Operations Management Back to Management Department Homepage Back to Concentrations Operations management deals with management of the activities involved in the purchasing, production and delivery of goods or services by an organization.
Operations managers work to find the best, most efficient way to get something done.
Some of the activities of operations workers are work flow analysis, forecasting, capital budgeting, facility and job design, capacity and location analysis, planning work-force variables, material requirements planning, inventory ordering procedures, quality control and warehousing management. Operations management is not industry-specific, nor is it restricted to manufacturing enterprises. Production has to do with the production of goods and services, and almost all organizations in the private and public sector need efficient production and operations systems. In addition to traditional manufacturing companies, we can consider organizations such a merchandising companies, railroads, airlines, hospital, hotels, restaurants, insurance companies, governmental and social service agents, etc., to be engaged in production even though their end products are services and not physical products. The fundamentals of how best to produce have many elements that are common to service as well as manufacturing organizations.