Nature and scope of operations management?

Answer 1

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.