Relevant, real world understanding of concepts  UPDATED! Real world illustrations: Operations management is an applied subject so each chapter includes a number of short illustrations, case examples, from around the world that show how organisations have either identified or dealt with the particular issues being discussed.  UPDATED! International: The real world illustrations – examples in the text, case examples and case exercises – are drawn from many counties to show the diversity and international nature of operations issues and activities.  (We have included a list of the case examples later.)  UPDATED! State of the art: The book contains some of the most recent ideas and information, covering in particular world-class service, performance management, service concept, the customer experience and service processes.  NEW! Professor Nigel Slack has joined the author team for the fifth edition of the book. Nigel Slack brings a wealth of experience in authoring his market-leading texts in Operations Management and Operations Strategy.  NEW! Increased coverage of the growth in the service sector and the various types of service organisation.  Put theory into practice  NEW! A new chapter on service innovation has been included within the Improving service operations part.  UPDATED! Discussion questions and exercises: At the end of each chapter there are some questions aimed both at students and at practising managers. We hope that these questions will encourage readers both to test their understanding and to apply the material in the chapter.  UPDATED! Further readings: The topic keeps developing so we have also provided some suggestions for further reading that should both develop the basics of the topic further and extend its scope.  UPDATED! Case exercises: Each chapter concludes with a case exercise suitable for class discussion. The cases are short but focused on the topic and are a rich source of material for debate and development.  UPDATED! Instructor’s manual: An instructor’s manual is available to lecturers adopting this textbook. It can be downloaded from either go.pearson.com/uk/he/resources or www.servops.net and provides detailed questions to go with the cases and bullet-point answers to the questions. UPDATED! Servops.net:  is the instructor’s companion website for this textbook. Besides the instructor’s manual it provides a range of presentations in PowerPoint and Keynote formats to suit a range of teaching styles, experience and time constraints. The site also makes available a series of video screencasts in which the authors explain their approach to teaching each topic. Servops.net also gives instructors a series of lesson plans and handout designs.  Backed by effective learning-design principles  NEW! The chapter order has been significantly revised to reflect a new structure based around four parts – Framing service operations, Understanding customers, Delivering service, and Improving service operations.  NEW! ‘Counterpoint’ features in most chapters that provide comments or criticisms of conventional theory and/or practice.  UPDATED! Frameworks and tools: Each chapter provides tools, frameworks and techniques