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Most Western countries are demonstrating a trend in the public and private sector away from traditional manufacturing operations. This has resulted in customer‐led pressure for Production/Operations Management teachers to give service operations equal time with manufacturing. Service industries have the same operating issues as manufacturing but for effective teaching two aspects must be considered. The first is the context of service operations and the second is those differences that do exist between manufacturing and services. A teaching strategy is proposed. This emphasises the use of service cases and examples to illustrate the application of operations management approaches; an understanding of the key contextual differences in the service environment; and the development of electives focusing on specific service features in operations management. Examples from undergraduate and postgraduate teaching are given.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

Number of disastrous events are rising globally, and it is important to manage the humanitarian supply chain management process to assist the disaster affected individuals in terms of relief operations. Effective relief operations can help to recover the materialistic loss due to any disaster. But there is a paucity of studies regarding this issue for developing countries. This study, hence, inspected the factors that affect the disaster supply chain management (DSCM) processes for relief operations in Bangladesh.

This study examined the factors affecting relief operations through a qualitative analysis. This study used thematic analysis. Interviews were conducted with related supply chain individuals who were triangulated by data from related publications and blogs.

The study showed that sustainable DSCM for relief operations in Bangladesh require addressing few factors as organizational capabilities, warehousing locations and inventory management, infrastructure facility, coordination among partners, government and local authority support to create a transparent, efficient, effective and sustainable DSCM process for relief operations in Bangladesh. The system loopholes can be identified and rectified on the base of these factors.

The number of interview respondents was limited to twenty who were selected randomly from four organizations. To create a sustainable disaster supply chain management (SCM) for relief operations few factors were considered as predominant factors in Bangladesh context to generalize the developing country contexts and other factors were not considered. Therefore, for farther humanitarian research, the model of this study can be used for quantitative research and the hypotheses can be tested empirically to get more acute findings.

As this study identifies the factors which can help to create a sustainable DSCM system for relief operations, hence practically, Bangladesh humanitarian SCM agencies will be beneficial from this study. They can easily recognize the factors need to be considered to create a sustainable DSCM process for relief operations.

This is a unique study carried out to examine the factors affecting DSCM process for relief operations in Bangladesh.

The purpose is to provide an intellectual history of Operations Management, particularly noting recent developments and its underlying continuity with earlier systems and thinking. Operations Management as a discipline identifies its “modern” incarnation as dating from the 1960s when it became more rigorous and managerially focused. This re-invention constructed a “narrative” that the profession still follows, yet a critical perspective reveals significant, though under-appreciated continuity with earlier theory and practice.

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review and comparative analysis of historic developments in management and academia.

In the early 1900s, F. W. Taylor’s Shop Management established Operation Management, but its main component, Scientific Management, had stagnated by the 1950s. At that point, the rise of Management Science both reinvigorated Operations Management and threatened it with a competing new discipline. To compete Operations Management then modernized by redefining itself, reasserting its interest in several areas and co-opting Operational Research tools for those. It also contracted, withdrawing from areas considered vocational, or more suited to Industrial Engineering.

This historical overview shows the critical importance of drawing research agenda from practical managerial concerns.

Practitioners benefit from the intellectual rigor that academics provide and a historical perspective shows that the relationship has been mutually beneficial.

The disciplines of Operations Management, Operations Research and Industrial Engineering are complementary and competitive in addressing many problems that transcend their boundaries, and use common ideas and techniques. The demands of “academic rigor” have had a deleterious effect on the practical managerial relevance of these disciplines.

A long-term, cross-disciplinary perspective provides a unique understanding of the research interests and practical orientations of these disciplines.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a firm boundary perspective of operations strategy linking strategic management and business process management.

Relevant operations strategy, business process management and boundary perspective literature is reviewed and critically assessed in order to advance a firm boundary-based approach to operations strategy. Within this perspective, a multi-disciplinary and cross-functional framework is provided with the objective of supporting the process of operations strategy formulation and implementation.

The boundary perspective has the potential to inform a wide range of operations strategies. Strategic management of operations should be increasingly based on boundary operations. The proposed framework clarifies that the adoption of a spanning boundary perspective should improve the operations strategy process and content.

This paper offers implications of interest to managers, noting that the adoption of a new perspective in operations strategy should contribute to innovation in operations strategy development and implementation. Specifically, the framework suggests models and tools useful to support the spanning boundary perspective.

This paper allows operations and process management scholars to focus on key phenomena, such as boundary management. At the same time, the framework responds to the needs of managers who are engaged in operations management for a new perspective that can assist in the strategic management of operations.

This study explores the critical success factors (CSFs) in humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) by focussing on flood disaster management (FDM) in Ghana.

An in-depth semi-structured interview and questionnaire surveys in a sequential data collection approach were used to collect data from definitive stakeholders of humanitarian organisations. The data was analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques.

Seventy-four factors were identified as success factors of HSCM of flood disaster management. However, 41 of these factors were statistically significant and considered as critical. In descending order, these factors relate to management practices, education and training, stakeholder involvement and cooperation, infrastructure, innovation and technology, materials and resources, administrative practices, socio-cultural and economic. Whilst some factors are internal to the humanitarian organisations, others are external factors that are beyond the control of humanitarian organisations.

Even though this study offers empirical results that could guide policymakers in their decision-making about humanitarian operations, care needs to be taken since the data is within one country and within a specific disaster context – hence, policymakers need to consider the local contextual dynamics. Future studies could look at different disasters context to make a comparative analysis of various types of disaster operations.

Institutions such as World Health Organization, Red Cross organisations and UN seeking to curbs global-warming-related disasters and the reduction of the effects of flood disaster can use findings as a guide during the formulation of HSCM policies and strategies.

Unlike previous studies of humanitarian operations that focussed extensively on theoretical expositions, simulations, conceptual frameworks and models, this present study offers empirical evidence of humanitarian operations in the context of SCM. Further, by highlighting on the HSCM CSFs, this study contributes to disaster reduction and their effects on humanity in the context of FDM. This research could be used as guide by governments and FDM organisations to make informed decisions on SCM areas to focus the most during FDM.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the coverage of identified topics that represent three key themes of change in management practice. These themes, focused on the new interconnected modern business operation, consist of: cross‐functional or process‐based working, supply networks, and systems thinking. The paper seeks to examine the coverage of these themes in operations journals as a proxy to determine how well the academic operations community is adapting to the interconnected business world.

Two separate lists compiled to rank the quality of operations journals (one based in the UK, the other in the USA) are used to structure a search for keywords representing the identified connectivity themes in the identified “top” leading operations journals to determine how well the different topics are covered. The term “operations” is intended to refer to the related specialities of both operations management and operations research.

Findings indicate overall very weak coverage of the three connectivity topics. Systems thinking was best represented. However, this representation was not in operations management journals but predominantly operations research sources. Both supply network and cross‐functional working were poorly represented as topics more generally. The implication of the findings is that the operations literature has yet to embrace key issues of connectivity and greater attention should therefore be paid to these areas to better inform business practice.

To the best of one's knowledge no such study of this type or breadth has been previously conducted.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which notions of space, constituted by management accounting and operations, interact, conflict and are understood by operations managers in a variety of situations within the context of iron ore mining. The authors address a dual question: How do accounting space and production space relate to each other? And what does it mean for operations managers to reside in both those spaces at once?

The paper is based on field studies at a mining company involving operations managers who experience tensions between accounting and production responsibilities and must prioritize between different courses of action to create value.

In contrast to the view that management accounting poses a problem for operations managers in production environments, the authors show how especially discursive tensions foster reflection and choice. Operations managers prioritize their actions in accordance with management accounting or operations based on how they experience and reflect upon the tensions they encounter, dominating artifacts and their experienced relation to space. Operations managers are not tied to specific spaces, but they prioritize their responsibility to management accounting or operations depending on the space to which they feel a sense of belongingness.

Drawing upon a conceptualization of tensions between management accounting and operations as a spatial phenomenon, it is possible to understand the dilemmas experienced by operations managers in a dynamic and relational way. The authors propose that viewing tensions between management accounting and production as spatial phenomena enables a novel understanding of how such tensions can create reflexivity in responsibility with operations managers.