Customer Reviews

Managing Business Process Flows: Principles of Operations Management w/ Student CD (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I used this book as a course text for my MBA class in introduction to operations. What I like about the book is simple, flowing text, good "summery section" at the end of the chapter and a wealth of problems. However, the book gets boring and long. A lot of textbooks are now full color and embellished with real life sidebars, and have great presentation qualities ... not this book! It's black and white, and things are hard to find in it.

I got this book due to its part of the Kellogs master and had a friend that did it. This book is excellent for all those who don't have experience in production and manufacture processes, are beginning to work in them or just need some specific refreshments of some ideas. The way it goes is very simple but practical, no l complex demonstrations or high mathematical formulas, all is very well explained with real situations that make this book an essential for anybody how has to do with processes.

The text is very long winded and does a great deal of hand waving about fairly simple concepts. Examples tend to be extremely complicated and manage to not support the text. I've had much of this material in other classes, but people seeing it in this book for the first time are absolutely stumped.

I have used Chopra and Meindl's "Supply Chain Management," which is much better, but has some of the same flaws.

The thing is, these guys are absolutely OBSESSIVE about playing "hide the ball" with their explanations, as if giving a clear example would somehow diminish the learning experience. Questions are garbled and vague with the absolute minimum amount of information. There are no solutions in the book, there is no study guide. The Cram101 Textbook Outline for this book is literally just an outline of the book, and completely worthless.

This edition is barely different from the 1999 edition, but the price difference is vast. I would not pay more than $4 for the very elementary and common sense information presented in the book. I recommend buying a used copy of the old ( ie 1999 ) edition which is available for less than $5. The authors of the book really ought to be ashamed of themselves for pricing the book so ridiculously high

I did use this book on my Kellogg MBA Operations Class. It is a great book, with a clear and easy-to-follow specific example for each topic discussed and explained on the book. I recommend it to any person who is looking for a very good introductory understanding of such important operation subjects.