Operations management is one of the functional areas of management and it is important for every MBA student to have an understanding of this subject. Hence in this course on operations management you are going to understand about the field and the important
decisions areas in this field. In Unit I, we start with the introduction to the field, define operations management and describe its importance. Since the scope of this subject includes operations of both manufacturing and service industries, the
differences between goods and services and their implications are discussed. We explore the scope of the field and appreciate how the ten critical decision areas are addressed by the different functions of operations management. We discuss how the
field of operations management has evolved and the important milestones in its evolution. We conclude Unit I with an understanding of the recent developments in field and how operations strategy is devised within the competitive environment of today
and how firms can achieve world-class level of performance. In unit II, we address the topic of facilities planning. After establishing what is meant by strategic capacity management, we address the issues and tools in capacity planning and expansion
are discussed. With an understanding of how capacity for a plant is determined, we move on to understand the topic of facility location. We discuss how facility location decision can be approached and the models that can be applied to facility location
decision. The third topic that we address in Unit II is what items to make inside and which ones to buy from outside suppliers. Then we look at how to procure the items that we decide to buy. Right from identifying the source to managing the suppliers,
we discuss the various issues in the procurement process. In Unit III, we discuss the topics related to designing an operations system. We address the importance of product design, the various factors influencing it, and the process of product development.
Then we look at how the product design influences the process design and how process design decisions are taken. We conclude te unit with the topic of facility layout, where we discuss the principles, types and tools that are used in facility layout
design. Unit IV is concerned with the various topics of planning of operations The Unit starts with the topic of forecasting which is the basis for various levels of operations planning, and further discusses the various levels of operations planning.
The Unit concludes with discussion on theory of constraint and how synchronous manufacturing can be achieved. In Unit V, we focus on various issues related to quality management. Right from defining quality, the contribution of various quality gurus,
TQM philosophies and tool we discuss the various dimensions of quality management. We conclude our discussion with topics of lean mananagement and six sigma methodologies. Through these five units, we address the various important functions of operations
management.
