María Teresa Nogueras Lozano

Actualmente el turismo ha experimentado un profundo cambio con la aparición de nuevos modelos de negocio y la introducción de nuevas tecnologías. Esta transformación requiere nuevos modelos de pensamiento y gestion del producto. Es por ello que como en otros sectores de la economia española la formacion de los profesionales del turismo es imprescindible para afrontar el proceso de transicion hacia la nueva cultura de la gestion turistica.

Se ha reiterado muchas veces que el turismo es el motor de la economía española ya que, desde una perspectiva estrictamente económica, la actividad turística ha tenido y sigue teniendo un considerable impacto en nuestro país; casi desde su despegue como industria en la década de los sesenta del siglo pasado contribuye al crecimiento económico y a la generación de empleo, y representa una parte importante de nuestro Producto Interior Bruto.

We want to welcome you to both an exciting and tactical discipline: operations management. This manual on Fundamentals of operations management is an effective tool to understand one of the main functions of any organisation: the creation of goods and services. That is, to understand what resources are needed to generate the goods and services of an organisation in a global and highly competitive environment, while also incorporating new technologies. In this manual, along with the classic fundamentals of operations management, we will look forward towards what is coming and how it will impact process improvement in companies. The main goal of this book is to equip the reader with the fundamental concepts in operations management. To do this, it will present the main qualitative and quantitative models for managing operations both in public and private companies. As the reader will see, the chapters are structured with an easy-to-follow and rigorous thematic thread that will make each and every step understandable. All this book has been designed with a distance learning student or a self-taught reader, such as an entrepreneur, in mind. We aim to facilitate the learning of a discipline that for years has been considered complicated and specifically focused on certain professions, and to highlight its relevance and future opportunities. We strive for the reader to enjoy learning from this manual and to discover an exciting discipline with many career opportunities. The book combines both theory and practical exercises with real life cases whose examples will allow the learner to understand the day-to-day and the myriad of challenges and opportunities faced by operations management. The manual covers classic management topics such as process design, inventories, demand forecasting, etc., as well as newer concepts such as digitisation of the supply chain. As for the way the content is conveyed, we have opted for a simple language that facilitates understanding, while also being rigorous and precise. The methodology used is distance learning, which means that this manual is mainly intended for self-learning, and consequently, its structure is designed to promote the understanding of its contents. To achieve this goal: 1. The text is divided into eight chapters that present a logical and coherent sequence to understanding what operations management consists of: Chapter I ?Operations in the Current Environment? defines what operations are in a company, teaching the reader about the evolution of this discipline in a global environment. The chapter shows the importance of the company?s competitiveness generators, and explains key concepts such as the value chain, the extended network, and digitisation, which are crucial in current production processes and serve as an introduction to other concepts that will be explained in further detail in the following chapters, which are aimed to teaching how to achieve a right tactical decision-making in operations management. Chapter II ?Managing Operations? addresses the main topics in the day-to-day of operations management in order to get the reader in the context of the type of decisions that must be made in matters related to the supply chain, inventory management costs, planning the necessary materials, project management, among others, and understand the implications of such decisions in the proper functioning of the company. After having defined what operations are (Chapter I) and the types of decisions that need to be made for a successful operation (Chapter II), Chapter III, ?Tools to Support Decision Making in Operations?, aims to provide the necessary tools to support decision-making in two main categories: quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitative techniques include decision trees, linear programming, transportation modelling, queuing models, learning curves, simulations, and sales forecasting. On the other hand, qualitative techniques include concepts such ...