Foundations of Operations Management

Operations management focuses on carefully managing the processes to produce and distribute products and services. Usually, small businesses don't talk about "operations management", but they carry out the activities that management schools typically associate with the phrase "operations management" major, overall activities often include product creation, development, production and distribution. These activities are also associated with Product and Service Management. However product management is usually in regard to one or more closely related product -- that is, a product line. Operations management is in regard to all operations within the organization related activities include managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage, logistics and evaluations. A great deal of focus is on efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, operations management often includes substantial measurement and analysis of internal processes. Ultimately, the nature of how operations management is carried out in an organization depends very much on the nature of products or services in the organization, for example, retail, manufacturing, wholesale, etc. An operating system utilizes resources to convert inputs into outputs in the form of goods or services. Conventionally, operations management is defined as the task of designing, establishing, planning, and running, controlling, maintaining and improving such systems. As the output of such systems constitutes both goods and services this establishes operations management as a field of activity somewhat broader than production (or manufacturing) management which solely provides goods or services. However the distinction between goods and services is unclear and the latter category is broad and heterogeneous.

Operations Management (OM) is concerned with the running of the day-to-day operations of a business or other organization as effectively and efficiently as possible. It is of crucial importance in all organizations, whether they manufacture products for customers or provide a service.

OM is the branch of management science concerned with the study of the factors involved in the successful management of an organization’s day-to-day operations. It seeks to develop and apply the methods and techniques needed to design and implement systems which will enable the efficiency and effectiveness of these operations to be improved. Operational problems can range from purchasing, through manufacturing to the final distribution of the products. The last 10 years has witnessed the re-emergence of Operations Management as a critical function in the growth and profitability of organizations. The ability to deliver products and services fast and right first time while cutting costs has become fundamental to not only the competitiveness of a business, but also its survival. 

Before operating any managerial activities successfully what comes first is the Decision-making. Decision-making is the process of evaluating alternative courses of action to a given problem and arriving at the most suitable course of action. It entails thorough analysis of the pros and cons of every alternative solution. Scientific management facilitates decision-making. The factors of risk and uncertainty are taken into account while making decisions.

"The first truth for operations is that quality is more important than quantity."

Professor Mari Pierce, Penn Sate University

Description: The application of operations management whether new or old, big or small, to run smoothly and achieve the goals and objective which is has set fifth of elements. There are basically five management concepts that allow any organization to handle the tactical, planned and set decisions. The five basic functions of the operation management are just to have a controlled plan over the preventive measure. They are:

Plan: It is the foundation area of management. It is the base upon which the all areas of management should be built. Planning requires administrations to assess where the company presently set, and where it would be in the upcoming. From there and appropriate course of action is determined and implemented to attain the company's goals and objectives.

Organize: The second function of the management is getting organized. Management must organize all its resources well before in hand to put into practice the course of action to decide that has been planned in the base function. Organizing is establishing the internal organizational structure of the business. The focus is on division, coordination, and control of task the flow of information within the organization.

Staffing: The third function is stuffing. After employing individual to work for your company, you must create a proper "Project Management Procedure" that allows feedback and maximum productivity to occur. A staffing management plan or process is ultimately a document that explains the various human resources requirements that will be met for both staff management and employee alike. The plan is essentially a portion of the project management plan in which allows project to be successful by properly managing various teams to complete tasks effectively and efficiently.

"The thing I have learned at IBM is that culture is everything."

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Direct: Directing is the fourth function of the management. Working under this function helps the management to control and supervise the action of the staff. This helps them to assist the staff in achieving the company's goals and also accomplishing their personal or career goals, which can be powered by motivation, communication, department dynamics, and department leadership.

Control: Control is the last of function of basic operations management, includes establishing performance standards, which are of course based on the company's objective. It also involves evaluating and reporting of actual job performance. When the management studies these points then it is necessary to compare both the things. This study on comparison of both decides further corrective and preventive actions.

Before go to decision making on operation management we shortly discuss what is Operations, operations management and operations managers?

Every organization has an operations function, whether or not it is called 'operations'. The goal or purpose of most organizations involves the production of goods and/or services. To do this, they have to procure resources, convert them into outputs and distribute them to their intended users. The term operations embraces all the activities required to create and deliver an organization's’ goods or services to its customers or clients.

Within large and complex organizations operations is usually a major functional area, with people specifically designated to take responsibility for managing all or part of the organization's operations processes. It is an important functional area because it plays a crucial role in determining how well an organization satisfies its customers. In the case of private-sector companies, the mission of the operations function is usually expressed in terms of profits, growth and competitiveness; in public and voluntary organizations, it is often expressed in terms of providing value for money.

Operations management is concerned with the design, management, and improvement of the systems that create the organization's’ goods or services. The majority of most organizations’ financial and human resources are invested in the activities involved in making products or delivering services. Operations management is therefore critical to organizational success.

An understanding of the principles of operations management is important for all managers, because they provide a systematic way of looking at an organization's’ processes. The need to manage manufacturing and service operations efficiently and effectively has led to a considerable increase in interest in operations management in recent years. However, the concept of operations is not new.