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Operations Management

• The maintenance, control, and improvement of organizational activities that are


required to produce goods or services for consumers. Operations management
has traditionally been associated with manufacturing activities but can also be
applied to the service sector. The measurement and evaluation of operations is
usually undertaken through a process of business appraisal. Efficiency and
effectiveness may be monitored by the application of ISO 9001 quality systems,
or total quality management techniques.

Nature and Scope of Operations


Management
Operations management is often used along with production management in
literature on the subject. It is therefore, useful to understand the nature of
operations management .Operations management is understood as the process
whereby resources or inputs are converted into more useful products .A second
reading of the sentence reveals that, there is hardly any difference between the
terms produ7ction management and operations management .But, there are a
least two points of distinction between production management and operations
management .First, the term production management is more used for a system
where tangible goods are produced .Whereas ,operations management is more
frequently used where various inputs are transformed into tangible services
.Viewed from this perspective, operations management will cover such services
organization as banks ,airlines ,utilities ,pollution control agencies super bazaars,
educational institutions ,libraries ,consultancy firm and police departments, in
addition ,of course ,to manufacturing enterprises. The second distinction relates
to the evolution of the subject. Operation management is the term that is used
now a days .Production management precedes operations management in the
historical growth of the subject

The two distinctions not withstanding, the terms production management and
operations management are used interchargeably .

Scope of Production and Operation Management

The scope of production and operations management is indeed vast


.Commencing with the selection of location production management covers such
activities as acquisition of land, constructing building ,procuring and installing
machinery ,purchasing and storing raw material and converting them into
saleable products.
Added to the above are other related topics such as quality management
,maintenance management ,production planning and control, methods
improvement and work simplification and other related areas.

Evolution of Production Function

In order to trace the evolution of production function, we identify six historical


developments :the Industrial Revolution ,scientific management , the human
relations movement ,operations research, computers and advanced production
technology and the service revolution A brief explanation of each stage follows.

The industrial Revolution

Since times ancient production systems were used in oe form or another. The
Egyptian Pyramids, the Greek Parthenon, the Great Wall o0f China and the
aquaducts and the roads of the Roman Empire , dams and anicuts built by the
Chola kings attest to the ingenuity and industry of the people of ancient times But
the ways the people in the ancient days produced goods were different from the
production methods of today. Production systems prior to the 1700s are often
referred to as the cottage system, because the production of goods took place in
homes or cottages ,where craftsman directed apprentices in performing hand
work on, products.

From 1770 to the early 1800s series of events took p[lace in England which
together are called the Industrial Revolution. Industrial Revolution resulted in two
major developments: widespread substitution of machine power for human power
and establishment of the factory system.

The events that took p[lace from 1770 to the 1800s are characterized by great
inventions. The great inventions were eight in number ,with six of them having
been conceived in England, one in France and one in the United States .The
eight inventions are—Hargreaves Spinning Jenny, Arkwright’s Water Frame,
Crompton’s Mule, Cartwright’s Power Loom, Watt’s steamengine, Berthollet’s
Chlorine Bleaching Discovery.Mandslay’s Screw-Cutting Lathe and Eli Whitney’s
Interchangeable Manufacture.

As observed from eight inventions ,most of them have to do with the spinning of
yarn and weaving of cloth .This is logical from the point o view that cloth was the
principal export commodity of England at that time and was in short supply
owi8ng to the considerable expansion of England’s colonial empire and its
commercial trade.

The availability of machine power greatly facilitated the gathering of workers in


factories that housed the machines .The large number of workers congregated in
the factories ,created the need for organizing them in logical ways to produce
goods. The publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in 1776
advocated the benefits of the division of labor or specialization of labor ,which
broke production of goods into small specialized tasks that were assigned to
workers on production lines.
Thus, the factories of late 1700s not only had developed production machinery
,but also ways of planning and controlling the output of workers
The impact of the Industrial Revolution was first felt in England .From here, it
spread to other European countries and to the United states.

The Industrial Revolution advanced further with the development of the gasoline
engine and electricity in the 1800s.Other industries emerged and along with them
new factories came into being.By the middle of 1800s. the old cottage system of
production had been laced by the factory system .As days went by, production
capacities expanded ,demand for capital grew and labor became highly
dependant on jobs and urdanised. At the commencement of the 20 th century
,the one element that was missing was a management –the ability to develop
and use the existing facilities to produce on a large scale to meet massive
markets of today.

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