12 Best Production and Operations Management Books
There are so many different facets of production and operations management books on the market recommended to the professionals. Do you want to improve your operations and save time from reading those boring textbooks? Here we’ll show you 12 best operations management books listed below.
1. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal, a gripping novel, is transforming management thinking throughout the world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry – even to your bosses – but not to your competitors. Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant – or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a professor from student days – Jonah – to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. The story of Alex’s fight to save his plant is more than compulsive reading. It contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas, which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC), developed by Eli Goldratt.
One of Eli Goldratt s convictions was that the goal of an individual or an organization should not be defined in absolute terms. A good definition of a goal is one that sets us on a path of ongoing improvement. Pursuing such a goal necessitates more than one breakthrough. In fact it requires many. To be in a position to identify these breakthroughs we should have a deep understanding of the underlying rules of our environment. So this book is an insightful and enjoyable read. The story will ring true to anyone working in a process that encourages starting an overwhelming quantity of work as deadlines become ever harder to hit.
2. The Toyota Way, Second Edition
The book is a bestselling guide to Toyota’s legendary philosophy and production system―updated with important new frameworks for driving innovation and quality in your business. As one of the most impactful business guides published in the 21st Century, The Toyota Way played an outsized role in launching the continuous-improvement movement that continues unabated today. Multiple Shingo Award-winning management and operations expert Jeffrey K. Liker provides a deep dive into Toyota’s world-changing processes, showing how you can learn from it to develop your own improvement program that fits your conditions. Thanks in large part to this book, managers across the globe are creating workforces and systems that produce the highest-quality products and services, establish and retain customer loyalty, and drive business profitability and sustainability.
Now, Liker has thoroughly updated his classic guide to include more new. He completely revised data and updated information about Toyota’s approach to competitiveness in the new world of mobility and smart technology, and illustrated examples from manufacturing and service organizations that have learned and improved from the Toyota Way. There also a fresh approach to leadership models. You can learn to think scientifically by the brain science and skills.Organized into thematic sections covering the various aspects of the Toyota Way―including Philosophy, Processes, People, and Problem Solving―this unparalleled guide details the 14 key principles for building the foundation of a powerful improvement system and managing it for ultimate competitive advantage. With The Toyota Way, you have an inspiration and a model of how to set a direction, continuously improve and learn at all levels, continually “flow” value to satisfy customers, improve your leadership, and get quality right the first time.
3. Supply Chain Management For Dummies
This book can increase your knowledge of supply chain management and leverage it properly for your business. If you own or make decisions for a business, you need to master the critical concept of supply chain management. The book will guide you to an understanding of what a supply chain is and how to leverage this system effectively across your business, no matter its size or industry.
The book has lots of benefits for you. It helps you learn about the areas of business that make up a supply chain, from procurement to operations to distribution. And it explains the importance of supporting functions like sales, information technology, and human resources. You’ll be prepared to align the parts of this system to meet the needs of customers, suppliers, and shareholders. By viewing the company as a supply chain, you’ll be able to make decisions based on how they will affect every part of the chain. This book also helps you see your business as a unified system where all the elements need to be aligned for success. It explains supply chain management from a variety of perspectives so you can understand what it is, why it matters, and how to leverage it in all areas of your organization. Here’s knowledge that will help your business thrive!
4. The Phoenix Project
In this newly updated and expanded edition of the bestselling The Phoenix Project, co-author Gene Kim includes a new afterword and a deeper delve into the Three Ways as described in The DevOps Handbook. Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, has been tasked with taking on a project critical to the future of the business, code named Phoenix Project. But the project is massively over budget and behind schedule. The CEO demands Bill must fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill’s entire department will be outsourced.
With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of The Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with a manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined. With the clock ticking, Bill must organize work flow streamline interdepartmental communications, and effectively serve the other business functions at Parts Unlimited. In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. Readers will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations, they’ll never view IT the same way again.
Every person involved in a failed IT project should be forced to read this book. The Phoenix Project is a must read for business and IT executives who are struggling with the growing complexity of IT. The book is a gripping read that captures brilliantly the dilemmas that face companies which depend on IT, and offers real-world solutions.
5. Working Backwards
Working Backwards is an insider’s breakdown of Amazon’s approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time Amazon executives―with lessons and techniques you can apply to your own company, and career, right now. In this book, two long-serving Amazon executives reveal the principles and practices that have driven the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known. With twenty-seven years of Amazon experience between them―much of it during the period of unmatched innovation that created products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services―Bryar and Carr offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was developed and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable.
Working Backwards is both a practical guidebook and the story of how the company grew to become so successful. It is filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how their time at the company affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices―shared here for the very first time. Whatever your talent, career or organization might be, find out how you can put Working Backwards to work for you.
6. The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager
“Nobody asked you to show up.” Every experienced product manager has heard some version of those words at some point in their career. Think about a company. Engineers build the product. Designers make sure it has a great user experience and looks good. Marketing makes sure customers know about the product. Sales get potential customers to open their wallets to buy the product. What more does a company need? What does a product manager do? Based upon Product School’s curriculum, which has helped thousands of students become great product managers, The Product Book answers that question. Filled with practical advice, best practices, and expert tips, which can help you to succeed!
This book provides a detailed structure on how to approach your product. It also opens the door to many other important books through its references. The book is recommended for those who want a thorough understanding of what a product manager does. Yes, it mentions a lot of other books. When you work as a product manager, you read a lot of other books. This is actually a great place to find books on what topics you need to become a great product manager.
7. Operations and Supply Chain Management Essentials You Always Wanted to Know
This useful guide uses a hypothetical company and the consumer product they make, to explain how the various functions within the Supply Chain intertwine to bring a finished product to life for consumers in the market. You will understand the story of how new demands, changing preferences, and unforeseen circumstances force this fictional company to adapt in order to survive. Through this book, you will understand and appreciate how these activities, including logistics and warehouse management, make everyday products and services available at our disposal – and why this is increasingly important for companies to pay attention to. The simple format and non-technical language of this book will attract even laypersons looking for a quick, comprehensive overview of supply chain management.
It is an in-depth book, which does more than explain the concepts. McDonough takes an example of the production of pairs of scissors through Planning, Control Systems, Procurement, Purchasing, Sourcing, and Manufacturing. There is wonderful continuity told in plain language while bringing us through an example from the first phase through logistics. Each concept is easily explained in non-technical language. The specific examples bring the concepts to life. One caution―this is not a quick read. To fully understand and appreciate it, the reader needs to pay close attention to how the examples illustrate each section. It is a valuable book for anyone interested in first learning the concepts and also for those wanting an overview as well as explanations of specific concepts. It is excellent in its use of an example, specifically following a pair of scissors from start to finish. This makes it much easily understood by the reader.
It is a practical understanding of the dynamic, expanding, and evolving Supply Chains that make our daily lives possible. Have you ever wondered what your peers meant by “Supply Chain” or “Operations”, or why either of these fields matter? What about people that work in these roles – what do they actually do? In Operations and Supply Chain Management Essentials, these questions and more will be answered.
8. Product Roadmaps Relaunched
This book is written for product people. If you’re wondering if that’s you, we’re referring to the individual or individuals responsible for developing, prioritizing, and rallying support for the development of a product or service. This role has been compared to a mini CEO, but we think that overstates the level of control most product people have. In addition, this book to be useful for product people of all experience levels. Whether you’re a product newbie, a seasoned veteran, or a senior leader responsible for a range of products (or a team of product people), we believe the approach we describe here will help you and your team communicate product direction effectively.
A good product roadmap is one of the most important and influential documents an organization can develop, publish, and continuously update. In fact, this one document can steer an entire organization when it comes to delivering on company strategy. This practical guide teaches you how to create an effective product roadmap, and demonstrates how to use the roadmap to align stakeholders and prioritize ideas and requests. With it, you’ll learn to communicate how your products will make your customers and organization successful.
9. The Lean Product Playbook
The Lean Product Playbook is a practical guide to building products that customers love. Whether you work at a startup or a large, established company, we all know that building great products is hard. Most new products fail. This book helps improve your chances of building successful products through clear, step-by-step guidance and advice. The Lean Startup movement has contributed new and valuable ideas about product development and has generated lots of excitement. However, many companies have yet to successfully adopt Lean thinking. Despite their enthusiasm and familiarity with the high-level concepts, many teams run into challenges trying to adopt Lean because they feel like they lack specific guidance on what exactly they should be doing.
If you are interested in Lean Startup principles and want to apply them to develop winning products, this book is for you. This book describes the Lean Product Process: a repeatable, easy-to-follow methodology for iterating your way to product-market fit. It is a simple and powerful manual for understanding and establishing product market fit for your new product or service. If you want to create successful, innovative products that customers love, Dan’s playbook is a must-read.
10. The Machine That Changed the World
This management classic was the first book to reveal Toyota’s lean production system that is the basis for its enduring success. Authors Womack provided a comprehensive description of the entire lean system. They exhaustively documented its advantages over the mass production model pioneered by General Motors and predicted that lean production would eventually triumph. Indeed, they argued that it would triumph not just in manufacturing but in every value-creating activity from health care to retail to distribution.
Today, this book provides enduring and essential guidance for managers and leaders in every industry seeking to transform traditional businesses into models of lean success. It is the classic, nationally bestselling book that first articulated the principles of lean production with a new foreword and afterword by the authors.
11. The COMPLETE BOOK of Product Design, Development, Manufacturing, and Sales
In this book, Steven Selikoff gives Inventors another path to success besides licensing. The book follows a step-by-step process through product evaluation, customer validation, industrial design, manufacturing, Chinese IP protection, quality assurance, marketing and sales. It is about real sales to retailers, not just e-commerce. For beginners who are new to developing products and selling them – For experienced product developers looking to remove risks and fill in knowledge gaps – For inventors with new products seeking information on validation, manufacturing and sales channels – For Amazon Sellers looking to take the next step, to introduce unique products, grow into retailers, and expand their business. Complete step-by-step instructions on how to identify unique winning products, validate customer demand, ensure profitability, design and engineer your product, identify factories, negotiate effectively, manage shipping & logistics, and generate sales across.
If you feel like you have ecommerce figured out, you can have a try. This book alone shows you all of the steps you need to come up with a product idea, and bring it to market while removing as much risk as possible, and getting your product into the shelves of all types of sizes of retailers. Whether your product fits small boutiques or big box retail stores this is surely a skill you learn and take with you the rest of your life.
12. Gemba Kaizen
It is a definitive, fully up-to-date guide to continuous improvement in the workplace. An updated version of a classic book shares a wealth of new healthcare examples and case studies from around the world. The methods in this book will help you improve quality and safety, reduce waiting times, and improve the long-term financial position of your organization. This famous book not only describes all the tools necessary for any type of business to implement a lean strategy but also includes a large number of excellent case studies.
The book focuses on the process, refining the process and applying definition to the whole idea of constant improvement. Not a sexy title about innovation and discovery but a wonderful volume about how to do things well, using common sense and proven techniques. Anyone in a manufacturing business, including sales, customer service and hourly workers will benefit if the precepts are followed. It is indispensable for problem solving, project management, matrix management and overall quality improvement. It will totally run a manufacturing company and do it on a world class level.
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