1. Introduction to Operations Management
Objectives of lecture:
To understand what is operations management
Describe the role of OM within the organisation
To understand the relationship between operations management and the division of labour
To know the constitutive elements of an operation system
To discuss the difference between products and services

2. What is Operations Management?
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT is the design and operations of production/service systems
Without operations management:
A normal queue at a bank would take 1 to 2 hours …
A 3 hours ferry crossing could require 9 hours, if not several days!
The Eurostar would take 15 hours to go from London to Paris…
Mail would rarely be delivered…
In other words:
Unless we could totally revise our every day’s perceptions of time and performance…
… we could not live in such a world

3. Contemporary Issues Shift in balance of power to consumers
Achieving higher levels of productivity
Creating higher quality products
Delivering better customer service
Achieving shorter delivery times
Reducing labor and material costs
Globalization of business and markets
E-commerce
From a primary sector to a secondary sector economy
From a manufacturing to a service economy
E-service economy
Case of developing economies: can we leap-frog the manufacturing stage?
Stress that what takes place is the contrary: more and more pressure on high levels of performance

4. International Division of Labour
Source: From Joseph E. Stiglitz, Principles of Micro-economics, 2nd ed. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1997), p. 58.

5. The Value Chain and Its Support Functions
Role of OM within an Organisation

6. Division of Labour
The objective is to specialise jobs by reducing them to their most elementary tasks
Results from the simultaneous application of two principles
horizontal division of labour
(Smith, Babbage)
vertical division of labour
(Taylor, introduction of management science; Gilbreth, time and motion studies)
The vertical division of labour implies:
A design and planning activity
A control activity
A co-ordination role for operations management

7. The Transformation Process within OM

8. Input-Transformation-Output Relationships for Typical Systems
Components are also called resources

9. OM and the Service Industry
Application of OM to Service Operations
Batch cooking operations at McDonald’s
Telephone Banking
Call Centres
Service
Good
Product

10. Most Products Are a “Bundle” of Goods and Services
Exhibit 1.8

11. Differences Between Goods and Services
Tangible
Can be inventoried
No interaction between customer and process
Services
Intangible
Cannot be inventoried
Direct interaction between customer and process
1-6

12. Product Delivery Systems
Manufacturing Processes - customer are separate from the place of production both geographically and in terms of time
Exceptions: B2B transactions
Manufacturing
process
Materials
Goods
Customer

13. Service Delivery Systems
There are two basic structures of service delivery system.....
1. where customers participate
2. where customers' goods are processed
delivery
Service
system
Service
delivery
system
Goods
Processed
Customer
Customer

14. Front Office - Servers (receptionist / dispatcher / cashier etc.)
Front & Back Office
Key feature of service industry. Nowadays front and back offices are often separated geographically - and may even be in different continents
Customers
Front Office - Servers (receptionist / dispatcher / cashier etc.)
Back Office
Division of labour

15. Suggested Homework
Is a public service (e.g. land registry, customs, ONE) an operations system?
How does it differ from a business operations system?
Question 1-2 p. 27
Have the globalisation of operations taken place yet in Morocco? How, Why, Examples?
Question 1-8 p. 27
Question 1-15 p. 27
Case Problem 1.2 p. 29