An authoritative introduction to the operations function within business. Whether it is a pair of jeans, a midday snack, a live concert, a haircut, a PC or a hospital check-up, operations is central to its provision. Throughout, this textbook clearly explains the breadth of tasks and range of management skills involved, whilst placing the subject within the wider business organization, highlighting the strategic contribution of the operations function. Adopting a managerial approach to the subject, Hill's book is particularly suitable for MBA and post experience students who do not require such a "tools and techniques" approach to the subject. Up-to-date, and with an international flavour throughout, the text makes use of numerous real-world illustrations and case vignettes. In addition, to reflect the growth of the service sector, it provides a balance between service and manufacturing material. Concluding with over 20 extended case studies from both the manufacturing and service sectors, plus numerous end-of-chapter discussion questions, this should be useful reading for students taking operations management courses. The following supporting materials are freely available to adoptors of the text: Instructors Manual - the author has written an accompanying lecturer's manual providing detailed notes on how to teach the long case studies, making it suitable for seminar and project work, and answers to the end-of-chapter questions in the text; Data Disk - data from the book is available on disk (or intranet version), allowing the students to simulate the data in the text.