Elements of operations management
- 1. Q1. Narrate the objectives and elements of production and operation Management?<br />Answer: - The last century particularly the later half of it, has seen as upsurge in industrial activity. Now industries are producing a variety of products. Industries are producing a variety of products. Consumerism has been on steep rise. People, all over the world, have been demanding more and better products. The development in technology, particularly in the areas of telecommunications, internet, mass media and transport have made it possible for products<br />Production involves the things which are essential for the manufacture of products. <br />The objective of the production management is ‘to produce goods services of right quality and quantity at the right time and right manufacturing cost’.<br />1. RIGHT QUALITY<br />The quality of product is established based upon the customers needs. The right quality is not necessarily best quality. It is determined by the cost of the product and the technical characteristics as suited to the specific requirements.<br />2. RIGHT QUANTITY<br />The manufacturing organization should produce the products in right number. If they are produced in excess of demand the capital will block up in the form of inventory and if the quantity is produced in short of demand, leads to shortage of products.<br />3. RIGHT TIME<br />Timeliness of delivery is one of the important parameter to judge the effectiveness of production department. So, the production department has to make the optimal utilization of input resources to achieve its objective.<br />4. RIGHT MANUFACTURING COST<br />Manufacturing costs are established before the product is actually manufactured. Hence, all attempts should be made to produce the products at pre-established cost, so as to reduce the variation between actual and the standard (pre-established) cost.<br />ELEMENTS OF PRODUCTION OPERATION <br />Managing operations can be enclosed in a frame of general management function as shown in Fig. 1.3. Operation managers are concerned with planning, organizing, and controlling the activities which affect human behavior through models.<br /> PLANNING<br />Activities that establishes a course of action and guide future decision-making is planning. The operations manager defines the objectives for the operations subsystem of the organization, and the policies, and procedures for achieving the objectives. This stage includes clarifying the role and focus of operations in the organization’s overall strategy. It also involves product planning, facility designing and using the conversion process.<br /> ORGANIZING<br />Activities that establishes a structure of tasks and authority. Operation managers establish a structure of roles and the flow of information within the operations subsystem. They determine the activities required to achieve the goals and assign authority and responsibility for carrying them out.<br /> CONTROLLING<br />Activities that assure the actual performance in accordance with planned performance. To ensure that the plans for the operations subsystems are accomplished, the operations manager must exercise control by measuring actual outputs and comparing them to planned operations management. Controlling costs, quality, and schedules are the important functions here.<br /> BEHAVIOUR<br />Operation managers are concerned with how their efforts to plan, organize, and control affect human behavior. They also want to know how the behavior of subordinates can affect management’s planning, organizing, and controlling actions. Their interest lies in decision-making behavior.<br /> MODELS<br />As operation managers plan, organize, and control the conversion process, they encounter many problems and must make many decisions. They can simplify their difficulties using models like aggregate planning models for examining how best to use existing capacity in short-term, break even analysis to identify break even volumes, linear programming and computer simulation for capacity utilization, decision tree analysis for long-term capacity problem of facility expansion, simple median model for determining best locations of facilities etc.<br />