Lean thinking, as well as associated processes and tools, have involved into a ubiquitous perspective for improving systems particularly in the manufacturing arena. With application experience has come an understanding of the boundaries of lean capabilities and the benefits of getting beyond these boundaries to further improve performance. Discrete event simulation is recognized as one beyond-the-boundaries of lean technique. Thus, the fundamental goal of this text is to show how discrete event simulation can be used in addition to lean thinking to achieve greater benefits in system improvement than with lean alone. Realizing this goal requires learning the problems that simulation solves as well as the methods required to solve them. The problems that simulation solves are captured in a collection of case studies. These studies serve as metaphors for industrial problems that are commonly addressed using lean and simulation.

Students in an introductory Management Information Systems (MIS) course often ask what a career in MIS looks like. Lacking a clear vision, they make their own assumptions. Often they assume the career involves programming with little human interaction. That MIS is a technical field could not be further from the truth. MIS job descriptions typically require candidates to be able to collaborate, communicate, analyze needs and gather requirements. They also list the need for excellent written and communication skills. In other words, MIS workers are constantly interacting with other people both inside and outside the organization. They are coming up with creative solutions to business problems.

This course is designed to help students get a feel for what a career in MIS would be like. Our students report that they learn more about information systems from their internships than from their IS courses. Consequently, we designed a course that looks very much like an internship—an introduction to the field followed by a substantial project.

Continuous Improvement in Action

Short Description:
This is a multimedia-enabled case in which students will be guided, by an industry expert, to apply structured problem-solving that addresses a typical supply chain problem, missing parts. What first appears as the issue may be a symptom of a root cause(s). The case utilizes videos, data files for analytics, audio recording, and videogame-style exercises to find the missing box of parts. The case is a collaboration between the Conestoga Centre for Supply Chain Innovation and ATS Automation and utilizes the ATS Business Model (ABM) approach to identifying and solving root causes. The case can be used in any Continuous Improvement course or program for either Business or Engineering students.

Long Description:
This is a multimedia-enabled case in which students will be guided, by an industry expert, to apply structured problem-solving that addresses a typical supply chain problem, missing parts. What first appears as the issue may be a symptom of a root cause(s). The case utilizes videos, data files for analytics, audio recording, and videogame-style exercises to find the missing box of parts. The case is a collaboration between the Conestoga Centre for Supply Chain Innovation and ATS Automation and utilizes the ATS Business Model (ABM) approach to identifying and solving root causes. The case can be used in any Continuous Improvement course or program for either Business or Engineering students.

Word Count: 5680

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Short Description:
This book provides mini-cases for HRD and other disciplines to use for engaging students in incident discussions. Exploring ways to solve problems and make decisions about situations that occur at work.

Long Description:
This book is intended to be used as a supplement to courses across various fields of study but has direct correlations with human resource development and workforce development. Instructors in any field of study where students examine the work environment and the treatment of employees will find useful scenarios that can be used to facilitate discussions. The topics in this book and supplemental readings can enrich the conversations around enhancing workplace environments and better worker engagement. Without supportive workers, organizations cannot achieve all goals to the extent desired. Workers may exert the effort required to keep their jobs, but they may not exceed performance requirements because they are experiencing scenarios similar to those in this book and their needs are not being met appropriately.

Leaders and workplace trainers may find this supplement useful when introducing subjects that are perceived to be controversial in the workplace. They can allow employees to discuss these scenarios and provide possible solutions to similar scenarios that are encountered at work. Providing a safe environment to discuss intentional and unintentional situations that arise may improve the work climate and lead to unimaginable solutions. Strengthening communication between workers and leaders can improve team performance and ultimately, organizational success.

Word Count: 12056

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This Book Will Be Helpful to:

Managers-
This book is aimed primarily at those who are responsible for implementing accessibility at an organizational level. These people tend to be managers, but may also be accessibility specialists, whose role it is to oversee the implementation of accessibility strategies and awareness throughout an organization.

Web Developers-
Web developers may also wish to read this book to expand their understanding of the organizational aspects of implementing accessibility, extending their role as an IT accessibility specialist, often being the person who leads the implementation of accessibility culture in an organization.

Everyone Else-
While managers and web developers are the primary audience for this book, anyone who has an interest in the aspects of implementing accessibility culture in an organization will find this book informative.

This book contains eight chapters. Chapter Two briefly describes the technology that makes electronic commerce possible, while Chapter Three introduces the topic of Web strategy. The major functions of marketing are described in the next five chapters: Promotion (Chapter Four); Promotion and Purchase (Chapter Five); Distribution (Chapter Six); Service (Chapter Seven); and Pricing (Chapter Eight). The final chapter takes a broader, societal perspective and discusses the influence of electronic commerce on society.

The author's goals in writing Exploring Business were simple: (1) introduce students to business in an exciting way and (2) provide faculty with a fully developed teaching package that allows them to do the former. Toward those ends, the following features are included in this text:1- Integrated (Optional) Nike Case Study: A Nike case study is available for instructors who wish to introduce students to business using an exciting and integrated case. Through an in-depth study of a real company, students learn about the functional areas of business and how these areas fit together. Studying a dynamic organization on a real-time basis allows students to discover the challenges that it faces, and exposes them to critical issues affecting the business, such as globalization, ethics and social responsibility, product innovation, diversity, supply chain management, and e-business.2- A Progressive (Optional) Business Plan: Having students develop a business plan in the course introduces students to the excitement and challenges of starting a business and helps them discover how the functional areas of business interact. This textbook package includes an optionalintegrated business plan project modeled after one refined by the author and her teaching team over the past ten years.3- AACSB Emphasis: The text provides end-of-chapter questions, problems, and cases that ask students to do more than regurgitate information. Most require students to gather information, assess a situation, think about it critically, and reach a conclusion. Each chapter presents ten Questions and Problems as well as five cases on areas of skill and knowledge endorsed by AACSB: Learning on the Web, Career Opportunities, The Ethics Angle, Team-Building Skills, and The Global View. More than 70% of end-of-chapter items help students build skills in areas designated as critical by AACSB, including analytical skills, ethical awareness and reasoning abilities, multicultural understanding and globalization, use of information technology, and communications and team oriented skills. Each AACSB inspired exercise is identified by an AACSB tag and a note indicating the relevant skill area.4- Author-Written Instructor Manual (IM): For the past eleven years, Karen Collins has been developing, coordinating and teaching (to over 3,500 students) an Introduction to Business course. Sections of the course have been taught by a mix of permanent faculty, graduate students, and adjuncts.

Financial Statements & Present Value Models

Short Description:
This book is for those whose financial management focus is on small businesses. For you, we adapt the traditional financial management themes emphasized in corporate financial management courses to meet the needs of small businesses.

Long Description:
This book is for those whose financial management focus is on small businesses. For you, we adapt the traditional financial management themes emphasized in corporate financial management courses to meet the needs of small businesses.

Many financial managers of small businesses come from farms or agribusinesses. Others are interested in working for or starting businesses in the food or retail sectors. In most cases, these businesses aren’t organized as C-corporations impacting things like taxes, depreciation, and legal requirements around compiling and reporting financial data. They are rarely publicly traded which creates unique constraints to raising debt and equity capital and calculating required risk-adjusted returns.

These financial managers are interested in solving specific problems they face in family or small businesses. They want to know how to apply the tools they are learning—coordinated financial statement analysis, present value analysis, management of cash flow, measuring their opportunity costs, etc.—to the problems they face at home. As we started to work on the actual problems faced by these managers, it quickly became clear that corporate finance tools don’t exactly fit the small businesses they come from. Further, in attempting to tackle the problems they bring, we learned that finding and/or constructing the data needed for financial management is another skill set often overlooked and in need of development. In the end, after investing a lot of time, we found that—without adaptation—corporate finance theory as traditionally taught doesn’t meet the knowledge needs and application skills of financial managers of small businesses. We wrote this book to be a catalyst that enables students and managers of small businesses to learn the tools and skill sets that will help them make sound financial management decisions.

Word Count: 179566

ISBN: 978-1-62610-114-2

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Short Description:
Return to milneopentextbooks.org to download PDF and other versions of this textNewParaThe purpose of this book is to help boards of directors of nonprofit organizations improve their performance after completing the Board Check-Up, online board performance self-assessment tool found at www.boardcheckup.com. This book is also valuable as a stand-alone resource for any board seeking to assess its performance in that it contains the diagnostic questions on which the online self-assessment tool is based. It goes further by providing a framework for boards to use in discussing needed changes in board performance. It also forms an integral part of a University at Albany, SUNY online course titled, The Governance of Nonprofit Organizations. This massive open online course (MOOC) can be taken for free or academic credit through Coursera’s online teaching and learning platform. For more information about this book, the Board Check-Up, and the nonprofit governance MOOC, please contact Prof. Yvonne Harrison at yharrison@albany.edu.

Long Description:
The purpose of this book is to help boards of directors of nonprofit organizations improve their performance after completing the Board Check-Up, online board performance self-assessment tool found at www.boardcheckup.com. This book is also valuable as a stand-alone resource for any board seeking to assess its performance in that it contains the diagnostic questions on which the online self-assessment tool is based. It goes further by providing a framework for boards to use in discussing needed changes in board performance. It also forms an integral part of a University at Albany, SUNY online course titled, The Governance of Nonprofit Organizations. This massive open online course (MOOC) can be taken for free or academic credit through Coursera’s online teaching and learning platform. For more information about this book, the Board Check-Up, and the nonprofit governance MOOC, please contact Prof. Yvonne Harrison at yharrison@albany.edu.

Word Count: 28333

ISBN: 978-1-942341-00-0

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Human Resource Management teaches HRM strategies and theories that any manager—not just those in HR—needs to know about recruiting, selecting, training, and compensating people.

Most students will be managing people at some point in their careers and not necessarily in a human resource management capacity. As businesses cut back, they may outsource HR duties to outside vendors. Or, in smaller businesses, the HR department is sometimes small or non-existent, and managers from other departments have to perform their own HRM. Therefore, teaching HRM from the perspective of a general manager, in addition to an HR manager, provides more relevance to students' careers and will give them a competitive advantage in the workplace.

This text also provides practical applications of theory relevant to today's workplace. You won't find discussions about “posting vacancies on a job board” or “sending memos.” In the real world, HRM leverages technology in every aspect of the job—from online training modules to technology for better managing flex-time workers and telecommuters.

Consider how most companies have gone “paperless” with pay stubs by using software. While such technology has made HRM easier, it has also created a new set of challenges. For example, how does a manager actually implement a new pay system? Therefore, it's important for students to understand what kinds of platforms exist in today's workplace to enhance their effectiveness as future managers.

The conversational style of Human Resource Management engages students, while the academic rigor of its content provides them with the tools that any manager needs—whether they work in HR or a different department. PLUS it offers an array of supplements that gives them practice creating real HR documents and role-playing real HR scenarios. Add value to your students' education, enhance the relevance of your curriculum, and make your students more employable by adopting this book for your HRM class. Read it now online today!

Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology V1.2 is intended for use in undergraduate and/or graduate courses in Management Information Systems and Information Technology.Version 1.2 of John's book retains the same structure and theory of version 1.1, but refreshes key statistics, examples, and brings case material up to date (vital when covering firms that move as fast as Facebook, Google, and Netflix). Adopting version 1.2 guarantees your students will have the most current text on the market, drawing real and applicable lessons from material that will keep your class offerings current and accessible.One of BusinessWeek’s "Professors of the Year", John Gallaugher of Boston College, brings you a brand new Management Information Systems textbook that teaches students how he or she will experience IS from a Managers perspective first hand through interesting coverage and bleeding-edge cases.Get involved with John's community by visiting and subscribing to his blog, The Week In Geek, where courseware, technology and strategy intersect and joining his Ning IT Community site where you can get more resources to teach Information Systems.Shockingly, at a time when technology regularly appears on the cover of every major business publication, students find IS among the least appealing of management disciplines.The teaching approach in Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology V 1.2 can change this. The text offers a proven approach that has garnered student praise, increased IS enrollment, and engaged students to think deeper and more practically about the space where business and technology meet. Every topic is related to specific business examples, so students gain an immediate appreciation of its importance. Rather than lead with technical topics, the book starts with strategic thinking, focusing on big-picture issues that have confounded experts but will engage students. And while chapters introduce concepts, cases on approachable, exciting firms across industries further challenge students to apply what they've learned, asking questions like:Why was NetFlix able to repel Blockbuster and WalMart? How did Harrah's Casino's become twice as profitable as comparably-sized Caesar's, enabling the former to acquire the latter? How does Spain's fashion giant Zara, a firm that shuns the sort of offshore manufacturing used by every other popular clothing chain, offer cheap fashions that fly off the shelves, all while achieving growth rates and profit margins that put Gap to shame? Why do technology markets often evolve into winner-take-all or winner take-most scenarios? And how can managers compete when these dynamics are present? Why is Google more profitable than Disney? How much is Facebook really worthThe Information Systems course and discipline have never seemed more relevant, more interesting, and more exciting. Gallaugher's textbook can help teachers make students understand why.

This textbook introduces readers to the idea of cooperation and mutualism. Cooperatives and mutuals are participatory organizations in which members participate in control and governance, receive economic benefits through patronage refunds or net income, and become owners through equity. These mutual-benefit organizations exist alongside non-profit organizations and investor-benefit organizations through the global economy.

Organizations in the 21st century are in need of culturally intelligent managers and leaders. The pressure to build authentic global networks and to cultivate an appreciation and respect for cultural differences and similarities has driven cultural intelligence to the forefront of diversity and inclusion work.

Preparing today's students to be effective leaders in their professional lives requires that they hone their cultural intelligence as it is vital to working inter- and intra-culturally in today's global economy. This unique ability to identify, recognize, and acknowledge the differences and similarities that exist between and among cultural groups and systems will set their leadership skills apart from the masses. And when applied, cultural intelligence can bridge the gap in cultural misunderstanding by creating awareness, knowledge, and patience of cultural norms and behaviors.

The purpose of Leading With Cultural Intelligence by Mia Moua is to outline the important ideas of cultural intelligence and the steps that must be considered and then practiced to become a culturally intelligent leader. The most important aspect covered within this book is that cultural intelligence is both a strategy and a tool towards cultural competency and proficiency. This book outlines the importance of understanding culture and its impact on organizations, the strategic value of cultural intelligence, and the significance of integrating and practicing cultural intelligence in everyday business life. When all these aspects are properly integrated and applied in the leadership and management process, organizations are more innovative and adaptable to respond to cultural changes.

Communication is the heart of business. Short emails, complex reports, private chats, impassioned pitches, formal presentations, and team meetings move information and ideas around an organization, define strategy, and drive decisions. Business communication is concise, direct, clear, and compelling.

Teaching the strategic management course can be a challenge for many professors. In most business schools, strategic management is a ŇcapstoneÓ course that requires students to draw on insights from various functional courses they have completed (such as marketing, finance, and accounting) in order to understand how top executives make the strategic decisions that drive whether organizations succeed or fail. Although students have taken these functional courses, many students have very little experience with major organizational choices. It is this inexperience that can undermine many studentsŐ engagement in the course.

Mastering Strategic Management is designed to enhance student engagement in three innovative ways. The first is through visual adaptations of the key content in the book. It is well documented that many of today’s students are visual learners. To meet students’ wants and needs (and thereby create a much better teaching experience for professors), Mastering Strategic Management contains multiple graphic concept pages in ever section of every chapter of the book. Think of graphic concept pages as almost like info-graphics for key concepts in each

This textbook teaches management principles to tomorrow’s business leaders by weaving three threads through every chapter: strategy, entrepreneurship and active leadership.

This book's modular format easily maps to a POLC course organization (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling, attributed to Henri Fayol (1949, General and industrial management. London. Pitman Publishing company), and suits the needs of most undergraduate or graduate course in Principles of Management.

This book covers the basics of project management. This includes the process of initiation, planning, execution, control and close out that all projects share. This book has been adapted by the author as of August 15, 2014. The adaptation includes Canadianized content, PowerPoints, Audio Files, and Chapter Questions.

Small Business Management in the 21st Century offers a unique perspective and set of capabilities for instructors. The authors designed this book with a “less can be more” approach, and by treating small business management as a practical human activity rather than as an abstract theoretical concept.

Short Description:
Data dashboard

Word Count: 48545

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