The academic field of operations management has often been called production management or production and operations magement because of its close ties to manufacturing management. Now, however, roughly 80% of the U.S. economy falls within the "services" domain, giving a new perspective to operations management. The Future careers of business school students tend to be even more extreme in their tilt toward services. Futrher, even traditional manufacturers such as Ford and General Electric now derive large portions their revenue from their service business, rather than from their physical products.
The Challenge before the operations management community is to keep our field growing and relevant by embracing the service economy. This book is written in response to that challenge.
Part 1 Formulating Strategy
Part 2 Designing the Delivery System
Part 3 Improving the Delivery System
Part 4 Matching Supply and Demand
Part 5 Tools for Managing Services