European Journal of Operational Research 37 (1988) 413-419
North-Holland
413
Book Reviews
L.J. K R A J E W S K I and L.P. R I T Z M A N
Operations Management: Strategy and Analysis
D. C R O O K A L L , C.S. G R E E N B L A T , A. COOTE,
J.H.G. KLABBERS, D.R. WATSON (eds.)
Simulation-Gaming in the Late 1980s
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1987, x x + 783
pages
According to the authors, Operations Management can be viewed as a function, a profession
and a set of decisions, concerned with the design
and operation of production systems.
The role of Operations Research in this
textbook is of minor importance, as can be illustrated by the fact that linear programming is
given in an appendix. Real-life examples are given
from sources such as the Wall Street Journal,
Business Week and Fortune. Nevertheless references to articles in Management Science, Interfaces and Naval Research Logistics Quarterly are
also present.
For teachers in O R the book gives many practical applications that are very well suited to illustration of O R techniques. In contrast, not every
textbook gives figures with robots welding in an
automotive plant.
The book is produced with care both by the
editor (the typographical presentation is fine) and
by the authors (each chapter contains Highlights,
Key Terms, Study Questions, Problems and
Selected References). An Instructor's Manual, a
Solutions Manual and a Study Guide are available. Furthermore a complementary software
package contains 12 analytical models with examples and chapter problems.
In my opinion the authors have succeeded in
creating a book that is suited for the general
business student with the corresponding lower level
mathematical treatment of techniques.
A. VOLGENANT
Institute of Actuarial Sciences
and Econometrics
Department of Operations Research
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Proceedings of the International Simulation and
Gaming Association's 17th International Conference, Pergamon, Oxford, 1987, xiv + 342 pages,
$49.95
Simulation-gaming as a method can be approached from two directions. On the one hand,
games can be used for education and research,
and simulation can enhance the realism and attractiveness of such games, for example by computing market shares in a business game. On the
other hand, gaming can be seen as an extension to
simulation modelling by introducing human decision makers for decisions that cannot be modelled.
Though the two approaches should ideally meet
somewhere in the middle, a distinction is commonly made between simple games emphasizing
the educational aspect and more intricate
model-based games. I S A G A and its journal Simulation and Games cover both ends, but research in
model-based games is also reported in operations
research and information systems journals. Laymen and librarians sometimes confuse gaming with
game theory. However, the fields share little more
than a name, a c o m m o n ancestry and some elementary concepts such as the notion of a zero-sum
game.
The proceedings of I S A G A ' s 17th conference
promise an overview of the present state of the art
in the simulation-gaming field. The hard cover
contains 46 articles in 340 densely typed pages.
The even spread of typing errors shows all papers
have been retyped, so it would have been easy to
use a more agreeable type and to translate the few
French papers into English. At least the editors
should have prevented the glaring error on the
title page, which dates the conference in 1987,
though it was actually held in 1986.
My first impressions of the contents were distinctly unfavorable. In my view, too many papers
reported on unfinished projects, were based on
0377-2217/88/$3.50 ~ 1988, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)