Discuss of the Significance and Recent Trends in Operations Management

Operations management is an area of business concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as little resource as needed, and effective in terms of meeting customer requirements. It is concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labor and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services).Significance and recent trends in operations managementOperations traditionally refers to the production of goods and services separately,although the distinction between these two main types of operations is increasingly difficult to make as manufacturers tend to merge product and service offerings. More generally, Operations Management aims to increase the content of value-added activities in any given process.Fundamentally, these value-adding creative activities should be aligned with market opportunity (see Marketing) for optimal enterprise per formance to be able produce professional managers capable of fulfilling strategic roles within business and government enterprises the need for the practice of operations management cannot be forgone. Operations management is very important in business operations since it forms the heart of the organisation by controlling the system of operation. Operations management deals with the design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver a firm’s primary products and services.Like marketing and finance, operations management is a functional field of business with clear management responsibilities. Guinness Ghana limited is a company in which produces alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages such as Guinness and Malta Guinness respectively.The effect of the global economic crisis has been profound on the UK business sector. As a result, a new generation of entrepreneurs and business owners looks set to emerge – and many individuals who found themselves lea ving college within the last decade will soon be seen to embark on careers which demand a significant degree of managerial skill.Subsequently, operations management has developed as a specialist subject of study on many management courses – but how does it differ from  other more well-known aspects of business such as sales management and project management? And what is its importance to business today?In the simplest terms, operations management is different because its primary concern is usually the efficiency of the production or delivery of goods or services within a company. Consequently, an operations manager will typically need to manage the amount of resources – for example, materials or labor – needed for the desired output.In more depth, those eager to study operations management on any one of many management courses in the UK and US will quickly learn of the diversity of, and complexities within, the field.The focus on such modules will usually cove r:facilities – including the planning and management of their location, analyses of production methods in order to ensure output is achieved with as little resource as possible, as well as issues with quality control and the risk of error.The importance of operations management today is therefore quite easy to see,even if not necessarily in reference to the subject as an entire job description, but instead referring to the skills useful to anyone in a managerial position.Indeed, with the growth of smaller companies – especially within the digital and media sectors -the latter is more significant.Increasingly, the trend among 21st Century industries is to offer both product sand services, such as specialist programmes and tools alongside consultancy, in an effort for businesses to differentiate themselves and to offer more to prospective clients. Those with operations management skills will therefore be more prepared for differentiation between planning, control and del ivery of either products or services.Recent Trends In operations managementGlobal Competition Operations Strategy Flexibility Cycle Time Reduction Business Process Re-engineering Supply Chain Management Workers Involvement TQM Lean ManufacturingRe-engineering etc. Organizations must improve their products as well as productivity to retain their market share. The long-term success of an organization requires investments in technology because new technologies can improve efficiency and productivity. In this chapter, we discussed how organizations can benefit from automation. Some of the recent technological developments in the field of operations management, which include computer-aided design (CAD), direct and indirect computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), flexible manufacturing system (FMS), and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) were discussed in the chapter.Computer Aided Design (CAD) is used for designing products and processes on a computer terminal. Computer systems assist i n the creation, modification, analysis and optimization of a design. In Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), computers are used either directly to control the processing equipment, or indirectly to support manufacturing operations. Automated machines usually perform a variety of operations, depending on the instructions received from the computer with respect to the sequence and operational specifications of a process.FMS is a form of flexible automation in which several machine tools are linked to the materials-handling system. A central  computer controls all aspects of the system. CIM refers to a computer application that connects various computerized systems into a single multi-functional system. Another development in the field of technology is artificial intelligence (AI). AI enables computers to exhibit some of the characteristics of human intelligence, like the capacity for learning, understanding language,reasoning and problem solving.EDI is a system, wherein standardized forms of electronic documents are transferred between two computer systems. Customers and suppliers or departments within the same organization can share and transmit information electronically in real time using EDI