CONCEPT OF PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT - Learn Something New Each Day

 Production and operations management refers to that key aspect of organization which is primarily concerned in the transformation of variety of inputs into desirable output (product/service). In other words, production and operations management combines and transform variety of resources used in the production/operations subsystem into desirable product as per the policies of organization in a controlled manner. 

Literally, production refers to the action of manufacturing goods from components or raw materials which normally takes place in manufacturing industry while operations refers to an active process which normally takes place in service industry. In today’s competitive business world, manufacturing industry not only gets involved in manufacturing goods from raw material or components but also in customer services. Hence, production and operations go together. 

In the recent times, production and operations management has been shortened to operations management (Gaither and Frazier, 2002). Stevenson (2012) defines operations management as a part of the organization that is responsible for producing goods and /or services. From a tea stall at the roadside to biggest conglomerates all are responsible for producing goods and services related to food, finance, health care, technology, telecommunication, transportation, etc. The production of these products require efficient operation which is based on series of behavioural, statistical, modelling and scientific theories as well as techniques. This makes production and operations management a multifaceted discipline of general management. 

Different scholars have defined production and operations management in their own varied way. Some of the widely accepted definitions on production and operations management are enlisted as follows:

 Production and operations management is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs.                                             Jay Heizer & Barry Render

Production and operations management may be defined as the design, operation, and improvement operations of the production systems that create the firm’s primary products or services.         

                                                                                        Richard B. Chase, Nicholas J. Aquilano and F.Robert Jacobs

The term production and operations management refers to the direction and control of the processes that transform inputs into products and services. 

                                                                                                                                        Lee J. Krajewski, Larry P. Ritzman

Production and operations Management (POM) is defined as the design, operation and improvement of the transformation process, which converts the various inputs into the desired outputs of the products and services.                                                                                                                                                                 Kaniska Bedi

Based on the above definitions, one can summarize production and operations management as the multifaceted discipline of general management which is involved in the conversion or transformation process of input to desired output. The process of conversion always adds the value to the input i.e. the worth of output is greater than that of the input fed.