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First published under the Pitman Publishing imprint 1995
Second edition (Pitman Publishing) 1998
Third edition 2001
Fourth edition 2004
Fifth edition 2007
Sixth edition 2010
© Nigel Slack, Stuart Chambers, Christine Harland, Alan Harrison, Robert Johnston 1995, 1998
© Nigel Slack, Stuart Chambers, and Robert Johnston 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010
The rights of Nigel Slack, Stuart Chambers, and Robert Johnston to be identified as authors
of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a
licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. The use of any
trademark in this text does not vest in the author or publisher any trademark ownership
rights in such trademarks, nor does the use of such trademarks imply any affiliation with
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ISBN: 978-0-273-73046-0
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Slack, Nigel.
Operations management / Nigel Slack, Stuart Chambers, Robert Johnston. – 6th ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-273-73046-0 (pbk.)
1. Production management. I. Chambers, Stuart. II. Johnston, Robert, 1953– III. Title.
TS155.S562 2010
658.5–dc22
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10
Typeset in 10/12pt Minion by 35
Printed and bound by Rotolito Lombarda, Italy
The publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.