Operations management is an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, and

controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production
of goods 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 not concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of raw
materials, labor, and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and/or services).[1] The relationship of
operations management to senior management in commercial contexts can be compared to the
relationship of line officers to 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 United States 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, factory management,
equipmentmaintenance management, production control, industrial labor relations and skilled trades
supervision, strategic manufacturing policy, systems analysis,productivity analysis and cost control,
and materials planning.[2][3] Management, including operations management, is like engineering in
that it blends art withapplied science. People skills, creativity, rational analysis, and knowledge
oftechnology are all required for success.

Difference between goods and services

There are obvious differences between goods and services that are
analyzed based on characteristics of each. A good is a tangible object
used either once or repeatedly. A service is intangible. The tangibility
differentiator indicates the ability to touch, smell, taste and see which
is absent in services. This can be a deterrent to the service receiver
to gauge the quality and dependant on the service company
reputation. In the case of goods the ownership of the product is

transferable from sellers to buyers, whereas in services there is no

ownership involved.
On the quality front, with goods it is homogeneous, once produced the
quality is uniform across all line of products. They can be separated
from the seller/ provider and not dependant on the source for its
delivery to the purchaser. With regard to service it is inseparable from
the service provider and heterogeneous, where each time the service is
offered it may vary in quality, output, and delivery. It cannot be
controlled and is dependant on the human effort in achieving that
quality hence is variable from producer, customer and daily basis.
Another key distinction is perishability of services and the non
perishability of goods. Goods will have a long storage life and are
mostly non perishable. Whereas services are delivered at that moment
and do not have a long life or cannot be stored for repeat use. They do
not bear the advantage of shelf life as in the case of goods like empty
seats in airlines. With the production and consumption taking place
simultaneously in services, it differs from goods on simultaneity and
the provisions for quality control in the process.
Both goods and services need not be driven by economic motives.
Several times goods and services are linked closely and cannot be
detached. For example on purchase of a car, the good is the car but the
processing, the provision of accessories, after sales activities are all
services. It is essential to note that the difference between pure goods
and pure services are in contrast but most goods and services exist in
between with a mix of both. For instance, in a restaurant, food refers

to goods while the service is the waiters offering, the ambience, the
setting of tables amongst others.
Summary:
1. Goods are tangible, and transferable while the services are
intangible

and

non

transferable.

2. Goods are separable, and non perishable while services are

inseparable.
3. Goods are homogeneous while services are heterogeneous.

There are five essential differences between services and goods. The first is that a service is
an intangible process that cannot be weighed or measured, whereas a good is a tangible output of a
process that has physical dimensions. This distinction has important business implications since a
service innovation, unlike a product innovation, cannot be patented. Thus, a company with a new
concept must expand rapidly before competitors copy its procedures. Service intangibility also
presents a problem for customers since, unlike with a physical product, they cannot try it out and test
it before purchase.
The second is that a service requires some degree of interaction with the customer for it to be a
service. The interaction may be brief, but it must exist for the service to be complete. Where face-toface service is required, the service facility must be designed to handle the customer's presence.
Goods, on the other hand, are generally produced in a facility separate from the customer. They can
be made according to a production schedule that is efficient for the company.
The third is that services, with the big exception of hard technologies such as ATMs and information
technologies such as answering machines and automated Internet exchanges, are
inherently heterogeneousthey vary from day to day and even hour by hour as a function of the
attitudes of the customer and the servers. Thus, even highly scripted work such as found in call
centers can produce unpredictable outcomes. Goods, in contrast, can be produced to meet very tight
specifications day-in and day-out with essentially zero variability. In those cases where a defective
good is produced, it can be reworked or scrapped.
The fourth is that services as a process are perishable and time dependent, and unlike goods, they
can't be stored. You cannot come back last week for an air flight or a day on campus.
And fifth, the specifications of a service are defined and evaluated as a package of features that affect
the five senses. These features are

Supporting facility (location, decoration, layout, architectural appropriateness, supporting

equipment).

Facilitating goods (variety, consistency, quantity of the physical goods that go with the service;
for example, the food items that accompany a meal service).

Explicit services (training of service personnel, consistency of service performance, availability

and access to the service, and comprehensiveness of the service).

Implicit services (attitude of the servers, atmosphere, waiting time, status, privacy and
security, and convenience).

Scientific Management
Scientific Management, also called Taylorism,[1] is a theory
of management thatanalyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic
efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to
the engineering of processes and to management.

Scientific management is based on the work of the US engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) who in his 1911
book The Principles Of Scientific Management laid down the fundamental principles of largescale manufacturing through assembly-line factories. It emphasizes rationalization and standardization of work
through division of labor, time and motion studies, work measurement, and piece-rate wages.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/scientific-management.html#ixzz3tHDhvOku

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from
about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand
production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes,
improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use ofsteam power, the development of machine
tools and the rise of the factory system. It also included the change from wood and other biofuels to coal. Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of
employment, value of output and capital invested; the textile industry was also the first to use
modern production methods.[1]:40
The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was
influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit
unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial
Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population began to increase consistently
for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve
until the late 19th and 20th centuries.[2][3][4]

Henry GAntss
) was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant who is best known for
developing the Gantt chart in the 1910s.
Gantt charts were employed on major infrastructure projects including theHoover Dam and Interstate
highway system and continue to be an important tool in project management and programme
management.

Gantt created many different types of charts.[11] He designed his charts so that foremen or
other supervisors could quickly know whether production was on schedule, ahead of schedule, or
behind schedule. Modern project management software includes this critical function.
Gantt (1903) describes two types of balances:

the "mans record", which shows what each worker should do and did do, and

the "daily balance of work", which shows the amount of work to be done and the amount that
is done.

Gantt gives an example with orders that will require many days to complete. The daily balance has
rows for each day and columns for each part or each operation. At the top of each column is the
amount needed. The amount entered in the appropriate cell is the number of parts done each day
and the cumulative total for that part. Heavy horizontal lines indicate the starting date and the date
that the order should be done. According to Gantt, the graphical daily balance is "a method of
scheduling and recording work". In this 1903 article, Gantt also describes the use of:

"production cards" for assigning work to each operator and recording how much was done
each day.

Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford
Motor Company, and the sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass
production.
Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line,[1] he developed and manufactured
the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the
automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance, that would profoundly impact
the landscape of the twentieth century. His introduction of the Model Tautomobile revolutionized
transportation and American industry. As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of

the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of
inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism
as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many
technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout
most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to
the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently.
Ford was also widely known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I, and also for being
the publisher of antisemitic texts such as the book The International Jew.[2]

Frank gilbert
Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. (July 7, 1868 June 14, 1924) was an early advocate of scientific
management and a pioneer of motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and central
figure of Cheaper by the Dozen. He and his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth were themselves industrial
engineers and efficiency experts who contributed to the study of industrial engineering in fields such
as motion study and human factors.

Gilbreth served in the U.S. Army during World War I. His assignment was to find quicker and more
efficient means of assembling and disassembling small arms. According to Claude George (1968),
Gilbreth reduced all motions of the hand into some combination of 17 basic motions. These included
grasp, transport loaded, and hold. Gilbreth named the motions therbligs "Gilbreth" spelled
backwards with lettersth transposed to their original order. He used a motion picture camera that
was calibrated in fractions of minutes to time the smallest of motions in workers.
Their emphasis on the "one best way" and therbligs predates the development ofcontinuous quality
improvement (CQI),(George (1968, p. 98)) and the late 20th century understanding that repeated
motions can lead to workers experiencing repetitive motion injuries.
Gilbreth was the first to propose the position of "caddy" (Gilbreth's term) to a surgeon, who handed
surgical instruments to the surgeon as called for. Gilbreth also devised the standard techniques used
by armies around the world to teach recruits how to rapidly disassemble and reassemble their
weapons even when blindfolded or in total darkness.

Harrington Emerson (August 2, 1853 September 2, 1931) was an Americanefficiency

engineer and business theorist,[1] who founded the management consultancy firm Emerson Institute
in New York City in 1900. He is known for his pioneering contributions to scientific management,[2]
[3]
where he developed a contrasting approach to efficiency.[4]
Emerson distinguished his system from scientific management based on three characteristics:[9]

Record of efficiency and costs in locomotive repairs by Emerson, 1912

1. He calls his system "efficiency" rather than "scientific management."

2. He opposed functional management with its numerous heads, and substitutes for it the "line
and staff" idea, under which there is but one boss (the line). The functional experts (or staff)
whom Emerson employs are not executive officers, but simply advise the single responsible
authority; and it is the latter who puts all plans into practice through command over his "line"
subordinates. The idea is to avoid creating too many bosses, and yet operate under expert
advice.
3. Emerson uses a wage system which bases remuneration partly upon the "efficiency per
cent" of the employee. Standard times are set on the basis of time study analysis, and the
workman who just completes the same in the allotted time is credited with 100 per cent
efficiency.

Frederick Taylor
The telephone became a useful tool for managers to keep in contact with the widely
dispersed parts of their businesses. New methods of management were devised that
stressed central control, planning, and efficient production methods. One of the leading
advocates of "scientific management" was Frederick Winslow Taylor.
American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency.[2] He was one of the
first management consultants.[3] Taylor was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency
Movement and his ideas, broadly conceived, were highly influential in the Progressive Era (1890s1920s). Taylor summed up his efficiency techniques in his 1911 book The Principles of Scientific
Management. His pioneering work in applying engineering principles to the work done on the factory
floor was instrumental in the creation and development of the branch of engineering that is now
known as industrial engineering. Taylor was also an athlete who competed nationally in tennis and
golf.

RE

plan a production schedule for the job

implement and control the production schedule

review and adjust the schedule where needed

determine the human resources required

determine the material resources required

manage human and material resources to meet production targets

make decisions about equipment use, maintenance, modification and procurement

work out and implement standard operating procedures for production operations

ensure that standard operating procedures are adhered to

ensure implementation and adherence to health and safety procedures

set product quality standards

monitor quality standards of products

implement and enforce quality control and tracking programs to meet quality
objectives

analyze production and quality control to detect and correct problems

determine and implement improvements to the production process

prepare and maintain production reports

monitor and review the performance of staff and organize necessary interventions for
improvement

estimate production costs

set production budgets

manage production budgets

implement cost control programs

ensure efficient collaboration and co-ordination between relevant departments

including procurement, distribution and management

Education and Experience

usually require a bachelor's degree - business administration,
engineering, industrial technology

management,

knowledge and experience in production and manufacturing processes and

techniques

knowledge of raw materials

knowledge of quality systems and standards

knowledge of health and safety standards and compliance

knowledge of process improvement techniques

knowledge of business, finance and management principles

knowledge of human resource principles and practices

knowledge of machines and tools

knowledge of engineering and technology principles and practices

solid computer skills

Key Competencies

critical thinking and problem solving skills

planning and organizing

co-ordination and control

time management

attention to detail

decision-making

communication skills

persuasiveness

negotiation

influencing and leading

delegation

team work

conflict management

adaptability

stress tolerance