Customer Reviews

Schaum's Outline of Operations Management

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

 

 

Professor Monks has done an excellent job of summarizing and giving worked out problems for a very useful field of industry that is often neglected in pure and applied mathematics. This neglect, especially at the pre-college level but also at higher levels, makes it harder for management and operations research college instructors to convey the quantitative methods to their students. These methods are fascinating and include statistical forecasting (with time series and exponential smoothing, correlation, regression), statistical quality control, production scheduling and control (linear programming, dynamic programming), manufacturing /service and maintenance (queuing theory, reliability, simulation, calculus), budgeting, inventory, etc. I recommend this book for everybody in business for themselves or for others and for students at all levels in order to tie in their studies more practically with the real economic world. In addition, the more people are familiar with the methods, the less employment mistakes will be made since so many of the methods interact with hiring, firing, temporary layoffs, etc. With more talent in the field, alternative methods can be developed and tried (for example, present theory assumes that a lot of things involve independent or non-influencing events, but a lot of events are very interdependent and the theory needs far more development there - see my review of Castillo).

I didn't use the book in class, but I'm sure it's a good book. I keep it for my library. I bought this book out of panic.

Like other Schaum's Guides, this one has about half as many pages as a typical textbook in the subject. It's a supplement without introductory chapters covering topics like the history of operations research. This book is geared toward factory production. It uses a low quality paper stock and costs a lot less than a textbook. Full textbooks typically also have introductory chapters that cover the history of Operations Management and so forth.

This is good supplement but I am not recommending it for most people. I like the topics it covers, which are basic topics in the broad field including some management accounting, some facilities management, job design, and project management. I've been surprised how the various chapters re-enter my life and I review them piecemeal. However, some other supplementary books are industry-targeted.

Here are some examples of similar supplements targeted to specific industries:
Healthcare Operations Management
Hotel Operations Management
Security Operations Management, Second Edition
Service Operations Management (3rd Edition)
Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations
Management of Food And Beverage Operations
The Advertising Agency Business: The Complete Manual for Management & Operation

There are even more industry-specific books on operations management than the ones I listed. I believe it's better to allocate precious operations management study time to one's industry. This has to do with the nature of the subject called "operations management," and the relative benefits provided by books in the field.

I believe Schaum's offer the best and most concise topic summaries of any other outline type product I have ever found! I am particularly fond of their math and physics publications. Highly recommended if you learn thru repitition and need to do additional problems and check your answers.