OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Operations Management

Executive Summary

Operations managers have some responsibility for all the performance in the organization that contribute to the effectual production of services and products. Like marketing and finance, Operations management is a practical field of business with apparent line management responsibilities..

Operations Management

Introduction

Operations management is described as the operation, design, and development of the systems that deliver and create the organization's primary services and products. Like marketing and finance, Operations management is a practical field of business with apparent line management responsibilities..

Discussion

Operations managers have some responsibility for all the performance in the organization that contribute to the effectual production of services and products. And while the exact nature of the operations function's responsibilities will, to some extent, depend on the way the organization has chosen to define the boundaries of the function, there are some general classes of activities that apply to all types of operation. (Chase 2004)

Understanding the operation's strategic performance objectives.The first responsibility of any operations management team is to understand what it is trying to achieve. This means understanding how to judge the performance of the operation at different levels, from broad and strategic to more operational performance objectives.

Developing an operations strategy for the organization.Operations management involves hundreds of minute-by-minute decisions, so it is vital that there is a set of general principles which can guide decision-making towards the organization's longer-term goals.

Designing the operation's products, services and processes.Design is the activity of determining the physical form, shape and composition of products, services and processes. It is a crucial part of operations managers' activities.

Planning and controlling the operation. Controling and Planning means the working of deciding what the operations resources must be doing, then confirming that they actually are doing it.

Improving the performance of the operation.The continuing responsibility of all operations managers is to improve the performance of their operation.

The social responsibilities of operations management.It is increasingly recognized by many businesses that operations managers have a set of broad societal responsibilities and concerns beyond their direct activities. The general term for these aspects of business responsibility is 'corporate social responsibility' or CSR. It should be of particular interest to operations managers, because their activities can have a direct and significant effect on society.

Backgroud of Operations Management

Operations management has modified noticeably over the lifetime. With more and more manners hapening outside the venture in factories, offices, distribution centers and stores overseas, managers required to increase skills in coordinating operations across a worldwide state of affairs. (Chopra 2005)

Era

Concepts / Events

Year

Originator

Industrial Revolution

Steam engine

1769

James Watt

Division of labor

1776

Adam Smith

Interchangeable parts

1790

Eli Whitney

Scientific Management

Principles of scientific management

1911

Taylor

Time and motion studies

1911

Lillian and Frank Gilbreth

Activity scheduling chart

1912

Henry Gantt

Moving assembly line

1913

Henry Ford

Human Relations

Hawthorne studies

1930

Elton Mayo

Motivation theories

1940's

A. Maslow

1950's

Frederick Herzberg

1960's

D. McGregor

Operations Research

Linear programming

1947

George Dantzig

Digital computer

1951

Remington Rand

Decision theory Simulation, waiting line theory,

1950's

Operations research groups

PERT/CPM

1960's,

MRP, EDI, EFT, CIM

1970's

Joseph Orlicky, IBM and others

Quality Revolution

JIT (just-in-time)

1970's

Taiichi Ohno (Toyota)

TQM (total quality management)

1980's

W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran

Strategy and operations

Wickham Skinner, Robert Hayes

Business process reengineering

1990's

Michael Hammer, James Champy

Six Sigma

1990's

GE, Motorola

Internet Revolution

WWW ERP, Internet, supply chain management

1990's

ARPANET, ORACLE, Tim Berners-Lee SAP, i2 Technologies,

E-commerce

2000's

Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Google ...