Robbins & Coulter Management Chapter 18B: Managing Operations Module

Vocabulary flashcards covering core operational and value chain concepts from Chapter 18B of Robbins and Coulter's Management (14th Edition).

Operations Management

The transformation process that converts resources into finished goods and services.

Manufacturing Organizations

Organizations that produce physical goods.

Service Organizations

Organizations that produce nonphysical products in the form of services.

Productivity

An operational measure that can lead to economic growth and development for countries, while giving individual organizations a more competitive cost structure and the ability to offer more competitive prices.

Value

The performance characteristics, features, and attributes, and any other aspects of goods and services for which customers are willing to give up resources.

Value Chain

The entire series of organizational work activities that add value at each step from raw materials to finished product.

Value Chain Management

The process of managing the sequence of activities and information along the entire value chain.

Goal of Value Chain Management

To create a value chain strategy that meets and exceeds customers' needs and desires and allows for full and seamless integration among all members of the chain.

Benefits of Value Chain Management

Four primary organizational advantages: improved procurement, improved logistics, improved product development, and enhanced customer order management.

Requirements of a Value Chain Strategy

Six main organizational elements: coordination and collaboration, technology investment, organizational processes, leadership, employees, and organizational culture and attitudes.

Organizational Processes

The ways that organizational work is done.

Obstacles to Value Chain Management

Four primary barriers: organizational barriers, cultural attitudes, required capabilities, and people.

Intellectual Property

Proprietary information that's critical to an organization's efficient and effective functioning and competitiveness.

Quality

The ability of a product or service to reliably do what it's supposed to do and to satisfy customer expectations.

Quality Initiatives

Managerial actions focused on quality consisting of planning for quality, organizing and leading for quality, and controlling for quality.

ISO 900

A series of international quality management standards that set uniform guidelines for processes to ensure products conform to customer requirements.

Six Sigma

A quality program designed to reduce defects and help lower costs, save time, and improve customer satisfaction.

Mass Customization

Providing customers with a product when, where, and how they want it.

Lean Organization

An organization that understands what customers want, identifies customer value by analyzing all activities required to produce products, and then optimizes the entire process from the customer's perspective.