Manufacturing operations are the real wealth creators within a business, accounting for the majority of management and financial assets needed to sustain the company. Make it! encapsulates the author's many years of experience gained designing manufacturing systems and supply-chains in factories across the world. It provides a proven, logical sequence of events needed to design effective modular factories capable of competing with the world's best.

In their 1999 'Best-Managed' Companies Awards, 'Aviation Week and Space Technology' (Vol. 150, No. 22) quoted the author's former company, Lucas Aerospace, as achieving 'Most improved major aerospace company 1994 - 1998' status, ranking it second in Competitiveness, assessed by an amalgamation of asset utilisation, productivity and financial stability.

This book has been written for managers charged with the responsibility for improving business profitability and for engineers facing the challenge of introducing more cost effective manufacturing processes. Many manufacturing businesses have failed to invest adequate resources in designing factory operations, mainly due to the lack of expertise and detailed knowledge needed to undertake this demanding task.

John Garside is a Principal Fellow at Warwick International Manufacturing Group, The University of Warwick. This follows an extensive industrial career in highly competitive first tier system and component manufacturing businesses, who supplied many of the world's leading aerospace, automotive and industrial equipment makers.