Importance of effective operations management in achieving organizational objectives
Operations management forms the heart of the organization as it controls the system of operations. According to Lowson (2002) operations management is concerned with the design, operation and improvement of the internal and external systems, resources and technologies that create and deliver the firms primary product and service combinations. The activities included within operations management are purchasing, distribution, product and process design and other external activities such as management of supply network. Operations management involves managing equipment, information, people, technology and other such resources of an organization.
The main role of operations management is to orchestrate all the resources required to produce the final product. The responsibilities include designing the product, managing resources and deciding what resources are required, arranging schedules, equipment and facilities. Moreover, it includes management of inventory, controlling quality and designing the tasks required to produce the final product. To sum up, operations management is responsible for all aspects of the process of transforming inputs into outputs (Hillier, 2004). Operations management is critical to any organization as efficient operations management can lead a company to success whereas inefficient management could lead one to failure. In order for operations management to be successful, the process must be able to add value during the transformation process of inputs to outputs. The term value added is defined as the difference between the final value of the product and the values of all the inputs. The higher the value added for a product the more productive and successful a business is said to be. Activities that fail to add value to organizations products are considered to be a waste. Operations management includes recognizing these wasteful