There are many challenges faced by operation managers in the field of operation management. Operation managers should equip him or her with varies issues and knowledge cross all the business function, not just the operation. To be a good operation manager, they must be able to understand the whole business flows, the products, the customers, the operation, the people and the technology. Understanding of various issue can made them deal better with various support group to improve the process and operation’s productivity and efficiency to the next level, understand problem-solving from technical point of view and able to discuss intellectually with technical parties for various operation issue and being participative. This is not strange that a lot of operation managers learn all trades before being promoted and a lot of them are well equip to tackle technical issues. Education is important for operation management career now and it is advisable to have at least a Bachelor degree as an entry requirement and potential career development in the organization. Experience in the field is important especially a good operation manager should have at least 5 to 10 years of experience.
Another challenge that operation managers will face now is dynamic business environments and be able to adapt to the changes. In this competitive business environment, customer needs requirements, technology, government rules and regulation, product life cycle, financial market, economy and politics. As customers are the most important variables in the business, manager should understand them and react to fulfill what they expect constantly. Customers now are more demanding with better knowledge on product, quality requirement and pricing. Therefore, in order to compete with others, managers should position their products better with distinctive values against others in the market.
Operation manager should think globally and act globally. Most of the