'Strategic Operations Management' examines the latest thinking in this fast-moving area. Businesses constantly face ongoing and increased amounts of competition. Coping with this competition demands that strategies must be already in place which can deal with key questions such as: * what business is the firm really in? * what does the firm do best, and why, where, and how can it outsource some of its activities? * how can opportunities become quickly exploited and how can the firm's capabilities help to ward off external threats from new and existing players? This text believes that successful operations management depends on having strategies in place which combine both manufacturing and service areas into an overall customer offering. This means that strategic relations must be established with other players - operations management is no longer a firm-specific matter. 'Strategic Operations Management' combines four themes; strategy, services, innovation and management of relationships both in the supply chain and with other players. This is done by dividing chapters into a past/present/future scenario approach which illustrates how these strategies affect business.