Books about running operations: factories, mines, stores, safety, maintenance and the systems that keep a business working. The authors are operators, engineers and the executives who ran these businesses.
This list holds 9 books published between 2018 and 2026. A book is on it only when manufacturing and operations is a central subject of the book, judged from the book's own description, not when it comes up in passing. The most-rated on Amazon come first.
Cameron Herold · 2023
As founder and CEO, you know you need to hire a COO. You need a COO who can help you build the company you don’t know how to build on your own. The Second in Command is your go-to guidebook when you’re ready to scale up. Cameron Herold details every aspect of…
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Jeremy Bodenhamer
If you sell physical products, warehousing and shipping costs can make or break your business. But most companies treat order fulfillment like an afterthought, running headlong toward a future in which they won’t be able to compete with marketplace giants. In…
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Joe Geng · 2020
Around the globe, hand injuries are the number one preventable industrial accident, in manufacturing, construction, oil & gas, you name it. But what actually works to protect workers’ hands? What kind of training actually gets through? What causes a worker to…
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A Practical Guide to Building a Culture that Prevents Breakdowns and Increases Profits
Gerard Wood · 2018
In the world of mining, both mining and asset management professionals often face difficult challenges to improve plant and fleet reliability or cost. Over the years the mining industry has developed complicated systems and processes to deal with the…
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Greg Lake · 2024
If your manufacturing organization were a river, how would it flow? Would it run straight and fast, or slow and winding? Would you encounter hidden obstructions that stall your stream of revenue, profits, cash flow, and output? Would you experience the…
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Rachel Williamson · 2026
Retail is hard. Leading doesn’t have to be. Every day you juggle staffing issues, sales goals, messy operations, and customers who expect more. You want to lead a winning store, but instead of hitting number one, you’re buried in the day-to-day grind. It…
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Andy Sherring · 2022
The mining industry has a problem. It has worthy aspirations for high technology, digitisation, and a progressive performance culture, but it lacks the necessary operating platform to support and enable this. Despite its many successes in a tough working…
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Marty Groover · 2022
Speed of Advance (SOA): the speed of a ship anticipated along an intended track; the average speed required to arrive at a destination at a specified time. In the navy, nothing is left to chance. Every strategy is tested, every resource utilized with minimal…
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Keith Mitnik · 2022
Change is hard, especially in relationships. When cracks start forming at the foundation, you’re at a crossroads that demands decisions. What can you do to salvage the current relationship? When is it worth the risk to change? How many conflicts in your…
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