orcid.org/0000-0001-5577-9347Scope of Operations Management
Scope of Operations Management
It is important for all business students to understand the basic concept of Operations Management because all 0rganizations, whether profit or non-profit oriented, transform inputs into outputs. Inputs vary according to the nature of business. Mainly, there are three inputs which are transformed, namely, Material inputs, Information inputs and Customers inputs. Manufacturing firms use the material and add value to it to earn money. Some firms in service industry use information as raw material and add value to it, for example, newspapers; newspapers collect information which they deem will be in the interests of their readers and sell them. Some of the firms in service industry use customers as input; for other firms beauty parlors; beauty parlors adds value by changing looks of individuals.
The process of transforming inputs into outputs is known as Operations Management. In other words, all operations add value to the inputs and charge only for the added value. All Operations have five objectives to meet: quality, speed, dependability or reliability, flexibility and cost. Which of the objectives is the most important depends upon the nature of the business and what the management wishes to achieve at the end of the day. For example, if innovation is a reason of existence of a firm then it might compromise with speed. These objectives are influenced by four factors, which are volume, variety, variation and visibility. The above objectives and influencing factors broaden the scope of operations management.
The broad scope of Operations Management demands from the operational managers to utilize all inputs and resources in such a way which yields maximum output and reduces the cost of production without compromising with the quality. Cost reduction is not the sole challenge to operations managers but employees’ performance, quality and quality maintenance are some of the other challenges that must be dealt adequately to run an operation effectively and efficiently. Thus operations managers not only control direct inputs but find reasons to intervene in other key areas of business such as Human Resource Management, Production Planning, Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management, Product Design, Process Design, Capacity Planning, Operations Scheduling, Risk Management and physical layout. Due to the scope of operations management, it is important to note that operations managers are not specialists but generalists who can overview the whole situation and take decisions accordingly.