Author Profile

Professor Geoffrey Chimezie is a pioneering operations strategist and academic whose work redefines cross-functional business strategies. Blending a deep background in global supply chain logistics with a passion for emerging technologies, he empowers the next generation of business leaders to seamlessly integrate operations with marketing, finance, and human resources. Geoffrey brings over 20 years of hands-on and academic experience to the field of operations management. Prior to his academic career, he directed global supply chain integrations for multinational manufacturing firms, navigating complex disruptions and pioneering early lean manufacturing practices. As a tenured professor at a leading global business school, he translates complex, real-world data into highly accessible teaching frameworks. His current research and consulting focus on the intersection of artificial intelligence, robotics, and supply chain sustainability. Professor Geoffrey champions a highly integrative, cross-functional approach to management, emphasizing that operations management is the critical backbone of any organization. His teaching methods and writings including his recent editions of Operations Management: An Integrated Approach—reflect a commitment to balancing qualitative intuition with rigorous quantitative analysis. He is an active member of professional bodies such as the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM) and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), continuously working to bridge the gap between academic theory and day-to-day practitioner realities.

About The Book

Every time a package arrives at your door in hours, a sleek smartphone is assembled with flawless precision, or a hospital saves a life through perfectly timed teamwork, you are witnessing a symphony in motion. That symphony is Operations Management. It is not just about spreadsheets, supply chains, or factory floors. It is the invisible force that transforms raw, chaotic ideas into the physical reality of the modern world. It is the ultimate bridge between creative vision and execution. Unlock the secrets of operational excellence with Operations Management: An Integrated Approach. This equips future leaders with the essential tools to seamlessly blend strategy, technology, and daily processes across both service and manufacturing sectors. This book provides a solid foundation of the subject with clear, guided instructions and a balance between quantitative and qualitative concepts, thus providing both an applied and practical approach. In addition to leveraging customizable, tactile teaching and learning methods, the text covers emerging topics like artificial intelligence, robotics, data analytics, and sustainability. Operations Management: An Integrated Approach provides an account of the systems, processes, people and technology that determine an organisation's strategy and success. With contributions from leading experts internationally, the text takes a comprehensive, comparative, and best-practice approach and applies this specifically to the Asia-Pacific region. Rigorous in scholarship yet eminently accessible in style, Operations Management is replete with pedagogical features - figures and tables, discussion exercises, 'Learnings from the Internet', and a diversity of long and short case studies from around the world. Students are taken on a seamless journey from the fundamentals of operations management, through to the multiple approaches, the various innovations, challenges and risks, and ultimately to models of sustainability and evaluative tools and techniques. The text effectively prepares future managers across every sector of the economy to lead, organise, plan and control a set of resources, in pursuit of identified goals.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. INTRODUCTION TO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
What Is Operations Management?
Differences Between Manufacturing And Service Organizations
Operations Management Decisions
Today’s OM Environment
Operations Management In Practice
Within OM: How It All Fits Together
OM Across the Organization
2. OPERATIONS STRATEGY AND COMPETITIVENESS
The Role of Operations Strategy
Developing A Business Strategy
Developing An Operations Strategy
Strategic Role of Technology
Productivity
Operations Strategy Within OM: How It All Fits Together
Operations Strategy Across the Organization
3. PRODUCT DESIGN AND PROCESS SELECTION
Product Design
The Product Design Process
Factors Impacting Product Design
Process Selection
Designing Processes
Process Performance Metrics
Linking Product Design And Process Selection
Technology Decisions
Designing Services
Product Design And Process Selection Within OM
4. THE OPERATIONS FUNCTION
Definition of Operations Management
Operations Management In the Not-For-Profit Sector
The Tasks of Operations Managers
The Roots of Operations Management
Manufacturing And Service-Based Organizations
Classifying Operations By Key Environmental Factors
Frameworks For Analysing Operations
5. THE CONTEXT OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Macro And Micro Operating Systems
Internal Influences on the Operations Function
External Influences on the Operations
Function
Operations Management As A Transformation Process
The Strategic Importance of Operations
The Process And Content of Operations Strategy
Decision Areas In Operations Strategy
6. ORGANIZATION OF THE OPERATIONS PROCESS
Objectives of Operations Design
Process Organization
Service Operations
Location
Summary
7. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT OF WORK
Objectives of Work Design
Approaches To Work Design
Role of Automation
Work Measurement
Summary
8. MANAGING PRODUCTIVITY AT WORK
Productivity At Work
Improving Resource Productivity
Productivity In Manufacturing Organizations
Productivity In Service Industries
Critical Issues In Productivity Improvement
Productivity Improvement Techniques
Total Integrated Management
Achieving World-Class Performance
Summary
9. PLANNING AND CONTROL OF WORK: THE MANAGEMENT OF CAPACITY
How Does the Operation Work?
The Meaning of Planning And Control
Capacity Planning And Control
Operations Scheduling
The Complexity of Scheduling
Summary
10. PLANNING AND CONTROL OF WORK: THE MANAGEMENT OF MATERIALS
Introduction
Types of Materials
The Basic Concepts of Materials Systems
The Aims of Materials Management
Performance Measures For Materials Systems
ABC Analysis of Stock
Independent And Dependent Demand
Techniques For Managing Materials In Cases of Independent Demand
Summary
11. SCHEDULING BATCH AND FLOW PROCESSES
The Master Schedule
The Role of Master Scheduling
Rough-Cut Capacity Planning
Optimized Production Technology
Hybrid Systems
Other Aids To Scheduling
Summary
12. PROJECT PLANNING AND CONTROL
The Nature of Project Management
Stages In Project Planning And Control
Project Management Techniques
Summary
13. PURCHASING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
The Importance of Purchasing And Supply
The Interface Between Purchasing And Operations
Purchasing Responsibilities
Purchasing Process
The Purchasing Mix
Supply Chain Management
Supplier Selection
Supplier Relations
Advantages of Partnership
Summary
14. STRATEGIC ISSUES IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
The Operations Environment
The Product/Service Dichotomy
Productivity, Responsiveness And Quality
Social And Environmental Responsibility
Summary
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX