Operations Management

SUMMARY: Operations management deals with planning, organizing, controlling, directing, motivating and coordinating all the activities of an operations system. Timely and proper implementation of operations management concepts assists in the effective management of resources which are used by organizations to produce goods and services. Operations management, until recently, was considered secondary to finance and marketing. But now, organizations are realizing the significance of operations management, and recognizing it as a critical functional area. Operations management decisions include long term strategic decisions on issues like facility location and capacity determination, mid-term tactical decisions on issues like identification of appropriate manpower and determination of inventory levels, and short term operational decision like production scheduling and job assignment. To be successful in these activities, operations managers