I live convenient to the University of Minnesota, a world-class research institution. The MIS program at the Carlson School of Management was top ranked for years, before IT became big money. Carlson is also home to the Juran Center.
Last week I dropped by the bookstore in Coffman Union (I always find campus visits refreshing)...
...and picked up Operations Management: Contemporary Concepts and Cases, by Roger G. Schroeder. My objective: to read this modern, introductory text used by the Carlson School of Management and apply its principles to the question of large scale IT infrastructure management ("MRP for IT"). Why did I choose this book? Because 1) it looked good, 2) it was convenient, and 3) the author's office is a mile from my house and I can go knock on his door if I need to (I think).
After some online research, l also picked up Manufacturing Planning & Control Systems for Supply Chain Management: The Definitive Guide for Professionals, Fifth Edition, by Thomas E. Vollmann et al. This book is a preparatory text for APICS certification. It also led me to an older work, Production and Inventory Management by Fogarty et al, which I got used for $4.
The Goal of course is a notable manufacturing novel. But what underlies it? What is the actual Theory of Constraints? I am hoping that Breaking the Constraints to World-Class Performance by H. William Dettmer will give me further understanding in this area.
A couple years back, I picked up Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning by George Plossl; this was back when I was just getting my head around ERP for IT and I wanted the earliest material I could find. This still appears to be a highly regarded work.
Finally, just for fun, I picked up another manufacturing novel: All I Need to Know about Manufacturing I Learned in Joe's Garage, by Miller & Schenk.
Anything else I should be reading?
-ctb
