1. Society provides goods and services to satisfy individual or collective needs and wants. Operations use capital and human knowledge to transform materials and services into products; these products can either be tangible (goods) or intangible (services). The essence of operations management is managing the conversion of inputs into outputs.

2. By systematizing operations, and by conducting training in the use of equipment, management makes it possible for employees to become skilled in their jobs; the productivity and efficiency of the system, and the quality and reliability of products are enhanced by supplementing training with incentives for doing good work.

3. Operations management designs the system and controls it; this includes arranging facilities, scheduling tasks, developing procedures for inventory acquisition and turnover, as well as providing corrective actions to insure that changes are made whenever it is necessary to do so.

4. Operations systems can be classified in a variety of ways: degree of standardization; type, such as physical, storage, transportation, exchange; entertainment or communication; and manufacturing vs. service. In general manufacturing produces material goods that require a distribution system to get them into the hands of consumers, while service industries tend to deal directly with consumers.

5. Studying the historical evolution of production/operations management gives us an appreciation of how the current state of operations management developed, and some of the key elements of that development, such as interchangeable parts and the division oflabor. It may also provide insight into future developments in the field.

6. An important new approach to production of manufactured goods is lean production. It gets its name from the fact that it requires less inventory, time, and other resources than mass production. The evolution of manufacturing began with craft production, where skilled workers using general-purpose tools produced custom-made goods. This was supplanted by mass production in the early 1900s. In contrast to craft production, production workers were generally low-skill, machines were specialized, and jobs became narrow. Specialization and division of labor were key concepts. Costs decreased while quality and productivity increased. Mass production is starting to give way in some industries to lean production. Lean production has the advantage of greater flexibility than mass production, and can usually achieve higher quality than mass production.

7. There are quite a few current issues that have an impact on operations management, and hence, issues that operations managers (and other managers) must contend with. These issues include globalization, quality and process improvement, technology, environmental issues, downsizing, supply chain management, and a new emphasis on operations strategy. Two recent issues are having a major impact: supply chain management and the internet.

8. Operations managers, like all managers and professionals, have an obligation to make ethical decisions. They must consider the impact of their decisions on their company, on the workers, on the customers, and on the environment. They must know and obey the laws pertaining to their operations.

9. Models, which are abstractions of reality, are used throughout the book to enhance understanding of important concepts, and they are used by managers to manage operations. Models include words, symbols, graphs, equations, and pictures.