Operations Management – Module 1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, concepts and performance objectives from Module 1 of the Operations Management lecture.

Operations Management

The activity of managing the resources that produce and deliver an organisation’s products and services.

Operations Function

The organisational part responsible for fulfilling customer requests through production and delivery of goods and services.

Core Functions

Marketing, product/service development, and operations – the three primary functions present in every organisation.

Support Functions

Units such as accounting & finance and human resources that enable the core functions to work effectively.

Input-Transformation-Output Process

A model in which operations take inputs, transform them, and produce product and/or service outputs.

Transformed Resources

Materials, information or customers that are treated, transformed or converted by an operation.

Transforming Resources

Facilities and staff that act upon transformed resources within an operation.

Facilities

The buildings, equipment, plant and process technology used in an operation.

Staff

People who operate, maintain, plan and manage the operation’s processes.

Process

An arrangement of resources that produces some mixture of products and services; the basic building block of operations.

Internal Customer Concept

The idea that each process supplies and receives goods or information from other internal processes, treating them like customers.

Supply Network

The wider network of operations that supply an organisation and its customers, often involving several suppliers and competitors.

Four V’s

The four key characteristics of operations processes: volume, variety, variation (in demand), and visibility.

Volume Dimension

How much output an operation produces; high volume leads to repeatability, systematisation and low unit cost.

Variety Dimension

The range of different products or services offered; high variety requires flexibility and usually raises cost.

Variation Dimension

Fluctuations in demand over time; high variation necessitates capacity changes and raises operating cost.

Visibility Dimension

The degree to which customers experience or observe the operation’s activities.

Front-Office

The high-visibility, customer-facing part of an operation (e.g., airport information desk).

Back-Office

The low-visibility part of an operation where support tasks are performed (e.g., baggage handling).

Operations Performance Objectives

Five day-to-day objectives guiding operations: quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost.

Quality Objective

Consistent conformance to customers’ expectations – ‘doing things right.’

Speed Objective

Minimising the time between a customer request and receipt of the product or service.

Dependability Objective

Delivering goods or services exactly when promised, creating reliability.

Flexibility Objective

The capability to change what, how or when the operation produces to meet customer needs.

Cost Objective

Producing goods and services at a cost that permits competitive pricing while yielding acceptable returns.

Product/Service Flexibility

Ability to introduce new or modified products and services.

Mix Flexibility

Ability to produce a wide range or mix of offerings.

Volume Flexibility

Ability to change the level of output to match demand.

Delivery Flexibility

Ability to alter the timing of product or service delivery.

Mass Customization

Producing individually customised products or services with high-volume, low-cost processes.

Agility

Combining speed and flexibility to respond rapidly to uncertain market requirements across the supply chain.

Productivity

The ratio of outputs produced to inputs used in an operation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The broader societal responsibilities and concerns that operations managers must consider beyond direct business goals.

Resilience

The ability of an operation to recover quickly and with minimal disruption after a failure.

Operations Strategy

The set of guiding principles linking minute-by-minute decisions to long-term organisational goals.

Planning and Control

Deciding what operations resources should be doing and ensuring they actually do it.

Operation Design

Determining the physical form, composition and processes of products and services.

Internal Effectiveness

Cost reduction achieved by improving quality, speed and dependability within the operation.