"A Wall Street Journal reporter travels the globe to tell the story behind the misleadingly simple phrase online shoppers increasingly take for granted: "arriving today." From factory laborers in Vietnam to longshoremen at the port of LA to truckers crawling our interstate highways to robots lurking in Amazon's "dark warehouses," here is an eye-opening investigation of the way online commerce is reshaping the globe, rewriting the rules of business,...

Covers supply chain collaboration, planning, strategic sourcing, manufacturing, production, logistics, risk management, and performance metrics. Corporate social responsibility is also addressed. Detailed examples and concise explanations make it easy to understand the material, and end-of-chapter quizzes and a final exam help reinforce key concepts.

A reference book to provide you with information on the fundamental concepts of operations management to succeed in your coursework and entry-level tasks in your job. In this guide, you will discover how companies actually get their products and services out the door. From forecasting demand to ensuring quality control, managing inventory, and sourcing supplies, this book walks you through how to keep a business humming and what to do when something...

"In most companies, procurement is an unglamorous, unloved part of the business. A job in the procurement office? A fast track to nowhere. Sourcing and supplier management is strictly about costs, the thinking goes, and all that matters is playing hardball to get these as low as possible. No connection to innovation or strategy or creating positive value. Not so fast. As Boston Consulting Group thought leaders Christian Schuh, Wolfgang Schnellbacher,...

Every year, more businesses fail because of their old-school views toward cutting costs, and they usually begin with the supply chain. Discover how the right supply chain can actually help you thrive. Across a range of industries, once-leading companies are in trouble: Walmart, IBM, Pfizer, HP, and The Gap to name a few, while others are thriving. The difference is how the company's leaders view their supply chain: Is it just about cutting cost or...

It's easy to miss many innovations in strategy until they appear on the front page of a major business publication. But by then everyone--including all your competitors--is using them. As a CEO or senior executive, your job is to detect these strategies - and implement them - before your competitors. That's where this book comes in. Author George Stalk has often been called a guru of business strategy. In the 1980s, before anyone else saw its importance,...

Score your highest in Operations Management Operations management is an important skill for current and aspiring business leaders to develop and master. It deals with the design and management of products, processes, services, and supply chains. Operations management is a growing field and a required course for most undergraduate business majors and MBA candidates. Now, Operations Management For Dummies serves as an extremely resourceful aid for this...

In recent years, management gurus have urged businesses to adopt such strategies as just-in-time, lean manufacturing, offshoring, and frequent deliveries to retail outlets. But today, these much-touted strategies may be risky. Global financial turmoil, rising labor costs in developing countries, and huge volatility in the price of oil and other commodities can disrupt a company's entire supply chain and threaten its ability to compete. In Operations...

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken precious lives and devastated the global economy. It has also revealed chinks in our supply chains. Not only have manufacturers found themselves scrambling unsuccessfully to find new suppliers when their Asian sources shut down, but the Western world has experienced across-the-board shortages of essential consumer packaged goods for the first time in decades.Blockchain technology has the potential to minimize these...