Content area
Full Text
E-commerce Operations Management Marc J. Schneiderjans and Qing Cao World Scientific New Jersey 2002 ISBN 981-238-016-7 (paperback) Review DOI 10.1108/14626000310489844
This is the book that unites both operations management and e-commerce. It is a comprehensive text on operations management that ensures that e-commerce is fully integrated into the organisation. The topics of each chapter could easily be lifted from any operations management text, but with e-commerce as its focus. For example, there are chapters on critical success factors, product and process design and management, quality, supply chain management, purchasing, forecasting and scheduling, inventory management, human resource management and business process re-engineering.
The whole book is very well written and constantly refers back to the academic literature. There is an awful lot one could learn from this text both as a student and as a lecturer. The learning objectives for each chapter are presented followed by an overview of the chapter. Each chapter is carefully structured, has excellent diagrams and tables, provides a list of review terms, discussion questions and potential examination questions and references. There is a logical flow of information throughout each chapter and the reader rapidly develops a clear understanding of the topic. Each chapter has a comprehensive and carefully prepared list of references that would be easy to follow-up and extend one's reading on the topic. Most of the references are very recent, making this text as up to date as possible given the rapidly changing business environment in which e-commerce is developing.
The text concerns itself with e-commerce (transactional activity only, using a Web site) rather than the e-business approach (integrated systems within the company). However, some chapters start with a description of the operations management issues and concepts first, then go on to examine the requirements for e-commerce and the effect of e-commerce on the...