996, pp. 96-104. [ How Procter and Gamble is simplifying its products and product lines, and how this has helped the company in sales, production, logistics, and accounting.]

Mathews, Anna Wilde, "More Firms Rely on 'One-Stop' Shipping," WSJ, Apr. 29, 1997. [How shipping companies are redesigning their service products, mainly providing a wider range of services, to be more competitive.]

Schiller, Zachary, "GE Has a Lean, Mean Washing Machine," Business Week, Nov. 20, 1995, pp. 97-100. [How GE simplified its washing machines, reduced the number of parts used, and used employee imput in designing its products.]


Chapter 6: Capacity Planning and Facility Location

Naughton, Keith, et. al., "Who's Afraid of the Dollar?" Business Week, Feb. 24, 1997, pp. 34-36. [How companies have diversified their cost structures and business risks by locating facilities in several countries.]

Jaffe, Greg and Oscar Suris, "Audi May Join Car Makers' Caravan to Southern States," WSJ, Mar. 13, 1997. [Why auto companies have been opening manufacturing plants in the Southern US. Includes discussion of cost, proximity, and available suppliers.]

Mehta, Stephanie N., "Executive's Pet Project: A Kennel Chain," WSJ, Feb. 24, 1997. [Discussion of the effective location strategy used chain of kennels.]

Chapter 7: Selecting the Process Structure and Technology

Cortese, Amy, "Here Comes the Intranet," Business Week, Feb. 26, 1996, pp.76-84. [How intranet technology is being used by companies in operations and customer interface.]

McWilliams, Gary, "Dial Dell for Servers," Business Week, Sep. 16, 1996, p. 102. [How Dell Computer is using cellular production to integrate production of servers into its main PC product lines.]

Blumenstein, Rebecca, "Seeking a Cure: Auto Makers Attack High Health-Care Bills with a New Approach," WSJ, Dec. 9, 1996. [Restructuring of health-care delivery system, including the use of cellular production to deliver health care. Also some interesting facts about the cost of health care relative to other production costs.]

Chapter 8: Process Design and Facility Layout

Rose, Frederick, "Boeing to Boost 737 Production to More than Double the Rate," WSJ, June 6, 1996. [Discussion of how Boeing has created parallel production lines, and specialized the models on each 737 line. This allows Boeing to obtain efficiency of flow processes, while obtaining flexibility to produce six major versions of the 737.]

White, Joseph, "Re-engineering Gurus Take Steps to Remodel their Stalling Vehicles," WSJ, Nov. 26, 1996. [Describes the change in Re-engineering philosophy to use preocess redesign and re-engineering to expnad the company, not to shrink it.]

Bailey, Jeff, "Policing the Force," WSJ, June 11, 1996. [Description of How the Los Angeles police department has redesigned and simplified its production processes to improve efficiency.]

Chapter 9: Waiting Lines

Gross, Neil, "New Tricks for Help Lines," Business Week, Apr. 29, 1996, pp. 97-98. [Describes ways in which technology is being used to improve service operations, trcak customer waiting, and reduce queue sizes.]

Coleman, Calmetta, "Long Lines Drive Car Renters Crazy," WSJ, Sep. 6, 1996. [Article describes different philosophies of service, and shows why waiting times are so long for car rentals.]

Tutorial 3: Simulation

Naj, Amal Kumar, "Manufacturing Gets a New Craze from Software: Speed," WSJ, Aug. 13, 1996. [Describes how computer simulation is being used to plan purchases and predict lead-times and the effects of supply chain disruptions.]

Chapter 10: Job Design

Vlasic, Bill, "In Alabama, The Soul of a New Mercedes?" Business Week, Mar. 31, 1997, pp. 70-71. [Description of the skills sought in new works at Mercedes plant, and how teams are being used in the production process.]

Rose, Robert, "Kentucky Plant Workers Are Cranking Out Good Ideas," WSJ, Aug. 13, 1996. [Excellent article describing worker suggestion system, design of work area and work aids, such as a scoreboard that allows machine operators to call for maintenance specialists more easily.]

Vlasic, Bill, "The Saginaw Solution," Business Week, July 15, 1996, pp. 78-79. [Describes how GM's Saginaw Mich. plant converted to team organization of work. It also describes the responsibilities of team members and the benefits that have resulted.]

Freundlich, Naomi, "Workers with Flextime Get Some Heartening News," Business Week, Apr. 8, 1996, p. 61. [Short article describing the health benefits of good job design.]

Chapter 11: Quality Management

Hendricks, Kevin and Vinod Singhal, "Quality Awards and the Market Value of the Firm: An Empirical Investigation," Management Science, Vol. 42, No. 3, Mar., 1996, pp. 415-436. [Describes the effect on companies' stock prices when they receive major quality awards.]

Magnusson, Paul and Keith Hammonds, "Health Care: The Quest for Quality," Business Week, Apr. 8, 1996, pp. 104-106. [Good examples of how good redesign of a process can improve quality while reducing costs.]

Byrne, John A., "Never Mind the Buzzwords. Rolls Up Your Sleeves," Business Week, Jan. 22, 1996, pp. 84-85. [Great article on the quality gurus, the Feigenbaum brothers. Describes some of their approach and examples of some of their success stories.]

Carley, William M., "Charging Ahead: To Keep GE's Profits Rising, Welch Pushes Quality-Control Plan," WSJ Jan. 13, 1997. [Great article that describes the magnitude of quality costs at GE and how this information drove their quality improvement plan.]


Chapter 12: Aggregate Planning

Petzinger, Jr., Thomas, "The Front Lines," WSJ, June 21, 1996. [Article about how companies with different seasonal peaks share workers rather than laying them off during slow periods. This reduces costs, and provides workers with more stable employment.]


Chapter 13: Independent Demand Inventory

Simison, Robert and Robert Rose, "Ford Taps Lear to Plug Seat Shortage," WSJ, Feb 11, 1997. [Brief article illustrating one of the risks of sole suppliers.]

Verity, John, "Revolution in the Supply Closet," Business Week, June 10, 1996, p. 112. [Short article containing useful information on order processing costs, vendor reduction, and lead-time reduction. Also see accompanying article on use of EDI for procurement.]

McNamee, Mike, "Get Big - OR Get Out," Business Week, Sep. 2, 1996, pp.60-62. [The trend toward consolidation of suppliers in the auto industry, and how suppliers are designing and supplying entire product subsystems, not individual components.]

Chapter 14: Dependent Demand Inventories and MRP

Naj, Amal Kumar, "Manufacturing Gets a New Craze from Software: Speed," WSJ, Aug. 13, 1996. [Briefly mentions some of the deficiencies of MRP and how new software an help plan production and procurement better.]

Chapter 15: Lean and Just-In-Time Production

McWilliams, Gary, "Whirlwind on the Web," Business Week, Apr. 7, 1997, pp. 132-136. [Description of Dell Computer's Lean Production system and how it has provided a competitive advantage.]

Weber, Joseph, "American Standard Wises Up," Business Week, Nov. 18, 1996, pp. 70-74. [Description of the Lean Production system at American Standard Cos. Very complete system which utilizes JIT scheduling, SMED, improved layout, and continuous improvement.]

Phillips, Michael, "Retailers Rely on High-Tech Distribution," WSJ, Dec. 19, 1996. [How retailers are using JIT principles and EDI to reduce inventories.]

White, Joseph, "Dodging Doom: How a Creaky Factory Got Off the Hit List, Won Respect at Last," WSJ, Dec. 26, 1996. [Good article describing how a Pratt&Whitney plant in Maine redesigned it jobs and processes and implemented Lean production methods. Lean production methods cut the production cost for one product by 80%, which has ignited a 30% annual sales growth for the product.]

Chapter 16: Production and Personnel Scheduling

Zachary, G. Pascal, "Restaurant Computers Speed Up Soup to Nuts," WSJ, Oct. 25, 1995. [Examples of how restaurants can provide better service at lower cost through better scheduling.]

Petzinger, Jr., Thomas, "The Front Lines," WSJ, July 14, 1995. [Description of how Deere & Co. has used genetic algorithms to schedule production more efficiently. Better scheduling has has increased production while reducing overtime work.]

Wiley's College Division

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Last Updated: May 22, 1998

Copyright 1997, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.