INTRODUCTION: SHAPING THE FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE OPERATIONS

The challenges and opportunities in production and operations management (POM) are almost unlimited because in the world economy, manufacturing andservice operations account for more than 10 trillion dollars per year and in any single industry, the performance varies widely from country to country and from organization to organization. The goal of Production and Operations Management is to contribute to improving the management of manufacturing and service operations all over the world. The editors and reviewers judge the papers published in the journal for their contribution to improving of business practices and to further closeness between research and practice. The journal will publish high quality papers on a broad range of topics in POM, and it encourages all paradigms, old and new. We also invite managers from around the world to describe specific POM problems that provide challenging opportunities for academic research.     

PARTIAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: AN ESSAY

A serious gap is emerging between what is espoused as total quality management and what is actually being implemented. Examples of actual implementation failures are given. In addition to affecting the offending firms, these gaps threaten the viability of the quality management movement in the United States. Their causes and appropriate counter measures are worthy topics for research.     

LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: AN ADVANCED DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR THE FOURTH DECISION TIER DISPATCH OR SHORT-INTERVAL SCHEDULING

The Logistics Management System (LMS) is a real-time transaction-based system combining decision technologies from AI, MS/OR, and decision support system that serves very successfully as a dispatcher or short-interval scheduler by monitoring and controlling the manufacturing flow of IBM's semiconductor facility near Burlington, Vermont. LMS coordinates the actions and decisions of several logically isolated participants in a serially dependent system of activities. Therefore, it balances the requirements of several goals (cycle time, output, serviceability, and inventory management) that compete for the same resource, exploits emerging opportunities on the manufacturing floor, and reduces the distortion from unplanned events. This paper provides an overview of the LMS application, the concept of interrelated decision tiers in manufacturing decision making, and the need for the dispatch decision tier to successfully reduce apparent randomness. Historically, production and operations management has ignored this decision tier. This has significantly limited our ability to make an impact on the performance of the manufacturing operation.     

MANAGING PRODUCT VARIETY: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW AND RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Variety management has emerged as a crucial dimension of successful business practice. In this paper, I first provide a framework for managerial decisions about variety. Variety‐creation decisions determine the amount, type, and timing of end‐product variety, while variety‐implementation decisions focus on the design and operation of internal processes and a supply chain to support a firm's variety‐creation strategy. I organize variety‐related decisions into four key decision themes in variety creation: 1) dimensions of variety, 2) product architecture, 3) degree of customization, and 4) timing; and three key decision themes in variety implementation: 1) process capabilities, 2) points of variegation, and 3) day‐to‐day decisions. I describe each theme and review the relevant literature on each theme, with a focus on research that provides insight to problems faced in practice. Finally, I identify untapped avenues for future research that would be of value to the practicing manager, paying special attention to interdependencies among decision themes.