Production and Operations Management Systems Chapter 1: Introduction

What Are Operations?

• Operations are purposeful actions (or activities) methodically done as part of a plan of work by a process that is designed to achieve practical ends and concrete objectives.
• This definition is applicable to both manufacturing and service organizations.
• An operations manager is responsible for planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling organizational resources to produce desired goods and services; that is the subject matter of this book “Production and Operations Management Systems.”

Manufacturing Operations

• Manufacturing operations transform materials into desired goods and products.
• Operations can be described using different verbs and object phrases such as pressing and turning metal (on a lathe), cutting paper, sewing clothes, sawing and drilling wood, sandblasting glass, forming plastics, shaping clay, heat-treating materials, soldering contacts, weaving fabric, blending fuels, filling cans, and extruding wires.
• Similarly, there are a variety of assembly phrases, such as snapping together parts, gluing sheets, fitting components, joining pieces together, preparing (assembling) a burger.
• Products like automobiles, airplanes, televisions, furniture suites, computers, refrigerators, and light bulbs (LEDs too) are made in factories.
• Fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King view the assembly of sandwiches from meat, buns, and condiments as a manufacturing application.