Question

Production and operations management (is there a difference?)

• Crayola products are a good example for this unit. We could talk about them in the production section or in marketing – or both! When was the last time you bought a Crayola product? Which one(s) did you buy?
• Remember Great Western Supply and Ostrom’s Mushroom Farm? That example from Unit 1 is also a great example for production management!

Production processes:

Analytic production ?

Synthetic production ?

Continuous process ?

Intermittent process ?

Types of production:

            Mass

            Flexible

            Customer-driven

                      

How should I lay out the factory or retail establishment? Is there one best way?

Make, buy, or lease?

• Selecting suppliers
• Inventory control

Production planning and control

• Gantt and PERT
• Robots: I want one!
• CAD/BIM

Quality: isn’t this a component of competitive differentiation? And shouldn’t it be part of the company’s marketing plan? What is the difference between a production manager’s view of quality and the customers’?

Answer 1

The primary objective of production and operations management is to effectively manage and utilize those resources of the firm that are essential for the production of goods and services. Production management refers to the management of activities related to the production of goods. Whereas on the other hand, operations management is a step ahead of production management, or it can be said that the production management is a part of the operations management. Operations Management, as the name suggests is the administration of business operations, by the managers of the organization.

Planning and control are an essential ingredient for success of an operation unit. The benefits of production planning and control are - It ensures that optimum utilization of production capacity is achieved, by proper scheduling of the machine items which reduces the idle time as well as over use, It ensures that inventory level are maintained at optimum levels at all time, i.e. there is no over-stocking or under-stocking, It also ensures that production time is kept at optimum level and thereby increasing the turnover time, Since it overlooks all aspects of production, quality of final product is always maintained. Production planning and control are essential for customer delight and overall success of an organization.

Production and Operations Management are so closely intertwined, that it is quite difficult to differentiate the two. Production management covers administer all the activities which are involved in the process of production. On the other hand, operations management entails all the activities involved in the production of goods and delivery of services such as material management, quality management, maintenance management, process management, process design, product design and so on.