Introduction to Operations Management

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental terms, processes, decision areas, and historical developments in operations management.

Operations

The part of a business organization that is responsible for producing goods or services.

Operations Management

The management of systems or processes that create goods and/or provide services.

Goods

Physical items that include raw materials, parts, subassemblies, and final products.

Services

Activities that provide some combination of time, location, form, or psychological value.

Supply Chain

A sequence of activities and organizations involved in producing and delivering a good or service.

Feedback

Measurements taken at various points in the transformation process.

Control

The comparison of feedback against previously established standards to determine if corrective action is needed.

Goods-Service Continuum

The spectrum showing that products are typically neither purely service-based nor purely goods-based, but fall along a range between the two.

Process

One or more actions that transform inputs into outputs.

Upper-Management Processes

Processes that govern the operation of the entire organization.

Operational Processes

Core processes that make up the value stream of an organization.

Supporting Processes

Processes that support the core operational processes of an organization.

Structural Variation in Demand

Demand fluctuations that are generally predictable and important for capacity planning.

Random Variation

Natural variation present in all processes that generally cannot be influenced by managers.

Assignable Variation

Variation that has identifiable sources and can be reduced or eliminated through analysis and corrective action.

System Design Decisions

Strategic decisions that typically require long-term commitment of resources and determine parameters of system operation, such as capacity, facility location, and facility layout.

System Operation Decisions

Tactical and operational decisions where operations managers spend most of their time, including personnel management, inventory control, scheduling, project management, and quality assurance.

Model

An abstraction and simplification of reality that omits unimportant details to focus attention on the most critical aspects of a real-life system.

Quantitative Approaches

A decision-making approach that frequently seeks to obtain a mathematically optimal solution, often supported by computer calculations.

Trade-Off

The act of giving up one thing in return for something else, such as carrying more inventory to achieve a higher level of customer service.

Systems Approach

An approach that emphasizes the interrelationships among subsystems, holding that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that organizational objectives take precedence over any single subsystem.

Pareto Phenomenon

The concept that a few critical factors account for a high percentage of occurrence of some event(s), dictating that those critical few receive the highest priority.

Craft Production

A pre-Industrial Revolution production system in which highly skilled workers used simple, flexible tools to produce small quantities of customized goods.

Division of Labor

A concept written about by Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations (1776) where an operation is divided into a series of small tasks assigned to individual workers.

Scientific Management

A movement led by Frederick Winslow Taylor emphasizing a science of management based on observation, measurement, analysis, work method improvements, and economic incentives to maximize output.

Human Relations Movement

A management movement that emphasized the importance of the human element in job design, developed by researchers such as Lillian Gilbreth, Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow, Frederick Hertzberg, Douglas McGregor, and William Ouchi.

Linear Programming

A mathematical optimization technique introduced in 1947 by George Dantzig as part of the development of decision models and management science.

Just-in-Time (JIT)

A manufacturing approach refined by Japanese manufacturers that increased productivity and fueled the quality revolution.

Sustainability

Using resources in ways that do not harm ecological systems supporting human existence, incorporating social, environmental, and economic criteria into decision making.