Operations

Operations is the heart of any organization, where it produces the goods or services that it offers to people it seeks to serve. Whether private or public, for-profit or not-for-profit, an organization's operations defines the role it plays in society. Here, it interacts with the community, serves it and, in return, gets its patronage.

Operations has to be staffed and financed, its inputs sourced and suppliers managed, and its products marketed to beneficiaries. These support activities, namely human resource, finance, procurement, and marketing are on their own also "operations". The principles of operations also apply in each of these cases though their direct "client" is the organization's operations "core". The focus of all internal stakeholders should, of course, be on final actual customers, as they are the real paymasters.

In simple terms, operations uses raw materials and services offered by suppliers and operates its facilities and equipment to generate products, whether goods or services. Goods can be produced ahead of time and held in stock before being readied to ship to customers according to their orders. This is more expedient to customers. Alternatively, when a product is non-standard or needed extra specifications, it can only be produced after customer orders have been received. More particular, services requires the customer's presence or needs to be done in a customer specified location.

The challenges of operations are therefore which factors of production to employ; what, how much and when to produce; and how the products may be transported and distributed to where they are required. In addition, the quality of the products needed to be assured and productive capacity, which takes time to be expanded, acquired in a timely fashion.

Introduction

What is Operations?

Operations Management
MIT Sloan . YouTube
Wikipedia
Operations . Management
Modeling . Technology
Postrel 2004. Operations Everything, Boston Globe
YouTube
Operations . Management
Modeling . Technology
Google Search
Operations . Management
Modeling . Technology

Why Operations?

Horner 2000. SABRE Story: Making OR Magic at AMR ORMS Today (Jun)
Wikipedia
Productivity . Improving
Scientific Management . Industrial Engineering
Excel Scheduling 2011. Production Scheduling by Spreadsheets
Operations Management Careers in Business

Foundation

Software

Cloud-Based
NetSuite

Search

Google
Operations Management Software
Production Software
Enterprise Resource Planning
Manufacturing Requirements Planning
Advanced Planning and Scheduling

Journal

Barman, Hanna & LaForge 2001. Perceived Relevance and Quality of POM Journals: a Decade Later, Journal of Operations Management 19(3):367-385
Olson 2000. Top Journals In Operations Management and Operations Research,Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh
Petersen, Aase & Heiser 2011. Journal Ranking Analyses of Operations Management Research, International Journal of Operations and Production Management 31(4):405-422

Others

Book

Goldratt & Cox 1992. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, 2ed North River Press
Leong & Cheong 2015. Business Modeling with Spreadsheets, 3ed, McGraw-Hill
McClain, Thomas & Mazzola 1992. Operations Management: Production of Goods and Services, 3ed Prentice-Hall
Nahmias 2004. Production and Operations Analysis, 5ed, McGraw-Hill

Others

Eilon, Watson-Gandy & Christofides 1971. Distribution Management: Mathematical Modeling and Practical Analysis, Griffin, London
Hall 2003. Handbook of Transportation Science, 2ed, Kluwer
Hall 1990. Queuing Methods for Services and Manufacturing, Prentice-Hall
Hax & Candea 1984. Production and Inventory Management, Prentice-Hall
Larson & Odoni 1998. Urban Operations Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Search

Operations Management
Amazon . Google
Service Operations Management
Amazon . Google

Education & Practice

Course

Massachusetts Institute of Technology . OpenCourseware
15.760A Operations Management
15.764 Theory of Operations Management
15.768 Management of Services
15.769 Operations Strategy
15.770 Logistics Systems
15.762J Supply Chain Planning
1.203J Logistics and Transportation Planning Methods
1.221J Tranportation System

Teaching

Coursera
Operations Management
M1 Process . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07
M2 Productivity . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08
M3 Product . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08
M4 Service . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07
M5 Quality . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07

Others

Beasley. OR-Notes
Hartvigen 1998. Using The Web in the Teaching of Operations Management,Decision Line 29(1):13-14
Spearman & Hopp 1998. Teaching Operations Management From A Science of Manufacturing, Production and Operations Management 7(2):132-145
Thomas 2007. Teaching Operations Management As Process Improvement, MIT Lean Advancement Initiative, Summer Workshop
Wikispaces. Teaching Operations Management

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Google
Teaching Operations Management . Best Software
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Teaching Operations Management . Best Software

Learning

Audit and Analysis

Goodson 2002. Read a Plant - Fast, Harvard Business Review May, 105-113
MAXiT 1994. Re-engineering Checklist

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Analysis . Audit
YouTube
Analysis . Audit

Forecasting

Wikipedia
Forecasting . Predictive Analytics
Accuracy . MAE . MSE . RMSE . MAPE . SMAPE

Others

Armstrong 2001. Principles of Forecasting: A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001
Armstrong 2009. Selecting Forecasting Methods, Principles of Forecasting: A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners
Makridakis 1998. Forecasting: Methods and Applications, 3ed, Wiley
ORMS Today 2012. Forecasting Software Survey
Resource
Principles of Forecasting
Institutes & Centres
American Economic Association
Business and Economic Forecasting Unit, Monash University
Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning
International Institute of Forecasters
Lancaster Centre for Forecasting

Search

Google
Forecasting . Accuracy & Error
YouTube
Forecasting . Accuracy & Error

Practice

Organizations

American Association for Transportation And Logistics, USA
APICS Association for Operations Management, USA
Association for Manufacturing Excellence, USA
Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, USA
Institute of Operations Management, UK
Institute for Supply Management, USA
National Industrial Transportation League, USA
Supply Chain Council, USA

Topics

When the industrial revolution started, manufacturing was centered on workforce and production management, with labor and machinery being the most costly resources. Over time, the focus shifted when companies started to offshore their production to where labor costs are lower but still managing the labor and capital assets from a distance. At the same time, companies evaluated their core competencies and many chose to produce only the parts that they have a clear advantage, buying the rest from suppliers. Then, came the outsourcing wave under which companies first transferred equipment and production responsibilities to dedicated external contractors and gradually this led to the outsourcing of production process development, materials procurement and even new product design to global contract manufacturers who serve every one, including some of the companies' competitors.

The functional area has certainly come a long way and in fact, it has taken on a different name as Operations Management. This more generic term covers also service and supply chain operations. In most industrialised economy, service operations are now larger than manufacturing. But service operations still lags behind in efficiency and productivity improvements, with the exception of possibly supply chain management, which is also a service operation though not usually grouped with the others. The supply chain needed to be centrally managed because company operations have gone global, to where there are cost, tax, supply or market advantages. Supply chain management or more commonly just SCM, has a more humble beginning as a channel and product distribution area in marketing management. It then became physical distribution or logistics management when cost rather than customer relationship became more critical. The earlier changes of external parts supply, offshoring and outsourcing created this interesting phenomena; the cost of goods sold for any manufacturer is now dominated by material, transportation and warehousing costs.

Logistics operations have by now been outsourced to third-party logistics suppliers, the exporter being first-party and the consignee as second. To gain even more cost and strategic advantages, fourth-party logistics providers started offering their services. The 4PLs do not own transport or warehousing logistics assets. They are large-scale consolidators and coordinators. Their capabilities are centered around SCM physical and information systems design and management. They are more likely IT geeks than blue-collar truckers. The exciting story continues; it has not ended.

Scheduling & Control

Process

Wikipedia
Job Production . Craft . Job Shop . Workflow
Mass Production . Assembly . Production Line
Continuous Production . Construction Project

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Google
Job Production . Craft . Job Shop . Workflow
Mass Production . Assembly . Production Line
Continuous Production . Construction Project
YouTube
Job Production . Craft . Job Shop . Workflow
Mass Production . Assembly . Production Line
Continuous Production . Construction Project

Layout

Wikipedia
Facility . Process

Search

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Facility . Process
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Facility . Process

Job Scheduling

Wikipedia
Production Scheduling . Lot Scheduling
Job Shop . (2) . Flow Shop . (2)

Others

Bitran, Haas & Matsuo 1986. Production Planning of Style Goods with High Setup Costs and Forecast Revisions, Operations Research 34(2):226-236
Production-Scheduling.com. Production Scheduling by Spreadsheets.

Search

Google
Production Scheduling . Lot Scheduling
Job Shop . Flow Shop
YouTube
Production Scheduling . Lot Scheduling
Job Shop . Flow Shop

Work-shift Scheduling

Wikipedia
Work Schedule . Shift

Search

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Work Schedule . Shift
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Work Schedule . Shift

Warehouse

Wikipedia
Warehouse . Warehouse Management System
Distribution Center . DC Management System
Cold Chain . Cross-Docking
ASRS . Pick and Pack . Wave Picking

Search

Google
Warehouse . Warehouse Management System
Distribution Center . DC Management System
Cold Chain . Cross Docking
ASRS . Pick and Pack . Wave Picking
YouTube
Warehouse . Warehouse Management System
Distribution Center . DC Management System
Cold Chain . Cross Docking
ASRS . Pick and Pack . Wave Picking

Strategy & Capacity

Policy

Wikipedia
Engineering . Process
Just-In-Time . Lean . Lights Out

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Engineering . Process
Just-In-Time . Lean . Lights Out
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Engineering . Process
Just-In-Time . Lean . Lights Out

Technology Choice

Wikipedia
Manufacturing . Technology
Automated . Computer-integrated . Flexible

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Google
Manufacturing . Technology
Automated . Computer-integrated . Flexible
YouTube
Manufacturing . Technology
Automated . Computer-integrated . Flexible

Business Expansion

Wikipedia
Business Plan . Development

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Business Plan . Development
YouTube
Business Plan . Development

Capacity Planning

Leong 2015
Exercise. AlexProcessing. Performance ratios and asset acquisition.
Wikipedia
Capacity Planning . Management

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Capacity Planning . Management
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Capacity Planning . Management

Facility Location

Wikipedia
Facility Location . Location Model
Hotelling’s Law

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Facility Location . Location Model
Hotelling’s Law
YouTube
Facility Location . Location Model
Hotelling’s Law

Workforce Planning

Linard, Blake & Paterson 1999. Optimising Workforce Structure: the System Dynamics of Employment Planning, 17th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Jul 20-23, Wellington, New Zealand
Wikipedia
Planning . Recruitment . Retention
Training . Development

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Planning . Recruitment . Retention
Training . Development
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Planning . Recruitment . Retention
Training . Development

Production & Inventory

Operations Management, Coursera
M1 Process . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07
M2 Productivity . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08
M3 Product . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08