Operations management

Operations management is an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, and redesigning business operations in the production of goods and/or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as few resources as needed, and effective in terms of meeting customer requirements. It is concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labor, and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and/or services). The relationship of operations management to senior management in commercial contexts can be compared to the relationship of line officers the highest-level senior officers in military science. The highest-level officers shape the strategy and revise it over time, while the line officers make tactical decisions in support of carrying out the strategy. In business as in military affairs, the boundaries between levels are not always distinct; tactical information dynamically informs strategy, and individual people often move between roles over time.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, operations management is the field concerned with managing and directing the physical and/or technical functions of a firm or organization, particularly those relating to development, production, and manufacturing. Operations management programs typically include instruction in principles of general management, manufacturing and production systems, plant management, equipment maintenance management, production control, industrial labor relations and skilled trades supervision, strategic manufacturing policy, systems analysis, productivity analysis and cost control, and materials planning. Management, including operations management, is like engineering in that it blends art with applied science. People skills, creativity, rational analysis, and knowledge of technology are all required for success.

the history of operations management is missing.

Organizations

The following organizations support and promote operations management:

• Association for Operations Management (APICS) which supports the Production and Inventory Management Journal
• European Operations Management Association (EurOMA) which supports the International Journal of Operations & Production Management
• Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) which supports the journal: Production and Operations Management
• Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
• The Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society (MSOM) which supports the journal: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
• Institute of Operations Management (UK)
• Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE)

Publications

The following academic journals are concerned with Operations Management issues:

• Management Science
• Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
• Operations Research
• Journal of Operations Management
• International Journal of Operations & Production Management
• Production and Operations Management
• Production and Inventory Management Journal
• Journal of Modelling in Operations Management

See also

• APICS The Association for Operations Management
• Business process mapping
• Industrial engineering
• Inventory
• Inventory management software
• Lean manufacturing
• National Institute of Industrial Engineering
• Operations research
• Six Sigma
• Project management
• Silver-Meal heuristic

External links

• Operations management journal ranking