The Role of Operations Management

Coursework 1: The role of Operations Management

Operations Management is the procedure of operational arrangement, association, execution and control monitoring. The mission of Operations Management is to control the quality, cost, time and flexibility. By adding values to the products and services and applying different strategies to meet the company’s goals, Operations Management makes the products and services of a business more competitive in the market.

Back to the early date of pre-industrialization, Operations Management was considered as a craftsman who required both science and arts. An example would be the clockmaker who designed and made the clock that differentiated from its competitors by creating innovative, high quality product while saving the cost of productions. The part of the expert is still imperative in nowadays. Toyota’s lean management for instance, requires workers’ particular skills in different area instead of the whole production process. (On the role of Operations Management in an organization, Cihan Irfan Ozduru, 2015)

“Operations are the main function for transformation of inputs into outputs for a business. The outputs can be physical goods or services. Also some outputs will include both physical or services.”(Cambridge HSC 2011 P.3) We can see from this statement that Operations management is a transformer whose process is to transfer inputs such as raw materials, people, facilities, technology into tailored-made customer’s end product or services. On the other hand, it also fine tunes the process of the production by receiving customer’s feedbacks on the product and services. The below chart illustrates the cycle of the transformation process:

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(The Transformation process from Operations Management An Integrated Approach Fourth Edition 2010 P.4)

Operations Management is like an orchestra conductor as it conducts the entire process of the production through its knowledge and experience. “Operations Management is used knowledge, people, our and our partners’ resources, our staffs’ experience and knowledge to efficiently assemble products that satisfy customer demands” (Operations Management 2013 P.9)

In conclusion, operations management plays several core roles in an organization, such as a craftsman, a transformer, a conductor. Operations management involves system and process design, capacity planning, inventory and supply management, production and quality assurance, scheduling, and project management.

Reference:

Cambridge HSC (2011) Marianne Hickey, Tony Nader, Tim Williams (2011)

Cambridge HSC Business Studies, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press

On the role of Operations Management in an organization, Cihan Irfan Ozduru, 2015, available from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-operations-management-organization-irfan-ozduru 

Operations Management (2013) Nigel Slack, Alistair Brandon-Jones, Robert Johnston (2013), 7th Edition, UK: Pitman Publishing

The Transformation process from Operations Management An Integrated Approach Fourth Edition by R. Dan Reid Nada R. Sanders, 2010, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.