Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
3.
Careful screening, hiring, and training of workers to match them with the most appro-
priate job
4.
A functional division of labor that would allow each person to perform the most suitable
task in the production process, with management and workers jointly devising the best
system for the division of labor
A period of extensive research on operations management followed Taylor's early work.
The development of modern computers in the 1940s further advanced operations manage-
ment. Although the fi rst machines were both expensive and diffi cult to use, they greatly
magnifi ed the scope of numerical computations and quantitative models. George Dantzig
introduced linear programming in the 1940s, a mathematical technique that determines the
most profi table allocation of resources in situations such as transportation, least cost feed
rations, and crop acreage allocations. Production scheduling models and critical path meth-
ods were developed in the 1950s. During the 1960s, computer simulations were developed,
and the 1970s saw the introduction of a powerful materials management system called
mate-
rials requirement planning (MRP)
. The 1980s and 1990s saw the incorporation of robot-
ics, fl exible-manufacturing systems, and computer integrated manufacturing systems into
the operations management arena. More recently, information technology has further
advanced in operations management, and is now known as
enterprise requirement plan-
ning (ERP)
. ERP systems connect a fi rm's manufacturing systems with other areas such as
fi nance, customer relationship management, human resources, and supply chain manage-
ment, integrating internal and external information across the entire organization.
The
production planning
aspect of operations management includes a wide range of
decisions and activities including:
•
Devising a quality program
•
Locating a plant
•
Choosing the appropriate level of capacity
•
Designing the layout of the operation
•
Deciding on the process design
•
Specifying job tasks and responsibilities
The
supply chain management
function of operations management is discussed at length
in the next chapter. Since both production planning and supply chain management are inte-
gral parts of operations management, they must be considered in tandem. Supply chain man-
agement in operations management consists of an equally wide range of decisions and
activities including:
•
Aggregate production planning
•
Production scheduling
•
Purchasing of materials for production
•
Management of the various types of inventories
•
Transportation management
•
Distributing the fi nished goods or services
Operations management involves a system of interrelated activities and players as shown in
Figure 14.
1.
Suppliers
provide the inputs to the system. Timely delivery of high-quality
inputs infl uences all activities in the system.
Inputs
consist of the human resources (skilled
