Production & Operations Management

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, tools, and processes in production and operations management, including production control, manufacturing systems, facility layouts, inventory management, and planning charts.

Production

The creation of goods using land, labor, materials, capital, entrepreneurship, and knowledge (the factors of production).

Production Management

All the activities managers engage in to help firms create goods.

Operations Management

A specialized area in management that converts or transforms resources into goods and services, including inventory management, quality control, production scheduling, and follow-up services.

Production Control

The phase of the production process that coordinates operations through planning, routing, scheduling, dispatching, and follow-up to turn inputs into outputs.

Process Manufacturing

The part of production that physically or chemically changes materials (such as shaping plastic using heat and pressure).

Assembly Process

The part of production that puts together components to create a finished good.

Continuous Process

A production process characterized by long production runs that turn out finished goods over time.

Intermittent Process

A production process where production runs are short and the producer adjusts machines frequently to make different products.

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

The use of computers in the design of products.

Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)

The use of computers in the manufacturing of products.

Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)

The uniting of computer-aided design with computer-aided manufacturing, which can cut up to $80\%$ of the time needed to program machines to make parts.

Mass Customization

Tailoring products to meet the needs of a large number of individual customers.

Nanomanufacturing

A manufacturing approach capable of manipulating materials on a molecular level.

Facility Layout

The physical arrangement of resources, including people, to most efficiently produce goods and provide services.

Assembly Line Layout

A facility layout in which workers do only a few tasks at a time as products move through the sequence of production.

Modular Layout

A facility layout where teams of workers produce more complex units of a final product.

Fixed-Position Layout

A facility layout that allows workers to congregate around a stationary product being assembled.

Purchasing

The operational function that searches for high-quality material resources, finds the best suppliers, and negotiates the best price for goods and services.

Just-in-Time (JIT) Inventory Control

A production process in which a minimum of inventory is kept on hand and parts, supplies, and other needs are delivered just in time to go on the assembly line.

Quality

Consistently producing what the customer wants while reducing errors before and after delivery.

Six Sigma Quality

A quality control measure and standard that allows only $3.4$ defects per million opportunities.

Lean Manufacturing

The production of goods using fewer resources compared to mass production, typically requiring $\frac{1}{2}$ the human effort, $\frac{1}{3}$ the engineering effort, $\frac{1}{2}$ the floor space, $90\%$ less inventory, and having half the defects.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

A project management method for analyzing the tasks involved in completing a given project and estimating the time needed for each task.

Critical Path

The sequence of tasks in a PERT network that takes the longest time to complete.

Gantt Chart

A bar graph showing the progress of current production projects and their completion status.

Urethane

A common industrial chemical sprayed on a hot tub's acrylic and plastic shell to add rigidity.