This Introduction to Manufacturing focuses students on the issues that matter to practicing industrial engineers and managers. It offers a systems perspective on designing, managing, and improving manufacturing operations. On each topic, it covers the key issues, with pointers on where to dig deeper.

Unlike the many textbooks on operations management, supply chain management, and process technology, this book weaves together these threads as they interact in manufacturing. It has five parts:

1. Getting to Know Manufacturing: Fundamental concepts of manufacturing as an economic activity, from manufacturing strategy to forecasting market demand
2. Engineering the Factory: Physical design of factories and processes, the necessary infrastructure and technology for manufacturing
3. Making Information Flow: The "central nervous system" that triggers and responds to events occurring in production
4. Making Materials Flow: The logistics of manufacturing, from materials handling inside the factory via warehousing to supply chain management
5. Enhancing Performance: Managing manufacturing performance and methods to maintain and improve it, both in times of normal operations and emergencies

Supported with rich illustrations and teaching aids, Introduction to Manufacturing is essential reading for industrial engineering and management students - of all ages and backgrounds - engaged in the vital task of making the things we all use.

Michel Baudin is the owner of Takt Times Group, USA, a global network of lean consultants.

Torbjörn Netland is Chair of Production and Operations Management at ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

Introduction to Manufacturing Management focuses on the operational and tactical issues related to the engineering and management of manufacturing operations in factories, and the immediate links to suppliers and customers. It provides rich detail on how operations can and should be designed and organized in a factory, and on the management of technology and people.

Divided into four main parts, the book covers planning and design of factories, explaining how to establish the necessary infrastructure and technology for manufacturing, before moving on to planning and control, which includes transport, processing, and storage of materials and goods inside and outside the factory. The third part explains how managers organize, lead, and maintain the factory, while the final part examines innovation activities from problem-solving to strategic improvement programs.

Supported with rich pedagogy to guide the student and provide several opportunities to test their learning, this textbook will be essential reading for students of introductory production management, operations management, and manufacturing management classes.

Preface: A Guided Tour

Part I: Factory Engineering

1. Factory Planning and Design

2. Advanced Manufacturing Technologies

Part II: Logistics and Supply Chain Management

3. Supply Chain Management

4. Production Planning and Control

5. Internal Logistics

6. Warehouse Management

7. Purchasing and Supply Management

Part III: Managing the Factory

8. Organizing Factories

9. Performance Management

10. Quality Management

11. Maintenance

Part IV: Improving the Factory

12. Continuous Improvement and Breakthroughs

13. Problem Solving Methodologies

14. Competence Development

15. Strategic Improvement Programs