Instructor's Manual
Operations Management
Fifth Edition
. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
BY
Nigel Slack Stuart
Chambers Robert
Johnston
ISBN-13: 978-0-273-70850-6 / ISBN-10: 0-273-70850-3
Pearson Education Limited 2007
Lecturers adopting the main text are permitted to download the manual as required.
1
,. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
Contents
Chapters Pages
1. Operations management 5
2. The strategic role and objectives of operations 16
3. Operations strategy 24
4. Process design 32
5. The design of products and services 40
6. Supply network design 45
7. Layout and flow 53
8. Process technology 60
9. Job design and work organization 69
10. The nature of planning and control 78
11. Capacity planning and control 83
12. Inventory planning and control 113
13. Supply chain planning and control 124
14. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) 135
15. Lean operations and JIT 147
16. Project planning and control 155
17. Quality planning and control 166
18. Operations improvement 182
19. Failure prevention and recovery 190
20. Total Quality Management 197
21. The operations challenge 204
2
, CH AP TE R 1
Operations management
Teaching guide
. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge
of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
Introduction
Teaching the material in Chapter 1 of the book is both the most important and the most difficult
part of teaching an operations management course. It is the most important because it is vital
that students develop an enthusiasm for the subject and this is best attempted early in the course.
It is difficult because one has to establish some key principles before the „building blocks‟ of the
subject have been taught. We have found it useful always to work from whatever experience the
students have. For post-experience students like MBAs this is not difficult. One can always ask
them to describe the nature of operations in the companies they have worked for. One can even
explore some of the prejudices they might hold about operations management (dull, obstructive,
always screwing things up, etc.) and base the discussions on that. Undergraduates are more
difficult to teach because they usually have less experience, but even so they have experienced
many different operations from a customer‟s point of view. Therefore, one can ask them about
their recent experiences as a customer (both good and bad) and base a discussion on the
importance of operations management around those experiences.
Key teaching objectives
To enthuse students with the „hands-on‟ excitement that can be gained from an
understanding of operations management („… I want to prevent you ever enjoying a theatre
performance, restaurant meal or shopping experience ever again. I want you continually to
be looking for the operations implications of every operation you enter. You are going to be
turned into sad people who cannot go anywhere without thinking of how you could improve
the process‟).
Convince students that all organizations really do have an operations function; therefore
operations management is relevant to every organization.
Convince students that all managers are operations managers because all managers manage
processes to produce outputs („Even marketing managers are operations managers. What
you learn as marketing in business school is really the “technical” side of marketing. Of
course this is important, but marketing managers also have to produce marketing reports
and information, without mistakes in them, on time, relatively quickly, flexibly enough to
contain the latest information and without using an army of marketing analysts to do so. In
other words, they are producing services for internal customers‟).
To introduce the key ideas in the chapter, namely,
Operations managers manage transformation processes, with inputs and outputs.
3
, Operations can be analyzed at three levels, the level of the supply network, the level of
the operation itself (sometimes called the level of the organization) and the level of
individual processes.
Operations differ in terms of their volume, variety, variation and visibility (the four Vs).
Operations managers engage in a set of activities, devising operations strategy,
designing operations, planning and controlling operations and improving operations.
. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
Exercises/discussion points
There are many cases and exercises that one could use to introduce operations management. The
companion volume to this book (Johnston, R. et al, 2nd edition, ISBN 0 273 624962) contains
several useful cases. In addition, you might like to try some of the ideas given in the subsequent
text, all of which we have used.
Teaching tip – Use the pie chart that shows the consultancy spend in each functional area
(a PowerPoint version is available with the other PowerPoint slides) to prompt a discussion.
For example, „Operations and process management is the biggest single sector of spend in
the consultancy market. Why do you think this is’? Try to guide the discussion to the idea
that excellence in operations management reduces the cost base of the operation and helps
to bring in more revenue. We call this the „double whammy‟ effect of operations. No
wonder it is important when it can do both these things. „Remember the old adage, profit is
a very small number, made up of the difference between two very big numbers. It only takes
a bit to be taken off costs and bit to be added on to revenue to make a big difference to
profit’.
Exercise – A useful exercise for demonstrating the ubiquitous nature of operations is to ask
the class to identify every service they have encountered from waking up in the morning to
going to bed at night. The radio alarm which wakes them up depends on the operations of
the radio station. The water in which they wash (presumably) was delivered by a water
utility. The public transport operation transported them to college, etc. etc., through to the
bar, or other place of entertainment that they finish the day with.
Teaching tip – Many television programmes can be recorded off-air, which illustrate
operations. Looking „behind the scenes‟ of well-known operations such as airports, is a
favourite topic for TV producers. Any of these could be used to promote group discussions
on what operations management might be like in such operations.
Exercise – The four Vs dimensions of operations can be used for many types of exercise.
For example, one could ask different groups to identify different types of restaurant, food
retailer, car servicing operation, cinema, club or pub and plot the „similar but different‟
operations on the four dimensions.
Exercise – For residential courses, especially for post-experience students, an evening could
be spent „on the town‟, where syndicates are required to sample the services of a restaurant,
a retail operation and an entertainment operation, and report back the following morning.
This is a great way of giving participants a change of scene on the Thursday of a one-week
course.
Teaching tip – Remember „role-play‟ can be used effectively in an introductory session.
The lecturer can role-play two operations managers managing separate similar but different
4
Operations Management
Fifth Edition
. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
BY
Nigel Slack Stuart
Chambers Robert
Johnston
ISBN-13: 978-0-273-70850-6 / ISBN-10: 0-273-70850-3
Pearson Education Limited 2007
Lecturers adopting the main text are permitted to download the manual as required.
1
,. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
Contents
Chapters Pages
1. Operations management 5
2. The strategic role and objectives of operations 16
3. Operations strategy 24
4. Process design 32
5. The design of products and services 40
6. Supply network design 45
7. Layout and flow 53
8. Process technology 60
9. Job design and work organization 69
10. The nature of planning and control 78
11. Capacity planning and control 83
12. Inventory planning and control 113
13. Supply chain planning and control 124
14. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) 135
15. Lean operations and JIT 147
16. Project planning and control 155
17. Quality planning and control 166
18. Operations improvement 182
19. Failure prevention and recovery 190
20. Total Quality Management 197
21. The operations challenge 204
2
, CH AP TE R 1
Operations management
Teaching guide
. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge
of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
Introduction
Teaching the material in Chapter 1 of the book is both the most important and the most difficult
part of teaching an operations management course. It is the most important because it is vital
that students develop an enthusiasm for the subject and this is best attempted early in the course.
It is difficult because one has to establish some key principles before the „building blocks‟ of the
subject have been taught. We have found it useful always to work from whatever experience the
students have. For post-experience students like MBAs this is not difficult. One can always ask
them to describe the nature of operations in the companies they have worked for. One can even
explore some of the prejudices they might hold about operations management (dull, obstructive,
always screwing things up, etc.) and base the discussions on that. Undergraduates are more
difficult to teach because they usually have less experience, but even so they have experienced
many different operations from a customer‟s point of view. Therefore, one can ask them about
their recent experiences as a customer (both good and bad) and base a discussion on the
importance of operations management around those experiences.
Key teaching objectives
To enthuse students with the „hands-on‟ excitement that can be gained from an
understanding of operations management („… I want to prevent you ever enjoying a theatre
performance, restaurant meal or shopping experience ever again. I want you continually to
be looking for the operations implications of every operation you enter. You are going to be
turned into sad people who cannot go anywhere without thinking of how you could improve
the process‟).
Convince students that all organizations really do have an operations function; therefore
operations management is relevant to every organization.
Convince students that all managers are operations managers because all managers manage
processes to produce outputs („Even marketing managers are operations managers. What
you learn as marketing in business school is really the “technical” side of marketing. Of
course this is important, but marketing managers also have to produce marketing reports
and information, without mistakes in them, on time, relatively quickly, flexibly enough to
contain the latest information and without using an army of marketing analysts to do so. In
other words, they are producing services for internal customers‟).
To introduce the key ideas in the chapter, namely,
Operations managers manage transformation processes, with inputs and outputs.
3
, Operations can be analyzed at three levels, the level of the supply network, the level of
the operation itself (sometimes called the level of the organization) and the level of
individual processes.
Operations differ in terms of their volume, variety, variation and visibility (the four Vs).
Operations managers engage in a set of activities, devising operations strategy,
designing operations, planning and controlling operations and improving operations.
. Law Exams2.1. Overview of Law EducationLaw education provides students with the knowledge of legal principles, case law, legal frameworks, and ethical issues. It prepares
students
Exercises/discussion points
There are many cases and exercises that one could use to introduce operations management. The
companion volume to this book (Johnston, R. et al, 2nd edition, ISBN 0 273 624962) contains
several useful cases. In addition, you might like to try some of the ideas given in the subsequent
text, all of which we have used.
Teaching tip – Use the pie chart that shows the consultancy spend in each functional area
(a PowerPoint version is available with the other PowerPoint slides) to prompt a discussion.
For example, „Operations and process management is the biggest single sector of spend in
the consultancy market. Why do you think this is’? Try to guide the discussion to the idea
that excellence in operations management reduces the cost base of the operation and helps
to bring in more revenue. We call this the „double whammy‟ effect of operations. No
wonder it is important when it can do both these things. „Remember the old adage, profit is
a very small number, made up of the difference between two very big numbers. It only takes
a bit to be taken off costs and bit to be added on to revenue to make a big difference to
profit’.
Exercise – A useful exercise for demonstrating the ubiquitous nature of operations is to ask
the class to identify every service they have encountered from waking up in the morning to
going to bed at night. The radio alarm which wakes them up depends on the operations of
the radio station. The water in which they wash (presumably) was delivered by a water
utility. The public transport operation transported them to college, etc. etc., through to the
bar, or other place of entertainment that they finish the day with.
Teaching tip – Many television programmes can be recorded off-air, which illustrate
operations. Looking „behind the scenes‟ of well-known operations such as airports, is a
favourite topic for TV producers. Any of these could be used to promote group discussions
on what operations management might be like in such operations.
Exercise – The four Vs dimensions of operations can be used for many types of exercise.
For example, one could ask different groups to identify different types of restaurant, food
retailer, car servicing operation, cinema, club or pub and plot the „similar but different‟
operations on the four dimensions.
Exercise – For residential courses, especially for post-experience students, an evening could
be spent „on the town‟, where syndicates are required to sample the services of a restaurant,
a retail operation and an entertainment operation, and report back the following morning.
This is a great way of giving participants a change of scene on the Thursday of a one-week
course.
Teaching tip – Remember „role-play‟ can be used effectively in an introductory session.
The lecturer can role-play two operations managers managing separate similar but different
4
