This book attempts a conceptual and holistic approach to the cognitive subject of Production Management at an introductory level.

The text is structured into three main parts: The first part aims to acquaint the reader with the physical/functional production system by presenting the different types of production processes and their relationships with the characteristics of products and markets. The presentation of various approaches to the spatial arrangement of processes that follows helps further in understanding the physical production system and the design-related decisions associated with it.

The second part aims at understanding the managerial decisions of planning and controlling production and their relationships with the overall strategy of the enterprise. The entire process of planning and control is presented, along with some key concepts of inventory management as well as MRP, JIT, and OPT not as production control systems, but as comprehensive solutions to the problem of production management at the operational level. The key concepts of reliability and maintenance frame this section.

The third part initially serves as an introduction to performance measurement systems as a fundamental element of the production improvement process and as a decisive factor in integrating production into the overall strategy of the enterprise. The last chapter of the book presents concepts and principles of human resource management in the factory.