An expert offers a set of rules that will help managers achieve dramatic improvements in operations performance.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 commoditie...

Fierce competition in today's global market provides a powerful motivation for developing ever more sophisticated logistics systems. This book, written for the logistics manager and researcher, presents a survey of the modern theory and application of logistics. The goal of the book is to present the state of the art in the science of logistics management.This third edition includes new chapters on the subjects of game theory, the power of process flexibility, supply chain competit...

In today's environment of tight budgets and even tighter turnarounds, effective supply-chain management has become a core business requirement. Managing the Supply Chain adapts the number one supply-chain book on the college market to examine how professionals can consistently turn supply-chain strategy into a competitive advantage.This results-based book examines the experiences of today's most accomplished companies to demonstrate supply-chain innovation at work in the m...

The secrets to improving operations while maintaining the highest qualityHow do you operate at maximum efficiency with minimum cost? Manager’s Guide to Operations Management addresses one of the most pressing business issues of our time by offering easy-toimplement advice on creating the most effective, streamlined operations possible. This quick-reference guide explains how to:Improve your production processesBoost quality using th...

The popular press is loaded with stories about supply problems affecting many industries. Extensive outsourcing of major portions of a firms value chain, relentless pressure from customers to improve product and service functionality and to reduce costs across almost every industry, and steep global competition have combined to create a search for new sources of competitive advantage. This search has led to supply management, the management of suppliers, and improved supply base relationsh...

Business experts, business economists, and organizational psychologists agree that a specific business strategy must be chosen for a corporation to excel. Beyond the strategy, companies must have a performance measurement system that ties every aspect of the organization - from the boardroom to the factory floor - to the strategy. In their book 'Corporate Performance Management', noted authors David Wade and Ron Recardo show companies how to craft a strategic focus and create sound busines...

More than a decade ago, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard, a revolutionary performance measurement system that allowed organizations to quantify intangible assets such as people, information, and customer relationships. Then, in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton showed how organizations achieved breakthrough performance with a management system that put the Balanced Scorecard into action.Now, using their ongoing resea...

If you’re a tech company, the most dramatic effect of megatrends like cloud computing, managed services, and the rise of consumer technology won’t be felt in your company’s product line. The true disruption will be to your business model. Future customers won’t want to pay you high prices out of big “CapEx” budgets anymore. They will expect lower “cloud” prices paid from “OpEx” budgets only when and if they successfully consume the business value of your products. How your company reacts t...

The Balanced Scorecard translates a company's vision and strategy into a coherent set of performance measures. The four perspectives of the scorecard--financial measures, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth--offer a balance between short-term and long-term objectives, between outcomes desired and performance drivers of those outcomes, and between hard objective measures and softer, more subjective measures. In the first part, Kaplan and Norton ...

Does it seem you’ve formulated a rock-solid strategy, yet your firm still can’t get ahead? If so, construct a solid foundation for business execution-an IT infrastructure and digitized business processes to automate your company’s core capabilities. In Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution, authors Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David C. Robertson show you how.The key? Make tough decisions about which processes you must execute well, th...

In a world of stiffening competition, business strategy is more crucial than ever. Yet most organizations struggle in this area--not with formulating strategy but with executing it, or putting their strategy into action. Owing to execution failures, companies realize just a fraction of the financial performance promised in their strategic plans.It doesn't have to be that way, maintain Robert Kaplan and David Norton in The Execution Premium. Building on their breakthrough w...

Industry after industry is becoming technology-driven as software rapidly eats the world. As it spreads, so do complexity and opportunity. There are clear signs that the traditional B2B business model designed 125 years ago as a simple “make, sell, ship” approach for early manufacturing companies is no longer capable of delivering the full potential of high-tech and near-tech solutions. B4B seeks to frame what is possible in an age where suppliers are connected to their customers in real t...