BUS 241: Introduction to Production & Operations Management

Vocabulary flashcards covering core definitions, production methods, and management decisions from the introductory lecture on Production & Operations Management.

Production and Operations Management ("POM")

The management discipline that seeks to ensure goods or services are made in the required quantity, to the required standard, at the right time, and in the most economically efficient manner by transforming inputs into outputs.

Production Management

The specific term used for management activities in firms engaged in primary production (such as mining, oil drilling, and forestry) and secondary production (manufacturing).

Operations Management

The preferred term used for management activities in firms belonging to the tertiary or service sector.

Transformation Process

The process (also known as the conversion process) of transforming production and operational inputs—such as raw materials, human resources, capital, technology, and information—into outputs that meet customer needs.

Market Orientation

An approach to deciding what to produce that relies on understanding market demands and manufacturing products specifically to meet consumer needs.

Product Orientation

An approach to production where a business creates products based on what it is best at or what it believes will maximize profit without market influences, trusting customers will buy them.

Job Production

A method of production used for single, unique, one-off items where each individual product is completed entirely before the next one is started.

Batch Production

A production method where products move together through distinct manufacturing stages in separate groups or sets, completing each stage before the whole batch advances.

Flow Production

A continuous production process where individual items move immediately from stage to stage as soon as ready, optimized for high volumes of standardized products.

Cell Production

A production method in which flow production is split into self-contained team units (cells) responsible for a major part of the finished product, using multi-skilled workers.

4 Major Decisions in Production

The core decisions required in production and operations management: What to produce, How to produce, When to produce, and Where to produce.

Footloose Industry

A type of business (such as a call center) that communicates with customers via the internet and can locate anywhere without being constrained by raw materials or physical proximity.

Bulk-Increasing Industry

An industry whose finished products are heavier or more expensive to transport than the raw materials, requiring facilities to locate close to the consumer market.

Bulk-Decreasing Industry

An industry whose finished products are cheaper or easier to transport than the raw materials, causing facilities to locate near the source of raw materials.

Clustering

The concentration of businesses in the same industry within the same geographic location (such as Silicon Valley) to share benefits like qualified labor pools and proximity to suppliers.