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MANAGING PROJECTS

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Projects represent nonroutine business activities that often have long-term strategic ramifications for a firm. In this chapter, we examined how projects differ from routine business activities and discussed the major phases of projects. We noted how environmental changes have resulted in increased attention being paid to projects and project management over the past decade. In the second half of the chapter, we introduced some basic tools that businesses can use when planning for and controlling projects. Both Gantt charts and network diagrams give managers a visual picture of how a project is going. Network diagrams have the added advantage of showing the precedence between activities, as well as the critical path(s). We wrapped up the chapter by showing how these concepts are embedded in inexpensive yet powerful software packages such as Microsoft Project. If you want to learn more about project management, we encourage you to take a look at the Web site for the Proj...
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OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES

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The operations and supply chain areas are important providers of value in any organization. To ensure that managers make sound operations and supply chain decisions, firms must develop strategies for these functions that are tied to the overall business strategy. This chapter has presented a top-down model of the strategic planning process, with particular attention to the concepts of value, competitive advantage, and core competency. In the second half of the chapter, we defined the major operations and supply chain decision variables, outlined the four generic performance dimensions (quality, time, flexibility, and cost), and discussed the need to make trade-offs between these key dimensions. We showed how order winner and order qualifier information can help managers understand exactly what their customers demand, so they can make trade-offs in a logical fashion. We ended the chapter with a discussion of the four stages of alignment in operations and supply chain strategy, sho...
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INTRODUCTION to OPERATIONS and SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

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Operations and supply chains are pervasive in business. Every organization must provide a product or service that someone values. This is the primary responsibility of the operations function. Furthermore, most organizations do not function independently but find that their activities are linked with those of other organizations through supply chains. Careful management of operations and supply chains is, therefore, vital to the long-term health of nearly every organization. Because operations and supply chain activities cover everything from planning and control activities to sourcing and logistics, there are numerous career opportunities for students interested in the area. Trends in e-commerce and global competition, as well as the growing importance of maintaining good relationships with other supply chain partners, will only increase these opportunities. Fortunately, there are many professional organizations, including APICS, CSCMP, and ISM, that cater to the career development ...
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