Operations Management for Competitive Advantage with Student-CD [Hardcover]

Richard B Chase (Author), F. Robert Jacobs (Author), Nicholas J Aquilano (Author), Richard Chase (Author), Nicholas Aquilano (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072845074 | ISBN-13: 978-0072845075 | Publication Date: May 6, 2003 | Edition: 10

Chase, Jacobs and Aquilano: Operations Management for Competitive Advantage, 10/e (CJA) provides a current and thorough introduction to the concepts, processes, and methods of managing and controlling operations in manufacturing or service settings. The text provides comprehensive coverage, from high-tech manufacturing to high touch services with a balanced treatment. CJA also thoroughly integrates and discusses current issues such as globalization; supply chain strategy, E-business, and ERP. The concepts are illustrated by using abundant real world examples, articles, illustrations, problems and cases. Technology is integral to the success of this course, as such, CJA also provide students and instructors with an innovative array of leading edge technology learning and teaching tools.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard B. Chase is Director of the Center for Operations Management Research and Education at USC. He is widely published in both books and academic journals and is considered one of the top service "gurus" in the field. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Operations Management, an Advisor to Production and Operations Management journal, and a Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute.

F. Robert Jacobs is currently department chairman at Indiana University. He has a PH.D from Ohio State and is past Vice President of the Decision Sciences Institute, Information Technology Coordinator for Decision Sciences Institute for 1997, as well as Associate Editor on the board of the Journal of Operations Management.

Nicholas Aquilano is retired from the University of Arizona but is providing a critical eye to the revision. A UCLA grad and Buffa student.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 765 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 10 edition (May 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072845074
• ISBN-13: 978-0072845075
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reassessing My Earlier Thoughts, May 1, 2004

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Operations Management for Competitive Advantage with Student-CD (Hardcover)

I have previously reviewed this book, but have recently read it again, and am reassessing my opinions on it. While I still hold most of my earlier opinions, I have a couple of other insights after the second reading.

First, the PowerPoint slides on the included CD are very useful, and are generally well done, but they do contain a number of errors, which should have definitely been caught.

Second, the book gets more mathematically oriented as it goes on, and by the time the reader gets to about Chapter 9, the book makes so many assumptions about mathematical background (that may not be safely assumed, even in Business schools) that the example problems and, more importantly, explanations given, are very difficult to grasp: the chapter on forecasting is the peak of indecipherability. Some problems will just say something like 'using calculus...' and then show what happened as a result (this is especially true in the PowerPoint slides, by the way). What I am saying is that people who have recently had advanced calculus and statistics won't have a problem, but anyone who has been away from higher math for a couple of years will struggle.

Third, many of the case studies, while very well written and illuminating, are clearly taken from company specific corporate public relations fodder. In other words, they frequently read like propaganda. Don't get me wrong, I very much like the case studies, they just seem a bit stilted, though frequently they are the strongest part of a chapter.

Fourth, the book is absolutely strewn with buzzwords. I understand the needs to use specific terms to define specific concepts, and these authors are far from being alone in this misdeed, but sometimes speaking clear English actually helps a student understand the information. I absolutely draw the line when the authors call 'eyeballing' a line on a graph "Ocular Heuristic Approximation" (OHA). (Just a tip for the authors before they write the next edition.)

Finally, the book is filled with color and expensive printing tricks throughout, like color type, inset boxes, lots of color graphs and charts (some of which are redundant), and the like. My point here is that this stuff, while generally nice to look at is not value added, and dramatically raises the price of the book (mine was $135.00) with no increase in value to the students. For Mr. Chase and the rest of the authors: read your own book. Understand what the consumer (in this case students) want and need, and write that book. Don't fill a book with tons of color and fancy typographical tricks and drive the price through the roof. There are many other Operations Management books available for half the price and I recommended a couple of specific titles in my course critique. The book may look nice, but it isn't worth this price.

In summation, I now give this book three stars. It is very comprehensive, and there is a lot of good information between it's covers. If you can grasp the advanced math, put up with the buzzwords, and deal with paying $135 for a single book, this really isn't too bad.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Definitely geared toward manufacturing sector., August 6, 2007

By 

A. Niebruegge "Selune" (Troy, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Operations Management for Competitive Advantage (The Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series Operations and Decision Sciences) (Hardcover)

Very repetitive information, which may or may not be a good thing. If you like to skip around a lot, it will be good, because each chapter gives you a tiny background that you will need for the subject matter in that specific chapter. Unlike the other review, I felt that the example problems were terrible. They didn't cover the variables present in the chapter end problems, they were not clearly set off from the text, and they were short on explanation as to why they were using the formulas that they were using. Many of the examples were shown in exhibits that covered several pages, meaning you had to page back and forth to figure things out, which was a pain. Probably the best sections were the technical notes, which were every few chapters. These provided a more practical approach instead of tons of theory and information you'll never use.

Probably the best thing were the definitions, which were highlighted in the text and provided in a summary at the end of the chapter.

Overall, if you are seriously into the manufacturing side of production, it is OK, but if you want good examples to show you the application of what you are supposed to be learning, find a different book.

Honestly, it felt as if the authors couldn't figure out it they were gearing this book toward a production manager or a general business manager, therefore tried to shove everything possible into one long, long, long wordy book. I think they must have been paid by the word. :)

3.0 out of 5 stars Classic operation book, June 13, 2011

By 

Eduardo Morel Rodriguez (Santiago Chile) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Operations Management for Competitive Advantage (The Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series Operations and Decision Sciences) (Hardcover)

This is the classic university production book. It's not very friendly, not very actual but it has all what a process student needs to know, including some exercises and examples for each topic. Due to this I consider it a classical operation book, there are better books but all or almost all of them have at least one reference to this one.