Operation management has existed for as long as people have produces goods and services.

Although
the origin of operations can be traced to the early civilizations, most of our attention in this section will
be focused in the last 200 years.

In the following discussion, the history of operations management organized according to major
contributions or thrusts rather than in chronological terms. On this basis, there are seven major areas of
contribution to the operations management field.

DIVISION OF LABOR

The division of labor is based on a very simple concept, specialization of labor to a single task can result
in greater productivity and efficiency than the assignment of many tasks to a single worker. The first
economist to discus the division of labor was Adam smith, author of classic wealth of nation (1776).
Smith noted that specialization of labor increases output because of three factors

(1) increased dexterity on the parts of workers.

(2) avoidance of lost of time due to changing jobs.
(3) The addition of tools and machines.

Later in 1832, Charles Babbage expanded on these ideas with his study of pin manufacturing. And also
notice that specialization of labor not only increases productivity but also makes it possible to pay wages
for only the specific skills required. Although division of labor has been widely applied, it is now being
reevaluated because of its effect on worker morale, turnover, job boredom, and job performance.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

The scientific management era brought widespread changes to the management of factories. The
movement was spearheaded by the efficiency engineer and inventor Frederick Winslow Tailor, who is
often referred to as the father of scientific management. Tailor believed in a science of management,
based of observation, measurement, analysis and improvement of work methods, and economic
incentives. He studied work methods in great detail to identify the best method for doing each job.
Taylor also believed that management should be responsible for planning, carefully selecting and
training workers, finding the best way to perform each job, achieving cooperation between
management and workers, and separating management activities from work activities.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Industrial revolution was in essence the substitution of machine power for human power. Great impetus
was given to this revolution in 1764 by James watts steam engine, which was a major source of mobile
machine power for agriculture and factories. The industrial revolution was further accelerated in the late
1800s with the development of the gasoline engine and electricity.in this early mass production
concepts were developed, but they did not gain widespread use until world war 1, when heavy demands
for production were placed on American industry. In the earliest days of manufacturing , goods were
produced using craft production ; highly skilled workers using simple, flexible tools produced good
according to customer specifications.

Craft production had major shortcoming , because products were made by skilled craftsmen who
custom fitted parts production was slow an d costly. And when parts failed the replacement also had to
be custom made, which was also slow and costly. In this led the production cost to decrease as volume
increased and there was no economies of scale which would have provided a major incentive for
companies to expand

A major change occurred that gave the industrial revolution a boost the development of standard
gauging systems. This greatly reduced the need for custom made goods. Factories began to spring up
and grow rapidly, providing jobs for countless people who were attracted in large numbers from rural
areas.

HUMAN RELATION

Human relation movement highlighted the central importance of motivation and the human element in
work design. Elton mayo and others developed this line of thought in the 1930 at western electric,
where the now famous Hawthorne studies were conducted. These studies indicate that worker
motivation along with the physical and technical work environment is a crucial element in improving
productivity. This led to a moderation of the scientific management school, which had emphasized the
more technical aspects of work design. And also recognized as a method with a great deal of potential
for humanizing the work place as well as improving productivity. During the 1940s, Abraham Maslow
developed motivational theories, which Frederick Hertzberg refined in the 1950s Douglas McGregory
added theory x and theory y in the 1960s. these theories represented the two ends of the spectrum of
how employees view work. Theory X on the negative end, assumed that workers do not like to work
and have to be controlled such as rewards and punished in order to get them to do good work. And also
theory y spectrum , assumed that workers enjoy the physical and mental aspects of works and become
committed to work. The theory x approach resulted in an adversarial environment, whereas the theory y
approach resulted in empower workers and a more cooperative spirit. In 1970s, William Ouchi added
theory Z which combined the Japanese approach with such features as lifetime employment, employee
problem solving. Also this approach features short-term employment, specialists, and individual decision
making and responsibility.

DECISION MODELS

Decision models can be used to represent a productive system in mathematical terms. Also expressed in
term of performance measure , constraints, and decision variables. The purpose of that models is to find
optimal or satisfactory values of decision variables which improve systems performance within the
applicable constraints. This model can then help guide management decision making. One of the first
uses of this approach occurred in 1915, when F. W .Harris developed an economic order quantity
formula for inventory management. In 1931, Shewhart developed quantitative decision models for use
in statistical quality control work. In 1947, George Dantzig developed the simplex method of linear
programming, which made possible the solution of a whole class of mathematical models. In the 1950s,
the development of computer simulation models contributed much to the study and analysis of
operations. Since the 1950s, the use of various decision models in operations has been greatly
expanded, and detailed discussions of models and provided throughout this text.