Article Summary and Critique

The operations management is the core function in any organization but responsibility for operations is often spread between many different functions and personnel. The importance of operations management has increased dramatically in recent years. Shorter product and service life cycles, better-educated and quality-conscious consumers, and the capabilities of new technology have placed increasing pressures on the operations function to improve productivity while providing a big matrix of high-quality products and services. Operations management plays a strategic as well as a tactical role in satisfying customer needs and making their firms strong competitors.
Operations managers determine what should go into an operating system, such as equipment, labor, tools, facilities, materials, energy, and information and how these inputs can best be obtained and used to satisfy the requirements of the market place. They are focusing on carefully managing the processes to produce a...