Supply Chain Science

Book excerpt: 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 Hopps solid, practical introduction to manufacturing and supply chain dynamics, managers learn how to use the scientific approachto understand why systems behave the way they doas 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 non-mathematical way, contains illustrations and analogies to everyday life, links theory to practice, and reinforces the learning process with end-of-chapter Questions for Thought.