Changes in operation management

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Operations Management Project |
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Table of contents

I. Introduction 3

II. The history of Operations Management 3
A. The craft manufacturing era 3
B. The mass production era 3
C. The modern era 3

III. The recent trends in Operations Management 3
A. Quality 4
1. New international quality standards 4
2. Quality legislation 4
B. Ethics 5
1. Environmentallyfriendly production 5
2. Work conditions changes 6
C. Information technologies 6
1. Information Technologies 6
2. E-commerce Erreur ! Signet non défini.

IV. Conclusion 8

Bibliography 8

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Introduction
Every day, you use a large variety of goods and services. Consider your breakfast’s ingredients. Unless you are a farmer and produced them yourself, they passed through manydifferent processing steps between the farmer and your table. And yet, most of us give little thought to the processes that produce these goods and services for our use. The study of operations deals with how the goods and services are produced.
Every organization has an operation function, whether or not it is named “operations”. Operations management is the set of activities that creates goods andservices by converting inputs into outputs and distributing them to customers. This function plays a critical role in determining how well an organization satisfies its clients. Operations management is therefore one of the three major functions in any business, with finance and marketing.
Operations management has considerably evolved over time. In the last decades, the need to managemanufacturing efficiently has led to a sharp increase in interest in operations management.
We will see in a first part the history of operations management, that is to say how it has evolved over time. Then, we are going to focus on the recent changes in the discipline in terms of quality, ethics and information technologies.
The history of Operations Management
The craft manufacturing era
Until theend of the 18th century, craft industry and agriculture were predominant everywhere in the world. Craft manufacturing is the process by which skilled people produce differentiated goods in low volume in order to meet customers’ needs. This system worked well for small-scale production and low levels of competition.
The mass production era
At the end of the 18th century, the invention of thesteam engine paved the way for the Industrial Revolution. Little by little, countries evolved from an agricultural economy to an industrial one. Craft manufacturing began to be replaced by mass production. Mass production means producing undifferentiated goods in high volume. In fact, it is the opposite of craft manufacturing. In one hand, customers could not choose goods made with their ownspecifications anymore. Instead, they were expected to buy what was supplied. In the other hand, producers focused on diminishing costs and prices, setting up large scale production. At that time, the need of Operations Management became obvious. Numerous individuals contributed to the development of this new discipline thanks to innovations.
The system of standardized and interchangeable parts, calledThe “American system of manufacture” was the first of them. Instead of being produced for a specific piece of equipment, parts were standardized so that they could be used in different models. This system permitted companies to specialize in particular parts of production processes and to gain efficiency. It also paved the way for the division of labor.
At the beginning of the 20th century, twomen revolutionized the operations management. Frederick Taylor introduced his method of “scientific management”, which sought to analyze work in order to maximize performance and productivity. Taylor and his colleagues, contributed to the improvement of work methods by systematically seeking the “best way” to produce. That is why he matched employees to the right job, then trained them thoroughly...