Let me say that I am an Mechanical Engineer with 15 years experience, and possess a MS.I work in quality engineering (test design). My exposure to this text was in a recent MBA class.

Positives: The text, in each chapter, does a respectable job describing how OM applies in the various workplace environments. Though it is more manufacturing oriented, the service sector is addressed. Also, many of the problems at the end of the chapters are quite good.

Negatives: First the book is written by college professors. What more needs to be said! Due to this fact, I believe the main problem of the book lies.This is not a subject which can be taught or written about unless you have some significant real-life experience. In the latter part of the book the chapters pertaining to forcasting,aggregate planning,inventory control,and material planning,the mathmatical models were poorly explained that study groups had to be formed and the professor, to his credit, devised some alternative approaches which were more realistic. The engineers and accountants in the study groups were a valuable asset to some students due to their math backgrounds. Most students in the class who came from various backgrounds; medical and business were lost/confused. The primary problem was not being able to understand how the models worked and applied to the material. Many of the students commented that they just gave up trying to understand the material, and mindlessly plugged values into the various formulas. Granted, many of these models are worked out on Excel programs in the business arena, but for one to understand their meaning, in an educational setting,you need to do the preliminary organization and calculations. I correlate this with a 3rd grade student "learning" their multiplication tables with a calculator.What have you really learned?

Used this book in an undergraduate supply chain management class. I found the book to be well written and enjoyable to read. Chapters are not overly long and the book moves a long at a good pace. Some of the concepts will make more sense and be easier to get through if you have had some exposure to statistics. There is some math, not a lot, but enough to trip up students that are not math savvy. Most of the book concentrates on manufacturing, though it does also touch on the service sector. Case studies are OK, I just remember American companies, and most sounded like propaganda.

This was my first exposure to operations management, as a senior MBA student; though I am familiar with many of the concepts from earlier coursework in statistics and accounting. I found the text to be well written and easy to understand. The sample problems within the chapters were straight forward and easy to follow. Having taking this class as a summer course, I was able to read the majority (75%) of the textbook within a 4-week period easily. The only drawback may be in how the actual theory pertains to real life models. I would recommend this text for anyone who is new to the field as the overview is excellent. A background in statistics and accounting (at least from coursework standpoint) would also be helpful in comprehending the material.

I was doing a research project for school when I stumbled upon Richard Trenton Chase. I read the reports of his crimes and assumed him to be Schizophrenic. Most people would look at his acts as disgusting, but I can totally understand the logic behind his reasonings which drove him to kill. I think the book couldve been written better, but as far as Richard himself, people shouldnt look at him as a murderer, but more as a victim. His whole life he was scared and there was never a time when he wasnt paranoid. He took his own life because he couldnt handle it anymore. If youre interested in psychology or criminology then this might be a good book for you to read.

This story full of blood is very terrible. But the author may be lack of skills to describe this thing clearly!

I passed the exam but only because I got rid of this book and studied from MSDN a week before. The book covers most of the topics as if they were in a high school curriculum. I'd say if you are preparing for the MCSE/MCSD/MCP exam then DO NOT go by this book. But is fairly ok if you'd want an introduction to SQL Server 2000 before digging deeper into another detailed exam material.

I bought this book a couple months ago and I'm really disappointed because I found several wrong answers on it, not forgetting to mention the fact that several parts of this book are made from "topics". That's it. But... if I need to study by topics I'll go straight to Books Online, and not for this certification book, right?
My opinion: Look for another book. There must be other better than this.

I bought this book because the Exam Cram on 70-175 was excellent. However, I found this book almost useless. A lot of topics in the exam are not covered at all or enough by this book. You are very likely to fail the exam if you only rely on this book. The practical questions are stupid and too simple, you will be shocked when you do the real questions. To prepare the 70-229 exam, I highly recommend 'Professional SQL SERVER 2000 Programming' by Robert Vieira. That book covers everything you need to pass.