Operations Management Principle, Tools And Techniques Through Critical Analysis

Introduction: In this assignment I will be providing apprentices and readers with an understanding of the role and importance of operations management in the efficient and effective production of goods and services.

Operations management refers to all levels of an organisation and how best to efficiently convene, fund, maintain and maximise its services and/or operations, both internal and external. The core goal/objective of operations management it to maximise outputs while reducing and minimising the inputs required to achieve the desired results.

Operations management is an area of business that is concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient and effective. It is the management of resources, the distribution of goods and services to customers, and the analysis of queue systems.

Operations Management focuses on the design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains (Diemond, 2014). It considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their clients want (Diemond 2014). Operations Management consists of many topics which are applied on a daily basis at the company I work for. Some of the topics include process control, lean manufacturing, six sigma, and supply chain management. It is the process that controls how inputs (raw materials, labor, and energy) get converted into outputs (finished goods or services).

James, T. (2011) defines Operations Management as the management of the processes which aid production of goods and or services. This implies that all production activities must be coordinated well to ensure a lean process of resource management is adopted.

Operations Management in an organisation is repsonsible for managing and in making decisions concerning the activities that convert inputs into outputs , that is goods and services. This covers both short term actvities as well as longer term activities to meet strategic goals. Inputs can be the raw materaials need to manufacture goods such as furniture or the computers needed to create a service like online shopping site. Operation management’s role is to make decisions to improve how operation activities function, for example, to improve the final quality of the output or to change production methods to be more efficient in terms of cost and in time.

An operations strategy is all about harmonising the features of the operations function with the requirements of the market in order to fulfil the needs of the business. A full appreciation of this process requires not merely an understanding of the ideas and methods used to develop an operations strategy but also knowledge of the techniques and principles involved in its implementation or execution thereof. Implementation requires knowledge of operations systems and polices including those that relate to resource planning and activity control, quality, plant management, motivation and organisation of people, performance metrics and continuous improvement.

Krajewski, L. J. & Ritzman, L. P. (2002) Operations Management: Strategy and Analysis, 5th edition [University of Phoenix Print Version]. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice

My knowledge of operations management's impact on organizational effectiveness has grown considerably in this course. I now have a better understanding of how the design and improvement of operational processes and systems can be structured so that the resources required for producing and delivering goods and services are optimized to their full potential. I have a newfound appreciation for the role of operations managers. They take on the challenge of improving productivity to grow and enhance the business an effort that spans all business units and divisions including purchasing, manufacturing, shipping, packaging, supply chain, human resources, marketing, finance, and information technology.

Operations and process management is ‘the activity of managing the resources and processes that produce products and services’ (Slack et al. 2015, p.4). The Operations Manager is responsible for bringing the resources and processes

This journal is an insight on my thoughts and experiences and my own reflection of operations management and the topics in which we have looked at in both lectures and my interactive workshops. In this journal I will cover the following:

Schroeder, R.G. (2008). Operations Management: Contemporary Concepts and Cases, Fourth Edition. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Irwin Companies

As my course in Operations Management comes to an end it is time for me to analysis all that I have learned in MGTU-315. To reflect on the knowledge I’ve gained from key concepts, and putting them to practical use in analyzing the operations strategy, performance, and the planning and control of our group project. In this essay I will discuss what key concepts and their relationships with various mythologies, along with my thoughts on how they may be applied in real situations at work. As an example I will be using the issues I had my summer in my small business.

Operations management focuses on managing the processes of producing and distributing products and services. Operations activities often include product creation, development, production and distribution. It deals with all operations within the organization. Related activities include managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage, logistics and evaluations. 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.

¡§The Design, setting up, operation, and continuous evaluation of internal and external systems that deliver a product or a service to the customer is called Operations Management.¡¨(Alan Carroll, 2003)