«Operations management has strong links with Finance and Sales». The synchronization between the three critical areas of a company must be the framework in which managers should work whenever seeking to improve the margin of the company as well as to maximize the service level provided to the clients. The general objective of this document is therefore to demonstrate and validate the hypothesis of the required equilibrium between the three functional areas. In order to facilitate the explanations of the theoretical bases as well as to make the study enjoyable, the document includes several real case studies that are analysed using traditional measures and graphical tools.
The minimization of intermediate stocks to reduce the financial costs associated with the investments in raw materials, the optimisation of the utilization ratios of the resources to cope with the variability of the demand and the breakdowns of the machines, the definition of cycles and cycle times according to the demand rate ? they are all specific criteria that are addressed in this document since they must drive operations management.
To cover the whole spectrum of business systems and processes, the case studies include both the production of goods and services. The application studies range from project management to batch and line production. The modelling framework is going to be used in all the cases to facilitate the abstraction and the generalization of the operations management principles.

INDEX
1. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
1.1. The functional areas of the company and their relationship
with operations
1.2. The value chain in operations
1.3. The relationship betweeen service level and cost
2. MEASURING AND ANALYSING OPERATIONS
2.1. Case Study I: Production of goods
2.2. Case Study II: Production of services
2.3. Case Study III: Distribution of goods
2.4. The modelling approach
3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OPERATIONS AND SALES
3.1. Quantitative relationship between capacity and demand
3.2. Case Study IV: Capacity design with peaks of demand
4. THE SYNCRONIZATION BETWEEN OPERATIONS, SALES AND FINANCE
4.1. Traditional indicators
4.2. Case Study V: Repetitive Systems
5. APPLICATIONS
5.1. Process types as a function of the demand rate
5.2. Case Study VI: Project
5.3. Case Study VII: Line Production
5.4. Case Study VIII: Batch Production