What organization need Operation Managers ?

What Operation Managers do?

All good managers perform the basic functions of the management process. The management process consists of planning , organizing , staffing , leading , and controlling . Operations managers apply this management process to the decisions they make in the OM function.

There are 10 strategic OM decisions. They are:

1. Product & service design.

2. Quality management.

3. Process design.

4. Capacity & location of facilities.

5. Layout of facilities.

6. Human resources & Job design.

7. Supply-chain management.

8. Inventory management.

9. Scheduling.

10. Maintenance.

Successfully addressing each of these decisions requires planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.

Operation Managers Jobs

The Heritage of Operation Management

The field of OM is relatively young, but its history is rich and interesting. Our lives and the OM discipline have been enhanced by the innovations and contributions of numerous individuals.

Eli Whitney (1800) is credited for the early popularization of interchangeable parts, which was achieved through standardization and quality control. Through a contract he signed with the U.S. government for 10,000 muskets, he was able to command a premium price because of their interchangeable parts.

Frederick W. Taylor (1881), known as the father of scientific management, contributed to personnel selection, planning and scheduling, motion study, and the now popular field of ergonomics.

One of his major contributions was his belief that management should be much more resourceful and aggressive in the improvement of work methods. Taylor and his colleagues, Henry L. Gantt and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, were among the first to systematically seek the best way to produce.

Another of Taylor’s contributions was the belief that management should assume more

responsibility for:

. Matching employees to the right job.
. Providing the proper training.
. Providing proper work methods and tools.
. Establishing legitimate incentives for work to be accomplished.

By 1913, Henry Ford and Charles Sorensen combined what they knew about standardized parts with the quasi-assembly lines of the meatpacking and mail-order industries and added the revolutionary concept of the assembly line, where men stood still and material moved. Quality control is another historically significant contribution to the field of OM. Walter

Shewhart (1924) combined his knowledge of statistics with the need for quality control and provided the foundations for statistical sampling in quality control. W. Edwards Deming (1950) believed, as did Frederick Taylor, that management must do more to improve the work environment and processes so that quality can be improved. Operations management will continue to progress as contributions from other disciplines, including industrial engineering, statistics, management, and economics , improve decision-making.

Innovations from the physical sciences (biology, anatomy, chemistry, physics) have also contributed to advances in OM. These innovations include new adhesives, faster integrated circuits, gamma rays to sanitize food products, and specialized glass for iPhones and plasma TVs. Innovation in products and processes often depends on advances in the physical sciences.

Especially important contributions to OM have come from information technology, which we define as the systematic processing of data to yield information. Information technology—with wireless links, the Internet, and e-commerce—is reducing costs and accelerating communication. Decisions in operations management require individuals who are well versed in analytical tools, information technology, and often in one of the biological or physical sciences.