Operations management is important. It is concerned with creating the services and products upon which we all depend. And all organizations produce some mixture of services and products, whether that organization is large or small, manufacturing or service, for profit or not for profit, public or private.

This is because they have realized that effective operations management gives the potential to improve both efficiency and customer service simultaneously. But more than this, operations management is everywhere, it is not confined to the operations function. All managers, whether they are called Operations or Marketing or Human Resources or Finance, or whatever, manage processes and serve customers (internal or external). This makes, at least part of their activities ‘operations’.

The aim of SMC is to provide a clear, authoritative, well-structured and interesting treatment of operations management as it applies to a variety of businesses and organizations.