TITLE : BASIC PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT. 2ND ED.*

Basic Production Management bears a close relationship to my previous book, Modern Production Management, now in its fourth edition, Wiley, 1973. The present volume has been prepared in response to an expressed need in many undergraduate colleges for a book with the basic orientation of Modern Production Management, but abridged in both length and complexity of materials. The production management course in many such situations must take account of the fact that statistical and mathematical materials are covered elsewhere in the curriculum and that the production course is normally limited to one semester or quarter. Thus, the need for a more compact volume focused on the application of the most up-to-date concepts.

Achieving the Objective of a More Compact Volume

Substantial portions of Modern Production Management have been eliminated entirely for various reasons. The first priority was to subject every chapter and major section to scrutiny in terms of essential need in a basic text. The chapter on maintenance fell to the ax since it was felt to be a highly specialized topic, though clearly a common problem for production managers. The chapter on wages and labor costs met a similar fate, though for a different reason, the topic is commonly covered in other courses central to industrial relations, though from a different viewpoint. In addition materials in every other chapter were eliminated if they could not stand these kinds of tests.

Achieving the Objective of Less Complex Materials

The second priority was to reconsider the need for coverage in the production management course of the more detailed mathematical materials such as linear programming and waiting lines. It was decided that the concepts were crucial to a present day understanding of production management, but that the details of these methods were normally covered in other courses. Thus, the emphasis has been placed on the managerial use of these important models and on the results of these kinds of analyses. In maintaining the focus on concepts rather than embellishment, changes were effected in many places in the manuscript. For example, Chapter 4 in this volume on Analytical Methods in Production and Operations Management deals with the general concepts of mathematical techniques like linear programming, waiting line analysis, and simulation, and on the ability and use of these methods in the analysis of production systems. But, the more detailed development of the supporting mathematical techniques themselves are not covered. Throughout the balance of the book references to the applicability and use of these kinds of methods are also retained. Similarly our coverage of exponential smoothing in Chapter 14 on Forecasting and Inventories has been altered to minimize the more complex models. We present the single exponential smoothing model and explain its workings, showing how the simpler model applies when trend and seasonal effects are included, since the basic principles of the single exponential model can be applied direct]y to the more complex situations.

Study Materials

Basic Production Management is not only a product of the abridgement of its mother volume. Substantial additions to the manuscript have been made to help the student to master each chapter more easily and effectively. An outline has been placed at the opening of each chapter to help orient the reader to what will be covered. At the end of each chapter there are lists of the main terms used, review questions, self-test true-false questions, (all with page references), and problems. The page references are meant to turn the student back into the chapter materials to help him see the point in context if he is uncertain. Answers to the true-false questions are listed in Appendix C. The chapter end problems have always seemed to help students clarify their understanding of some of the concepts covered. In this volume we have favored problems which involve fairly direct illustration of concepts rather than more complex problems.

Organization and Purpse of the Book

The development of knowledge in the production management field has been extremely rapid. It is important that the reading material available to college survey courses reflect the new conceptual framework and the increased depth of subject matter which represents current thinking. In preparing this book, I have adopted a general outline which I believe malies possible the inclusion of much of the new material in a way that is comprehensible without placing heavy emphasis on quantitative skills. The four-part outline (Introduction, Analytical Methods in Production Management, Design of the Production System, and Operation and Control of Production Systems) introduces an orientation to appropriate analytical methods early in the book, so that the broad problem areas of system design, operation, and control can be based on the analytical methods. In this framework, I believe that it has been possible for me to write the sections of the book which deal with the problem areas of production without great dis- tortion or oversimplification of the new material that comes to us from management science, industrial engineering, and operations research.

In the introductory sections of the book I recognize a broader definition of production than has been applied in comparable books in the past, although, throughout the remainder of the book the factory model is predominant. I believe that this broader definition, which recognizes that production concepts are pervasive, is of considerable importance for the future. Our society has developed significant production systems in many kinds of activities, for example, hospitals, supermarkets, retail stores, and offices. Production really deals with the "operations" phase of any activity regardless of its setting. The development of courses in this general field is now reflecting, and perhaps should reflect even more, that the general principles of production are applicable in all of these situations. The field of production management continues to shift in the direction of a more analytical approach based on the continued development of management science in general. The problems with which we deal are found in many settings other than manufacturing, as we have noted, and activities outside manufacturing interact with the manufacturing function. For example, inventories in warehouse and distribution systems have a bearing on problems of programming production upstream. The recognition of this fact is forcing the adoption of the broader "systems" point of view discussed in this book.

Finally, this book concentrates on the economics of production. In so doing it takes into account the fact that the student has probably already had a course in Introduction to Business, or a course in General Management or Supervision. Instead of attempting to cover a wide variety of topics from the viewpoint of the production manager we have recognized the existence of other important spe cialized areas, such as organization and general management, personnel, human relations, and industrial relations. The production course can recognize these topic fields best by assuming their coverage elsewhere in the curriculum, thus allowing a more adequate coverage of the truly "hard-core" production concepts.

Elwood S. Buffa Pacific Palisades, California January 1975